Embrace the Challenge!

This is the third in my “rules for remaining positive when faced with medical challenges”. 

And a note to let you know that I am NOT saying these are guidelines everyone should follow. These are what has worked for me. If you already follow one or more of these suggestions that I have been and will be talking about, great. Same if you think something I’ve said is right for you. But we are all different and what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another.

You may find this week’s entry a weird one. It took me a while to realize that I was doing this. But here it is. When facing a medical challenge, embrace it. Embrace it not as a you would something you want or love, but as what it is, a challenge. 

I first realized this about a month after my last kidney transplant. I was rushed to the hospital with what turned out to be a complete bowel obstruction. I was told I would be transported by ambulance to the University of Wisconsin, where I had just had my kidney transplant, because doing any abdominal surgery on me would be a challenge for anyone not familiar with “my plumbing”. After all, I was carrying around four kidneys and two pancreases with locations and connections far removed from what most surgeons were familiar with.

As I was laying on a bed waiting for the ambulance to arrive, I realized that my mind was preparing for a fight. This surgery, any surgery for me has a higher level of risk because of the anti-rejection drugs I take and because my body heals so slowly, leaving it open for infection. And I felt myself getting ready to fight and to win. I refused to let myself worry or be scared. I felt myself getting ready to tell family and friends not to worry because I would be fine. And I believed it 100%. I felt myself acknowledge that I would have pain but that pain would go away in time as long as I did what I needed to do. 

Since then, I certainly don’t wish for bad things to happen to me. But when they do, I am happy to accept the challenge. Who’s going to win this time? I am. I will come out on top. 

Since that bowel obstruction I’ve fought stage 3 colon cancer, an elbow broken in two places and my continuing vision degradation. I battled an infection that in most people shows up as a skin rash but for me it took up residence throughout my body and came closer to killing me than anything else. It was an infection so complete that I have to take a very strong anti-fungal medication for the rest of my life. And of course, that medication does not play nicely with my anti-rejection drugs so there is constant monitoring.

I will always have these challenges presented to me. Each time, I will accept it and fight it. If there’s any chance of me winning, I’ll do all I can to reach that outcome. I won’t wonder what’s going to happen to me. Instead, I’ll wonder what hurdles I’d soon be jumping over. 

If you enjoyed reading this or any of my “rules”, please click here and make a donation toward my Tour de Cure Ride on June 2! 

And thank you!

Rules for Remaining Positive Through Medical Challenges

Last week I started with my first piece of  advice for coping with difficult medical situations. What I said was don’t ask why it happened to you and don’t complain. There is always something worse.

This week my suggestion is to find something that makes you feel like a kid again. Not just to feel young, but to momentarily take you back to another time in your life.

Have you ever suddenly remembered the sights, sounds and even smells of a long passed time? It’s almost like a instance of deja vu.

For me, I’ve found that riding my bike can trigger these stored memories. Because I ride a

recumbent trike, I think it triggers this trip through time because I’m closer to the ground like I was when I was young and being low gives the illusion of speed, similar to when you were small and racing around on a bike.

What’s the benefit of this? It makes you feel good and puts a smile on your face. And anytime you’re smiling and feeling good, you’re beating any negative medical (or other) situations in your life.

You say you don’t want to ride a bike. No problem! But to feel this momentary time shift, you have to be doing something that strikes a chord and takes you back. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what that action is for you. But think back to fun and happy memories from your childhood. What was it that you felt like you could do every day and not get tired of it because it just felt good? Try different things. Shake up those dusty memory files! 

If you found this helpful, please consider a donation to my Tour de Cure ride for the American Diabetes Association. You can do so by clicking here.

My Rules of Life

As most of you know, I’ve been dealing with diabetes for almost all of my 63 years. The first two thirds of that time being a Type 1 diabetic and from age 24 until now with the physical effects of it. This, even though I have been “cured” of diabetes through a pancreas transplant almost 22 years ago.

But rather than focusing on the negative effects of diabetes, I am going to talk about the positives – basically “life lessons” that have gotten me this far.

Between now and the Chicago Tour de Cure on June 2, once a week I will be posting a rule I’ve learned from and for coping with diabetes and the powerful transplant drugs I must take.. These are rules I must stick to. At this point, most of them come naturally to me. My hope is that you’ll find one or more helpful to you in dealing with the curveballs life can throw at you.

If one or more of them seem like something that would work for you in your life, I ask a favor. For each rule you agree with, make a donation toward my ride on June 2. Any amount is fine. If these rules are something that can help you, great! Just please make a donation so that others aren’t faced with learning them as I was, through very difficult circumstances.

I’ve been told by people that I have a great attitude. I’ve even been told that I’m an inspiration, something that honestly embarrasses me. My attitude and my success in making it this far are due to these lessons I have learned.

In no particular order, here’s my rule for week #1:

Don’t complain or ask “why me?” Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Why? It’s simple. There is ALWAYS something worse.

In the fall of 1978 I learned that due to diabetic retinopathy, nothing could be done to save the vision in my right eye.  I sat down and started to cry. I thought this just was not fair. Why did this happen to me?

Just a couple of weeks later I was at Mayo Clinic for surgery on that eye in an effort to save some vision. I was in a pre-op area waiting to be brought into the operating room and I was lying on a gurney next to a guy around my age. Because I was feeling good from the injection they gave me to relax me a few minutes earlier, I struck up a conversation. 

“How are you doing?” I asked this fellow patient.

“Okay I guess,” he said.

“Where are you from?”

“Near St. Louis,” he said while staring straight up at the ceiling.

“And what’re you here for?”

He turned his head to face me and said, “malignant brain tumor. I’m going to die soon, but they’re trying to give me a few more months.”

I was hit with two emotions. Feeling horrible for him and completely unable to find anything to say that would help or comfort him. But I also felt tremendous shame. I flashed back to that day I received my bad news about my eye and thought to myself, man, am I an asshole. I have NOTHING to complain about.

Since then I refused to allow myself to feel I had gotten an unfair break or life was unfair. When given bad news I immediately flashed back to that moment when I saw someone around my age telling me he was going to die soon.

Now, I know that regardless of what life throws at you, it could always be worse.

If you think this is a good idea for life, please make a donation by clicking here! And thank you!