The Hourglass of Time
by April Shenandoah
July 30, 2002
For the last two months, I have been stretched and challenged beyond my comfort
zone! Right in the middle of this writing-roll, I was on, a friend asked me
to drop everything and go to Australia to help his sister through cancer treatments.
She opted to leave the country to pursue untraditional methods for the five
tumors that were consuming her body. The largest, being on her face (the size
of two grapefruits). It was estimated that I would be there four to six weeks,
if she lived that long. I went with the understanding that I would be Marilyn's
companion. When I arrived in Australia the doctor introduced me to people as
her caregiver, which was news to me.
God definitely has a sense of humor! Though I admire and respect women who choose the nursing profession, I have always said it is definitely not my calling (we get what we resist). Being on call 24 hours a day, dealing with a demanding woman and becoming sleep deprived, I soon wanted out. However, after praying about it, I knew this was an assignment I had to follow through on. When all was said and done, the entire experience was a blessing. Pity-party-people could take lessons from this courageous 75-year-old woman who never complained and simply refused to die.
It was touch and go for a while - we almost lost her twice. One evening the doctor sat on her bed and told her, very sweetly, about the hourglass of time. At the end of his little speech he said, "There is only so much sand in the hourglass for each of us, and my darling, you do not have much sand left." He gave her a few days to two weeks. The next day she said to me, "You know that thing about the hourglass the doctor was talking about - that wasn't for me, I choose life." God had his hand on her every step of the way. Each and every person we encountered, including the doctors, were praying people - and pray we did!
The *Australian doctor told me that every case he has seen that was at her stage, has never survived. The details are too gory to share. Let's just say, I could now deal with almost any human condition. After the hyperthermia (heat treatments) had crumbled the main tumor as much as was possible, we then flew to see Dr. Page (one precious man) in Memphis, Tennessee, for surgery. Without traditional radiation or chemotherapy, Marilyn is now a walking miracle!
Shortly after arriving in Memphis my body collapsed from exhaustion. After two days of bed rest I was up and at it again. By this time, I was concerned about getting home and flying to Reno for my son's wedding. In my mind, I needed two weeks of preparation to find the perfect wedding suit befitting for a mother, gifts, hairdo, arranging transportation, and such. By the time I returned home I had only two days to get ready. Soooo tired -- I ended up with an $8 dollar designer label thrift shop dress (lots of compliments), a small gift with a check attached (that worked), canceled the hairdresser (did my own 40's look), last minute flight reservations (paid double but better than driving) - it all turned out great!
Lack of rest and the emotion of the wedding, plus dealing with the fact I would be seeing the ex-husband of my youth, my normally calm demeanor turned nervous (it didn't show). I just wanted to get through the day and then get back home and sleep for several days. Well - I'm home and now I am writing to tell about it. I'll sleep soon.
During this time, I had no choice but to put the world and local news on the back burner. It was actually quite nice not dwelling on -- Middle East propaganda, stock market and corporate ups and downs, McDonald's importing South American meat with no standards (dog & who knows what), terrorism, homeland security, freedom causes… (I'll be back writing about all this "stuff" soon enough).
Moral of Story - The sand in the hourglass applies to all of us, so let's do what we "gotta do" and make the best of it! ***
*The Australian doctor has been kept anonymous for his protection -- the FDA is trying to close his clinic and stop his treatments.
© 2002 April Shenandoah
April Shenandoah's Internet home is: http://www.politicsandreligion.tv
COPYRIGHT © 2002 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.