Whatever You Are Doing....Keep Doing It!"

There are two ways of healing sickness, material means and spiritual means. The first is by the use of remedies, of medicines; the second consists in praying to God and in turning to Him. Both means should be used and practiced.

Illness caused by physical accident should be treated with medical remedies; those which are due to spiritual causes disappear through spiritual means. Thus an illness caused by affliction, fear, nervous impressions, will be healed by spiritual rather than by physical treatment. Hence, both kinds of remedies should be considered. Moreover, they are not contradictory, and thou shouldst accept the physical remedies as coming from the mercy and favor of God, who hath revealed and made manifest medical science so that His servants may profit from this kind of treatment also. Thou shouldst give equal attention to spiritual treatments, for they produce marvelous effects.

    Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith  p. 375

On Monday October 19th 2009 I dragged myself out of bed and went to the local hospital's lab to have another round of bloodwork done. This has become a standard part of many of my weeks as my doctor watches the response that my body is having to the interferon and ribavirin, making certain that my blood counts (particularly my white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets) do not plunge dangerously low. I am learning more about these numbers then I ever did in the 2 years of anatomy and physiology courses that I took. When my rbc's initially began to drop I felt breathless and desperately fatigued......"just let me lay here for awhile" was my automatic response for a couple days. Fortunately Lauretta insisted that I get up and walk laps around the yard. One day when she stopped by my office she noted that I looked tired and dragged me out to walk laps around the cemetery behind my office...the irony of which did not escape me. What I quickly discovered is that even this mild exercise rapidly increased my stamina and energy level! So I started trying to bike a little....mostly using my bike on the stationary trainer.....more exercise...more energy! ....Go Rus! I would try to tell myself as often as possible!

In an effort to strengthen the chemotherapy I write inspirational messages on the syringes and pill boxes, often Sacred Verses or private messages of encouragement that some of you have said to me. Every drop of medicine that enters my body is blessed and welcomed in (which is hard when you know that it is going to make you throw up, feel dizzy, shiver and ache). These responses were the only way that I felt I could possibly endure the year long treatment that lay ahead of me. I needed to somehow be able to welcome and embrace these chemicals that felt like they were killing me?!

Another thing that I discovered is that although I had initially considered keeping this whole thing secret and telling only my immediate family, doing so would mean that I would be depriving myself of two very important sources of healing.....the healing power of prayers from as many of my friends and family as possible and the spiritual happiness that service brings to our souls when we serve others; in this case "serving" by trying to educate as many people as possible about the Hepatitis C virus. What I have discovered from this is that every day I have opportunities to serve others by providing encouragement and education to people who are just being diagnosed and their family members. With any medical diagnosis there are many questions and with one which is potentially life threatening there are even more. Helping others start to find answers is healing for me. In addition I have also been able to benefit from a growing number of people praying for my healing. It feels like each day I receive an increasing dose of prayers lifting me up and soothing my soul! Some of you I know have been praying hard!! I can feel it, like I have never felt before!!!

Anyways...as I often do....I have once again taken the winding road to the main point of this blog post....

Today at 3:45PM I got a call from my doctor's office telling me that they had received the lab results from Monday's bloodwork. I suspected that they must be calling to tell me bad news, as my next appointment is still 10 days away, not thinking that in addition to all the routine bloodwork that I have done every two weeks, they also had run a PCR assay test to determine what they refer to as my viral load, the amount of active virus in my blood (this test generally takes two weeks to get back so I was sure that they would not be reporting on it). My viral load had been determined to be 15,063,000 i/u prior to treatment, a level which is categorized as "very high" (the higher the viral load, the less likely it is that a person will respond to treatment...so this number was against me).

So, when I heard Denise's voice, the nurse from my doctor's office, I instantly tensed up and prepared for the worse....afraid that I was going to need to change my medications or stop treatment. I was not prepared for what she told me.

"Rus, Melissa (my doctor) wanted me to call you and let you know that we just got back your viral load test and after 4 weeks of treatment your viral load is 2500 i/u. Your response to the medicine has been unbelievable! She also wanted me to tell you that whatever you are doing....keep doing it!"

This means that I seem to fall into the rare category of "rapid responders" which is a very good thing!!!! It does not mean that I am "out of the woods" or that the virus has been eliminated from my body, but it does mean that I am positioned as favorably as I could possibly be at this time to eventually be cured of this virus!!!! Being able to beat the virus means that I need to continue to respond favorably to treatment and that my body continues to be able to tolerate it for the next 43 weeks.

A friend of mine who has supported hundreds of people who are on this treatment and who has herself been through treatment three times before being able to beat the virus, said "Rus, you have been granted a miracle! This is a genuine miracle from God to you!" I too believe that this is a miracle from God, but I also believe that you all, or as they say in my hometown, "y'all" are a big part of this miracle...y'alls prayers and encouragement have made this happen!

So my dear friends and family, following in the example of my doctor...I would like to humbly and with deep gratitude ask that, "whatever you are doing....keep doing it!" (and I'll add "Please!")

With deep love and profound gratitude,

Rus

 Keeping the Faith...Killing the Virus!