Editor’s Note 1/30/12: Dear all…I was so pleased this weekend to read a “Caring Bridge” entry re: my friend Sammye. To even begin to share the challenges she’s experienced since this post was written 1.5 years ago would be impossible. If you’re interested, you can check on her entries here. But most importantly, I read this paragraph early this morning:
“HIP HIP (left hip, not right one) HOORAY! PET scan taken at the end of last week shows no malignancies! Dr. Hollen is as happy as he can be and of course I was relieved, happy, grateful, prayerful, thankful, and every other positive emotion one can think of! All is well…inside and out! My visits with Dr. Hollen will continue every three months with scans every six months. The hip (right one) is still no fun but I’m getting around and focusing on all the things I can do, rather than the things that are still tough. I’ve lost weight and as more comes off (sounds easy, huh?) I am sure that the hip will show even more appreciation! “
This post was well-read 18 months ago, so I’m sharing it again “from the vault” to remind us that personal things…even haircuts…have histories much bigger than just a word. Love, RDK
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Editor’s Note: We have two “impact of illness” perspectives to share with you this morning.
♥ One comes from Sammye Cravens, CFO-COO of Public Strategies, Inc. in Oklahoma City. On June 4, 2009, she was diagnosed with Malignant Lymphoma, Diffuse Large B-Cell Type. She used a wonderful tool called CaringBridge.org to communicate with her friends, family and supporters. What a day of celebration there was when her body said “yes” to the treatment and she got through every step of the process. She has opened her journal, now, to the public and recently wrote an essay on the “chronology of her hair” to share with the community.
As we know, hair can be a fairly precarious concept when getting through cancer treatment. I hope you are endeared by Sammye’s history of hair. I know I was.
♥ The second came in my mailbox at home, and now I’m sharing it with you. Holly Foote grew up in Oklahoma and attended my church until she graduated from high school. She earned her Masters in Nutrition at Columbia University and recently finished medical school at Touro College; she’s now wearing a white coat. Her best friend Amy, also one of our former “church kids,” contracted Type I diabetes when she was only nine. She died in May of 2009 and the events surrounding that tragedy were medically incoherent.
You can read about the “broken system” that misdiagnosed and mistreated Amy in Holly’s blog entry, “Failing Heart.” The card I received explains a bit about her grief experience and was a way to touch back those who had tried to reach out to her during her difficult time.
I thank both Sammye and Holly for sharing their funny and/or vulnerable real lives with their friends, and for giving permission to post their thoughts here at the RDC.
Sincerely, Red Dirt Kelly
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TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HAIR
by Sammye Cravens Continue reading FROM THE VAULT: A System Worked and a System Failed. How Illness Impacts our Dear Friends…and Us.