Yesterday I
saw God at work!
Shannon and
I celebrated our 20th 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 20th
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.
Thank you, Peter, and thank you, Carla and Heather, for what you did to make Peter and Shannon's anniversary so special!
ReplyDeleteBonnie Wilcox