{"id":618,"date":"2009-05-10T08:47:41","date_gmt":"2009-05-10T12:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=618"},"modified":"2009-05-10T08:47:45","modified_gmt":"2009-05-10T12:47:45","slug":"coming-to-grips-with-a-hard-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=618","title":{"rendered":"Coming to Grips With a Hard Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">Having an illness can be devastating to family and friends. \u00c2\u00a0 It can also bring new opportunities for closer relationships, care and reminding ones self of what is important in life. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">I was told Thursday that I have to have a bone marrow transplant.\u00c2\u00a0 I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go into the details because, after all, there is no changing the need to have the procedure. The alternative to no treatment is a short four months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">I have been sick for several months and have visited our local hospitals six times.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, we have discovered what was going on.\u00c2\u00a0 That is a relief.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">The news I got Thursday is not what I wanted to hear.\u00c2\u00a0 I suspect none of us would want to hear this.\u00c2\u00a0 I find myself thinking about what I want to do before the procedure.\u00c2\u00a0 It will be a two to three month recovery if all goes well. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">My son has now heard something like this twice.\u00c2\u00a0 His father died with leukemia twenty years ago after a four year illness.\u00c2\u00a0 The last thing I wanted him to have to deal with is my having something very similar to his Dad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s illness.\u00c2\u00a0 He was six when his Dad died. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">Over the years we have developed the uncanny ability to talk with each other about anything.\u00c2\u00a0 Talking about surgery, the possibility of my death much sooner than we would want it to be, and what he needs to do if I die has been a blessing as we sifted through tears, sorrow and even laughter at some of the things we discussed.\u00c2\u00a0 If we were not good communicators, it could be that we would not talk about these things at all.\u00c2\u00a0 He reminds me that, even though we can talk about it, the thought of not having me here and the sorrow that will bring will be the same.\u00c2\u00a0 I reminded him that I want to at least live to see him be successful in his chosen profession and have a family and have to raise children like him. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">With this being Mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day, it brings back many memories of the past as well as the thought that it may be my last Mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day with him.\u00c2\u00a0 Overwhelming, yes.\u00c2\u00a0 It also reminds me that we really are not guaranteed another Mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day and that we should be grateful for each day. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><strong>My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you find peace where you are each day and appreciate the love and care of those close to you.\u00c2\u00a0 The realities of life are sometimes very overwhelming and we should grasp the care and love of others all the time so &#8211; when these times are upon us &#8211; we can count on them to sustain us through the tough times. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">~ Joellen<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having an illness can be devastating to family and friends. \u00c2\u00a0 It can also bring new opportunities for closer relationships, care and reminding ones self of what is important in life. \u00c2\u00a0 I was told Thursday that I have to have a bone marrow transplant.\u00c2\u00a0 I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go into the details because, after all, there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}