I am Sick This Week

I am sick this week. Being sick is not that much fun. But I've decided that my being sick this week actually might be a good thing. Well, let me qualify that: it might be a good thing as long as I am well enough to go to the Panama Reunion next week. Although I am not enjoying the experience of being sick, and I am trying to value it, I'm also praying it goes away soon!!

Why am I saying that being sick this week actually might be a good thing? This is my theory. I am an exceptionally healthy person, for which I thank the Lord. I rarely get sick and have left a long trail of sick days behind wherever I have taught school.

But I have friends who are sick. I mean I have several friends who are REALLY sick. No, I don't mean I have "sick-o" friends! I mean that I have friends and acquaintances who are dealing with huge, serious medical problems. My being sick gives me just an teensy, eensy, weensy glimpse of what life is like for them every single day. It's not a particularly enticing glimpse! Let me share about just five people.

There is an acquaintance who was injured by an IED and has been in the hospital or rehab facility for over 1 ½ years, struggling to regain use of body parts and be able to get back to a semi-normal life. His world and that of his wife have been totally turned upside down by this one tragic event, as they have gone from Washington to California to Florida, being transferred to one facility after another, seeking that which might help him most.

There is a good teaching friend from Louisiana who, at 40, had her colon and rectum removed this year and is now struggling through 6 months of chemo. She fights nausea and diarrhea and dehydration every single day, and her dream of being back in the classroom this August is not going to happen.

There is a former seminarian student/friend who often stays with us, also 40, who has been struggling with totally debilitating migraines for 4 years. She was recently rejected from an experimental migraine testing group at USC because she was "too severe" and is now going through treatments 3 days a week to help her retrain her brain to work around the areas that are compromised, much like a stroke patient would, in hopes she will regain the ability to function normally and get on with life and ministry.

There is another almost 40-year-old seminarian who, on September 11th last year, had a bone marrow transplant after years of struggling with a rare problem. She is making a great come-back, but her job was downsized while she's been on medical disability, so in addition to the mountains of medical and insurance paperwork through which she must wade, when she is finally cleared to work, she'll have to find a new job in this incredibly difficult job market.

There is a friend who was born with spina bifida, thus has never been able to walk, who is in a "convalescent care" facility, which more accurately should be called a mental facility, apparently the only facility available when she needed a place to heal. She is struggling with ongoing sores caused by the spina bifida/paralysis problem and is in chemo for uterine cancer, awaiting surgery. A bone infection, as well as the other bedsore problem, must be completely healed before surgery can take place. She is, as are the three friends in the paragraphs above, a single gal and is 42 years of age.

So my being sick this week . . . not part of my plan, not something I would desire, something I surely hope soon passes . . . has helped me realize how limited life is when you really feel yukky, when your brain isn't functioning right, when you're restricted to bed or bedroom, when your body feels weak and tired. It has helped me to value health, not to take it so for granted, and it has been a reminder that good health is something for which I need to praise God every day. It has helped me to understand just an infinitesimal part of the journey some of my friends are walking day by day, week by week, month by month, and even year by year. May God bless each one!