Treatment #4

Treatment #4 -  the infusion room was busy today......I saw several of my "drip"buddies.   There is a camaraderie that builds as you lie in those big green chairs hooked up to a drip.  Everyone asks how you're doing, there is always encouragement, and always prayers offered.  A couple of folks were not so good today......it is hot, and our air quality is bad.......I worry about them......they're not eating.....do they have air conditioning.......what can I do to help them.

One of the ladies is always accompanied by a couple of younger women (I believe they are her daughters)
they banter with her, they chide her to drink more, but it is obvious they love and adore her.  She sits by me and we talk, she is not eating much and it is showing........I encourage her to eat when she goes home today.
She wants something to read, I have one of Rick's books in my bag and I give it to her.  I want to give her what she needs and wants most, her health, helplessness does not even begin to describe what I feel in that room today.  But, she is loved and she dotes on those girls who are with her.

I know I should concentrate on my healing, as the slow, thick, cold drip enters my body......but how can I?
All around me, there are many who are so much sicker than me......I want to tend to their needs, not mine.
A gentleman on the other side of me was very sick,  it is hard to comfort him when I am hooked to the drip.
He is so thin, so wispy, I am fearful that the wind may blow him away soon.  He tells me the heat is taking its toll on him.

I am always cold now, the heated blankets are so comforting.  One of the women laughs and tell me no no wonder I am cold, I am too little!  She wears the most beautiful scarves wrapped around her head......I comment on her scarves, she tells me she will give them to me in exchange for my head of thick hair.
I wish I could give her my hair.

As each person leaves, we send encouragement, we send prayers, and we send love.......and I think
silently, we each  send the hope that we will see each other next time.  I watch those nurses dressed in blue,
they must walk a million miles a day, giving, serving, smiling.......I know somewhere there are wings waiting for them.  I am the next to the last to leave in the morning group, I look around at the silent room.......I pray that it is a room where healing takes place, I pray for those who work there, that their lives are filled with grace, and I pray that my next visit, I see my drip buddies again.