God's Work...Carla and Heather's Hands

Yesterday I saw God at work!

Shannon and I celebrated our 20^th anniversary. While some couples go away to remote,

romantic locations, we had other ideas.  We got to spend the whole day ay Mayo Clinic (who can beat that for romance)!  Shannon had a day of lab draws, doctor’s appointments, and chemo.  We’ve endured this kind of regimen for over nine years now (nearly half of our married life) and we understand the routine of it all.  In many ways yesterday was just another Mayo day, but who wants to ‘celebrate’ 20 years of marriage by receiving a drug that basically poisons the body to fight cancer cells?     It has a way of sucking the joy out of an anniversary day!

From time to time the reality of what Shannon endures hits home.  Battling cancer is no picnic.  Yesterday the ‘routine’ of her chemo got disrupted when she started to have an allergic reaction to the drug (let me tell you, that got the chemo nurses moving in a hurry!).  While they anticipated that over time she would build an allergy to it, we had hoped that she could hold out for more treatments.  This means that instead of an outpatient chemo day where they give it to her in a quick 30 minutes she will now have to be admitted to the hospital and get the same drug administered over 24 hour period to sneak it in without her immune system noticing.  Just what we wanted to hear…more time at Mayo.  Lovely. 

In the midst of the downer of a day we received a ray of sunshine.  When the nurse brought Shannon back to receive her treatment we were taken to a room in the far corner of the chemo ward.  Usually Shannon just gets a chair surrounded by many others.  We relished the idea of getting a quiet room of our own.  When we got there, we were greeted by a “Happy 20^th Anniversary” sign on the wall, beautiful flowers and snacks on the bedside stand, and even ‘spa socks’ for Shannon to cuddle into.  Seriously!  Who gets to have happy surprises on Gonda 10??  Chemo wards are usually not the place for them. 

The nurse initially assumed that I had orchestrated the whole thing and was quite surprised when my eyes grew large in shock.   After asking around, we found out that some ‘elves’ had come by earlier that morning to drop things off (the only ID we had was that they were ‘Mayo nurses from some other area).  Someone from the ward took the time to set it all up (including the sign on the wall).  A lot of work and planning went into the whole thing.  I was floored!

After some crack investigative work, I was able to pin down two culprits: Carla Brunsvold and Heather Ohl.  The two of you may have simply thought that you were doing a kind deed, but God used your hands yesterday.  A little light shone into a pretty crappy situation.  I still smile when I remember it.  Your act of caring will live on in ‘Reuss lore’ for many years.

Thank you Carla and Heather.  Thank you God for using them in such a cool way.