In my life, this happens more than I tend to admit. But when It does, I do like to share it. One of the most important parts of this story is this piece of advice: In your Cancer Journey, You MUST learn how to be your own Advocate!! You must realize that sometime YOU have to be the one to take initiative for your own treatments & care - especially if you feel you are not getting what you need! With that thought in mind, I will continue with my story.....
About 2 months ago, when I went to the City of Hope for a check up, I met a woman who worked for my doctor's office. When she realized who I was, she was glad to meet me because of what the other nurses there had said about me. Well no sooner after I met her, I got a phone call from her, and she told me that she loved my passion and my attitude and felt that I would be a GREAT speaker for an upcoming ACS Relay For Life event in San Bernardino. She gave me the contact information for the woman in charge of the event and asked me to call her. No sooner after I called "Adrienne", I was scheduled to speak at a mini relay "prepie event"- as she called it.
So, I did. I drove the almost 2 hour drive to San Berdardino solo to speak at the mini event. After I set up my tent, banner and table of info, I was joined by buddies Holly, Lester & Trish. The speech was short and to the point - I told the shortened version of my journey with cancer. The crowd cheered and loved my honesty. Although the event itself was a very small one, I knew that there was a reason why I had to be there. Although I didn't know why yet. The group ended up asking me to speak a little more -they were inspired by what I had said before and decided to tell them some of my funny cancer stories, which included classic tales of my mom and eventually they had me on stage singing "Last Dance" and doing crazy dances. By the end of the day, I knew that I was there for a bigger purpose. I was there to provide support, hope and joy to those amazing 8 women there, those fabulous fellow survivors and volunteers. And by the end of the day, I was asked to speak at their future events! :) YAY!
Aside from that tale, the best as of yet was recently. On Thursday, I went to see my doctor at the City of Hope and told him about the horrible headaches that I have been having for well over 4 days. I was mainly concerned about them because the pain killers didn't help and it was on the same side as my Ommaya Reservoir. Rightfully so, I should be concerned. My doctor however said it was nothing and was not interested in taking the precautions I had hoped for. By the time I got home, the headache was far worse and I decided that it was best to go to the local ER to get checked out. So, at 9:30pm my mom and I went to the local hospital. And as we waited I saw a familiar face, but was totally lost about how I knew them. after about 45 minutes, I was on a gurney waiting in the ER to see a doctor. My mom and I sat there giggling and laughing as we saw 2 handsome cops come in with a suspect. They were CHP officers and I just had to ask if they knew a friend of mine. They totally knew her and said she was at the site where they had arrested this guy. It was a coincidence.
So what followed this, was the drunk guy talking to my mom and joking with the cops about how he didn't want to be tazered. And once again, I saw that lady - the one that I couldn't quite put my finger on how I knew her. I looked at her and said "I know you! But I don't know how." She stood in front of me as I gave ideas on how we may have known one another - "Curves? Hmmmmm. Target? A limo service?" I asked her. But I struck out. I never ended up finding out how I knew her, and even saw some other people I recognized but couldn't put my finger on how I knew them..... Weird. So by 2:30am, I was seen, had a CAT Scan of my head, was given plenty of daloted for pain and was told that I had a Tension Headache - cause by both- my Coumadin and stress. Hmmmmm Interesting!
Moving on to today and my adventures, which included visiting with friends Fred, Miriam, Cheryl, Tara & Pegah and doing some healing with them for Fred, who has brain cancer. We spent about an hour meditating about healing Fred. It was good and seemingly helpful for all of us. Afterward, I went to pick up my friend Kim - who is always nice enough to drive me to my COH appointments. And I had offered to drive us to the local hospital to see a friend of hers named "J" who has chirosis of the liver. When we got to his room, I walked in with Kim and was shocked to see the lady I had seen 2 nights before in the ER, the one I knew I knew from somewhere. She was just as shocked as I was to see me again. We had met one another and soon, I realized how. Kim had introduced us once, because we are all survivors or cancer or have had family with cancer and we all attend the Wellness Community. What a small world!!! No sooner after I arrived, I saw another familiar face - the man I had seen in the hospital, turned out to be "J's son and we had gone to high school together. WOW! So, needless to say...... things happen for a reason, even if it's just to provide someone with hope, compassion, support, or inspiration.
When you meet someone, you don't have to question right away what the purpose of having them in your life is, just sit back and wait to find out. God has a specific plan for bringing these people in and out of our lives.... we don;t have to understand it, just accept it with open arms, an open mind, an open heart and take the journey where it leads us!!
No comments:
Post a Comment