I can't sleep tonight. I've been sick for two days now from overdoing a little Easter on Saturday (plus a few extra ailments) with my son who deserves the world.
I want to write about the Mayo facility. It was several buildings (Gonda Building, Mayo Building, St Mary's Campus, and the Methodist Campus, and many more) and the city of Rochester, MN is all Mayo. Mayo hospitals, hotels that shuttle to Mayo, and restaurants.
Every driver, every transporter, every nurse, doctor, and phlebotomist I encountered was quiet, patient, calm, helpful. Every single one. It was a healing atmosphere and I felt in good hands.
The halls didn't feel like a hospital. Some floors were carpeted. There were gift shops and a piano in the middle of a foyer being played near information desks.
The walls were of marble and beautiful, colored glass sculptures aligned the ceilings. I saw artwork from world famous artists aligning the walls and timelines of illness discoveries.
I felt hope there. Waiting for my follow up appointment on Friday is hard. It'll be a virtual appointment and I'm begging God with all of my being that they have ideas, answers, a way to make me whole again. The pain I felt after my double mastectomy is still with me today in some fashion in nerve pain mostly.
However, the pain I get from SPS episodes far out cries the need for peace in my soul from any pain I felt in the past.
Although I had to take medicines around the clock to endure the Mayo visit, travel, etc.; I felt hope.
This Easter season I pushed through a great day Saturday for our sweet son. He sees me carried out by the paramedics when I've had a severe episode. He knows the medicines Mommy needs to stop the pain.
This Easter was about sharing Christ's hope, lots of laughs, and friendship.
I want him to feel the same hope I felt at Mayo.
My biggest prayer: Christ please be with Rudy, Julian, and I so we can get back to more good times than sick times. More belly laughing than pain. More laughter than tears.
I wish all those struggling with health and pain, physical and emotional, to close your eyes and see the art and feel HIS peace. To feel the peace I felt at Mayo.