Elena 
1. A rough week for me.
Remember when I mentioned that I always go through some kind of a grief when the cross country season is over? Well I fell into that grief this week. Oh sure, Noah still got to run with the varsity practices, and Rosie and even Izzy ran a bit too, but for the most part the season is winding down and I am so sad about that.
Totally illogical – for sure! I was driving kids all over the place for these practices and it was taking a lot of time and gas! But I was also doing a ton of walking while I waited for the kids – and maybe that’s what is triggering this grief reaction.
2. So we had our party for the cross country kids last weekend. The coach revealed that Rosie and her friend “my Olivia” were in the top 10 girls every single race. Every. Single. Race. What an accomplishment for third graders! Looking forward to bigger things next year!
3. Noah and Rosie ran in the 5K hosted by the Knights of Columbus yesterday. Noah finished 4th in his age group out of 29, (13 out of 180 total runners) Rosie was 6th out of 23 (79 out of 180 total runners) with Olivia coming in 3! I’d like to point out that they were the only 8 year olds in the top 10!
4. On the Feast of St. Theresa of Avila, I was sitting in my GI doctor’s office for a follow up appointment to my colonoscopy. I’ll have lots to say about that later – but not to be too graphic, I have had more bleeding, cramping, discomfort and misery SINCE the colonoscopy than before. In fact the only good thing to my mind about having the colonoscopy at all was to find out that there was no cancer.
However, about a week after the procedure, I started to read up on diets for colitis and trying a few things on my own. I started to feel better and my symptoms were going away. I mentioned this to my doctor and he said that he wanted me to be feeling well as soon as possible, for as long as possible, and so he prescribed some sort of cortisone enema and a drug called Asacol. I’ll have more to say on that later too but the part that really bothered me was when he told me that Asacol is a maintenance drug, and he thinks I will have to take it basically forever.
And I started to flash back to my grandmother and the trays of pills that she took every day until the day she died – and I decided that I am just not going to be that woman if I can possibly do anything to avoid it.
Since it was the Feast of St. Theresa of Avila, I read and re-read her words about “this too will pass away” and I applied it to my own health situation. This is something to endure, and to get through – and I found a lot of solace in that.
5. Last summer I heard a talk by Dr. Patrick Johnson at the CHEO convention. He talked about a time when his little 2-year-old boy fell down the stairs and how Dr. Johnson ran immediately to him, put his hands on him and called out the name of Jesus. The little boy was shaken and scared, but two minutes later was running around and playing again. Dr. Johnson’s point was that many times, we are so quick to turn to the doctors or modern medicine as the first course of treatment instead of simply asking for God’s help first. I’ve been thinking of that all week too and as I have been getting better each day, I’ve started asking for Jesus for just that, and leave the lifelong drug regimen at the pharmacy.
Dr. Johnson’s talk ab the 2013 CHEO convention is available at Resounding Voice. His talk was about vaccinations.
6. I can no longer want to talk politics with liberals. Oh, I CAN talk to them and even bring forth compelling points that could be persuasive or at least worth discussing if the hearts and minds were open to doing that. But last week, when the government shut down ended and my liberal friends on facebook were bitterly and cruelly chastising Republicans, I just shut down.
We had some good ones too though –
and my personal favorite
7. Then there’s this – a new classic from HBO’s News Room featuring Emmy winner Jeff Daniels.
from HBO’s the Newsroom
Research fecal (as in poop) transplants.
Way ahead of you Ruth. Seems like one of the leading proponents of FT practices in Cleveland. I also found a Do-it-yourself approach but not sure if I'm quite at that point yet. I'm actually feeling much better.