Three people in my life did very special things for me yesterday. I am grateful to have such people in my life and thankful for their gestures.

The first act occurred at about 1030 in the morning. I was due to meet with a new patient. I went down to greet her in the waiting room and noticed she was holding a tissue to her nose. She was obviously not crying, so I asked if she was ill. She said, yes. She told me that she did not feel well at all. I felt a small panic inside as a realized that I would be taking this woman (showing signs of illness) into my small office to meet for an hour. I am supposed to avoid getting sick prior to the surgery and to complicate matters, I take an immuno-suppressant for my Ulcerative Colitis. That means that the medication I take deliberately weakens my immune system.

So, feeling some panic and trying to figure out where to meet with this woman so that we would not have to sit near one another, I sought some assistance from one of my staff. Rather than help me find a place to meet with this patient, my staff insisted that she see the patient instead. I tried to argue and she would hear none of it. So I thanked her profusely, gave her a quick hug in gratitude and went back to my office as my staff met with the patient. (quick note – staff will not likely become sick as she is already taking an antibiotic)

The second act came about an hour later when a very good friend at work brought me a bag entitled: “The most fabulous surgery recovery kit on the planet!” Although I plan to save looking through the wonderful contents for the trip to California on my pre-operative day, she did show me one important part…4 magic wands for commanding people to do my bidding in hospital and during my recovery. But that’s not all she brought. She brought me the gift of laughter. We chattered on and laughed and this did my heart and my mood a lot of good. This was just what I needed exactly two weeks before my surgery.

The last gesture began a few days ago and will likely continue throughout my surgery and recovery. Our secretary has spent a great deal of time putting together the paperwork for my leave. And yesterday, while she tried to explain to me what we needed to do, I just kept getting confused. As I have explained, I am not tracking as well as I normally do and I just could not keep up with what she was telling me. Ultimately, she took the time to type out detailed instructions for me to follow and when she realized she had made a minor mistake, she came up to my office and fixed it for me. Her patience, assistance, attention to detail, and efforts are so appreciated.

As I move along this part of my journey, I am beginning to recognize how lucky I am to be supported and loved by family and my boyfriend and to be able to work and play with such wonderful people. And then I ask myself, how did I get so lucky?