My Key to Happiness

Another multi-week hiatus from blogging for me. Consistency outside of the workplace isn’t my forte. This time I have a better excuse: almost two weeks enjoying my family! They all live there, I live here, and, honestly, I really, really like them all, so it’s a huge treat to immerse myself in family. Toddlers, babies, sushi, fake eyelashes, Easter – we did a lot while we were there.

My hair, of course, continues to grow. With a little styling wax, I can even get a hairstyle going. Someone said I look like Michelle Williams! Thank you very much! I’m sure it’s just the hair, but I’ll take it. :)

My husband and me on Easter:  

My current 'do!

After I was diagnosed with cancer, several people encouraged me with devotional books. I think my mom sent the first one: “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young, and I love it. It’s written as if Jesus is talking to us directly, which, I admit, sometimes seems a bit presumptuous, but I am usually inspired, encouraged, and/or want to share what I read with someone.

Confession: I keep these devotional books in my bathroom! It can be difficult to find time during the day for Bible study, and I’m all about multi-tasking, so why not take my minute or two in the bathroom for a little infusion of God’s word? Can I go so far as to say, “garbage out, truth in”? Tee hee.

So… SURPRISE! I’m going to share a bit from Jesus Calling with you today. :) Didn’t see that coming, did you? Here it is:

“Before Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, thankfulness was as natural as breathing. Satan’s temptation involved pointing Eve to the one thing that was forbidden her. The garden was filled with luscious, desirable fruits, but Eve focused on the ONE fruit she couldn’t have rather than being thankful for the many things freely available. This negative focus darkened her mind, and she succumbed to temptation.”

Which, by the way, led to dragging Adam into it, and then they tried to hide from an all-seeing God. And what consequences for that one bite! Banishment from paradise; the struggles of work, relationships, and childbirth; and separation from God. And the common anxiety about snakes. All because she took her eyes off the abundance of their blessings and focused on the only off-limit item in the garden. However, the consequences came with a promise of redemption! But that's another topic. If you want to read the Biblical account, it’s in Genesis 3, at the very beginning of the Bible.

Thankfulness shines so greatly in Sarah Young’s reflection. Personally, I’m working on my own list of blessings. I started last January, after reading “1,000 Gifts” and before being diagnosed with cancer. I haven’t been consistent, but it’s a testimony to all the good things in my life. Most importantly, it records a portion of the multitude of good things that happened during cancer.

You know what happened when I wasn’t focused on my blessings and stopped writing in my book? I found myself grumpier and more likely to give in to selfish or depressing thoughts.

It’s a theory I’ve been testing for years, and I can say with certainty that cultivating a thankful heart is central to a contented, or happy, life. Even when life is hard, there is always something to be thankful for. And finding one good thing always opened my eyes to more good things.

After I started my list, Matt Redman came out with a song called “10,000 Reasons” about praising God for everything He’s given us (Listen to it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtwIT8JjddM). Now I want my list to be 10,000 items long instead of 1,000. I’m only in the 500’s, but I’m planning to live many more years, so I think I can do it. But the “attitude of gratitude” is what I really want to practice, so that thanking God is “as natural as breathing.”

How about you? What are you thankful for? Especially on those rough days?

Compliance

The hair... I suppose it's growing, but it feels and looks just like it did last week. But I saw a friend last weekend, and my hair is almost as long as his. It's pretty short, but still - having longer hair than someone will be a nice milestone!

This week I've been contemplating compliance as I complete my FOURTH week with JP drains hanging off my sides (1-3 weeks is normal), and as I pray for a friend's lung function tests to have better-than-expected results.

In healthcare, we use “compliance” as an assessment word. As in, is our patient compliant with the plan we’ve worked out to make them the healthiest they can be? 

It’s companion word, “non-compliant” feels judgmental, probably because we use it when we decide the patient is not cooperating with their plan. Of course, there is a spectrum from 100% compliant to 0% compliant, and we all fall on it somewhere.

As a patient, I have a different perspective on compliance. For example, I’m a terrible pill-taker. Tell me to do something every day at the same time, and I can guarantee you it’s not going to happen. I’m getting better. With my post-surgical drains still in place, I have to take stinky antibiotics several times a day (they really do smell awful). What a pain! But they’re very important – the last thing I want after all this is to lose my tissue expanders – or worse, my own “tissue” – to an infection! I also have to take an anti-estrogen (anti-breast cancer) pill every day for the next 5-10 YEARS. Uff da. I’ve set a daily alarm on my phone for that one. I’m not taking it at 1pm exactly, but so far I’ve taken it at some point every afternoon.

If you’re healthy, you don’t get a free pass from the compliance wagon. Think exercise, multi-vitamins, healthy eating… everything to maintain your healthy status as long as possible, and be as strong as possible if you do get a big diagnosis.

I’m striving to be on the upper end of the compliance scale. Honestly, what I have to do is pretty minor. It’s certainly given me new insight into people with chronic conditions; who have exercises and medications and therapies to manage every day for the rest of their lives.

I have a young friend who has cystic fibrosis. CF is kind of a lung disease – really, it affects the whole body, but its worst manifestations are in the lungs. It’s a rare genetic defect. Now, we test for it at birth along with a bunch of other metabolic conditions. Before that, it was often identified when moms told doctors their baby tasted salty. Pretty cool, right?

The babies taste salty because CF is an imbalance in the body’s chloride level (remember, salt is sodium chloride). For some reason, the result is thick, sticky mucus, which commonly builds up in the lungs, which makes breathing difficult, and in the GI tract, where it blocks the path from the pancreas to the intestines, preventing digestive enzymes from reaching the intestines and making digestion difficult.

Patients take digestive enzymes every time they eat to compensate for the deficiency from the pancreas, and they have some form of therapy every day to help clear their lungs. Inhaled medications open the airway and loosen mucus, and then a combination of percussion (hitting the chest to loosen and move mucus) and coughing (to get mucus out of the body). In other words, hacking up luggies several times a day (you know what I mean? Spelling credits go to my husband on that one – girls can’t spell luggies, and MS Word doesn’t like it either). For the percussion part, my friend has a cool vibrating vest that she uses for about two hours every day. But luggies… not fun for a teen girl, so the thick, sticky mucus stays inside, and we pray for her lung function to be preserved any way.

So I think about compliance: how important it is, how hard it is, and how patients have to find a balance. Knowing why the routine is important and what happens if you cheat or ignore it is a big, huge part of compliance. So is determination. Some people are good at the regimen of daily must-dos, whether it’s running at 5am, taking pills on time, or choosing dinner at home over McDonald’s, even though it’s easy, fast, cheap, and predictable. Others of us don’t love routine and sometimes want – or need – to take a break from the “musts” and their reminder that we have tests and treatments on record to prove we’re no longer invincible.

And now… it’s 2:30 so I should probably go and take my daily anti-cancer med and those smelly antibiotics. I think I’ll start using my antibiotics as a reminder to pray that my drains can come out SOON.

But first… I “have” to do a few other things upstairs. Like rescue shoes, hats, and soap from my dog - eek!