Beating the Odds




My visits to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance always give me a wake-up call for living.  Step inside and you’ll notice that life is no longer the same for many.

Visible signs like hair loss and chemo ports in chests distinguish some. Others bear weariness from months of treatment.





I take my seat next to the floor-to-ceiling windows and gaze out at Seattle’s Lake Union. I’ve been here enough to have seen every imaginable weather outside those amazing windows, but the view never fails to impress me. And I’m thankful for the medical care I’ve had.

When I met with my oncologist a few years back, she gave me three options. The first was a preemptive mastectomy. The second was a five-year plan of preventative cancer treatment. Or #3 was to radically change myself.


I chose option three. I now have a dietician, an exercise specialist, and three doctors who x-ray and test me frequently enough that I have time to revisit Option 1 or 2 if need be.

So far, I am a model patient. And I, by the grace of God, hope to remain so.



In the cluster of chairs next to me in the waiting room, I observe an elderly couple. The woman’s husband is hard of hearing and she lovingly repeats everything she says.



She’s thin, painfully so—making even these soft chairs uncomfortable. This concerns her husband and he shuffles off to find a pillow.

Standing nearby is a cute young woman with a cart full of healthy snacks. She comes over and offers us crackers and juice.  Her blue lab coat says, “volunteer”. So I ask what brings her to volunteer in a cancer treatment center.

She’s a UW biomedical student researching cancer treatments.  I confess, I thought she'd make a terrific wife for my son. She was a delight. So kind, thoughtful, smart and determined.


Thinking of marriage, I observe the elderly couple—loving one another, in sickness as they had in health. I think of my own marriage and wonder if I will be able to celebrate fifty years with my loving husband.

I'm thankful for this young student-volunteer researching to find cancer’s cure...helping someone like me reach that same milestone as the couple across from me.

Life doesn’t come with guarantees, but it does give us choices. And I’m choosing to do all I can to see life as the gift it really is.




Popular posts from this blog

Counting the Cost

Image
Something big is missing in this photo. Let me explain. Here in my hometown, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe prepared a parcel of land for a new hotel. Plenty of planning and architectural designs were evaluated. A gemstone of a hotel would be built across from the waterfront—a beautiful, restful place welcoming travelers. A true four-star facility.   They cleared the aging brick structures that had been fading away between Front Street and Railroad Avenue. Then the pandemic hit, shortages of labor and supplies, add in the costly inflation that followed. Everything stopped.   But this is what I admire about the Elwha Tribe: they have counted the cost. They didn’t want to move forward and take on tremendous debt. They would rather move slowly and be financially ready, rather than begin building and then letting it sit unfinished.   Counting the cost is something I should have done earlier in life when I didn’t know what high interest rates would do to our farming cost...
Read more

Summertime Music

Image
During the summer months, in an outside seating area, a delightfully painted piano sits with a sign that says, “Play me”.   It was just before 8 pm as I walked past the piano. My bus would be arriving soon, and I still have another ten minutes to walk before reaching my bus stop. But no one is around. It’s a beautiful warm evening. I pulled out the piano bench and sat down. The sun was behind me, and the piano keys reflected its glow. I had no music in front of me, only the songs within me. Notes drifted into the air.  In those brief moments, the magic of music and summer came together. Isn’t that how it is? Summertime music has a way of lingering in our minds and lasting a lifetime. As I stood and grabbed my things, I heard distant clapping—I guess I wasn’t alone, after all.
Read more

Planting Good Seeds

Image
Harvest will always depend on what we plant and how well we care for our crop.    Looking over my seed packets, I notice they’re different than the ones I planted before. One package is called Word seeds. The directions say that each of my words is a seed, so it cautions me to think before I speak. Harsh words don’t produce sweet, nourishing fruit. These seeds will require thoughtful care in the garden. I see some Volunteer seeds. Those extra hours I tend to fritter away are going to be planted in a useful project.   It looks like time isn’t wasted in this garden plot. Next are some Love seeds—the directions are interesting: get up each day and love others. No specifics are given—just do something for someone every day. The seed package shows pictures of smiling faces. I smile back. As I’m ready to head to the garden with my seeds, a package falls to the ground. I open it. Inside are the tiniest seeds I’ve ever seen—but the directions s...
Read more