Life is Short

Life is short. I’ve been reminded of this a lot recently. The latest iteration came a week ago when my family received word that a dear friend was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.

First came the shock of the news. In the last month, Miss Pat hadn’t been feeling 100 percent. She had lost weight, was feeling nauseous, and generally fatigued. It wasn’t until the mother of one of her preschoolers (who is also a nurse) noticed she appeared jaundiced that she called the doctors. That was last Wednesday. The doctor immediately had lab work done on Wednesday morning and scheduled Miss Pat for an appointment Wednesday afternoon. After seeing the lab results, he immediately scheduled a CT scan for Thursday morning. The CT scan showed a three- to four-inch long tumor on her pancreas and tumors on both lungs and her liver. The tumor on her pancreas was cutting off the ability for bile to move as needed so she was slowly being poisoned, hence the jaundiced appearance. Not good.

Quickly following that, the family internist referred her to a surgeon who scheduled time Friday morning to insert a stent into the bile duct to allow ease in movement. While there, the surgeon did a biopsy on the lymph nodes as well as cut a few nerves to relieve any pain. The biopsy results showed that the cancer had spread into her lymph nodes.

At this point, Miss Pat and family hadn’t seen an oncologist yet. However, the prognosis from all doctors wasn’t good — weeks to just a few months is the timeframe she has been given.

The amazing part of this story to me is how strong Miss Pat has been through the biggest trial of her life. She is a preschool teacher — calm, soothing, patient, sweet spirited but certainly not one prone to public speaking. In the week since her diagnosis, Miss Pat has chosen to share her testimony with all her friends, family, co-workers, church family, etc. Our prayer and her’s is for healing, but as she said to me that healing may not be an earthly one. God’s choice for healing her may be by taking her heaven and she is prepared.

Every minute of every day since her diagnosis, Miss Pat has taken time to tell everyone around her how much they mean to her, what their love and friendship has meant and what joy each person has brought to her life. She has taken everyone who walked through her front door aside and spent a few minutes alone, sharing her hopes and prayers for the future. She has asked us all to watch over her family and grandchildren. In this time of illness and pain, she isn’t thinking of herself. She’s focused on preparing those around her for her eventual passing.

The thing about Miss Pat for me is that she has always been my second mother. My mom and her have been friends since childhood. Our families always vacationed together, we spent more time with each other than most immediate families do. As I’ve struggled with my sadness at this news this past week, I’ve spent a great deal of time in prayer and seeking guidance from above for how I can support Miss Pat, Big Dave, their kids and grandkids, my mom and dad, etc. I’ve also realized that because life is so short, we all need to treat each day we remain on earth as our last — take time to share with our families and friends how much they mean to us. I hope anyone who reads this takes that to heart and takes a moment to call or visit a loved one, forgive those who need to be forgiven, restore relationships that need to be restored.

Election Frustration

Yesterday was election day. And as everyone knows, the results have been a swing toward conservative leaders. This blog post is not about the results or why people vote the way they do. Instead, I’m writing about the one thing every election that disturbs me greatly.

Why is it that each side of the proverbial aisle has to use election time as an excuse for abusing those with a differing viewpoint? In the last 24 hours, I’ve heard people called morons, hicks, stupid and more for the voting decisions being made. I really don’t understand why we can’t all simply agree that we have different perspectives on the same issues and move on. The election process in the United States is one of the best advantages to living here. We have the privilege to elect individuals to office every two or four years where there are others in this world who live in oppressive environments and don’t have choices. Shouldn’t we instead work together to make our states and country a better place instead of fighting, bickering and insulting each other?

APR Update

Last weekend, I visited Washington DC for the 2010 PRSA Leadership Assembly and PRSA Southwest District board meeting. To take advantage of the location, I invited my 94-year-old grandfather and mom to come with me to visit my granddad’s 98-year-old brother who lives in Bethesda. Some of my photos from the trip are posted on Flickr.

Now, for the real reason for this post — the discussions held at the Leadership Assembly. There were three bylaw changes proposed, with the most controversial being the removal of the APR designation as a requirement for PRSA National board members. The same issue was brought up last year and voted down by Assembly delegates. I wrote about it here.

The same arguments arose this year, but the conversation turned toward the need for PRSA to have a strategic discussion about the APR and its value. PRSA National has agreed to put together a task force to address the accreditation dilemma and assess the credential to determine what may need to change in the future. The task force is being chaired by Blake Lewis, APR, from Dallas. If you’re interested in helping, contact him.