Telling our Stories

I believe that our stories can heal us. Karen Blixen wrote, "All sorrows can be borne if you tell a story about them." I tell my story so I can laugh. The situation may not be funny at the time, but hindsight is a humorist.

The second time I was undergoing treatment, I tried vainly to stay at the top of my game. I put sticky notes on nearly everything, attempting to remind myself of things I didn't want to forget. I even put a sticky note on my dashboard to remind myself to buy gas. One evening, on my way out for a relaxing evening of a hot tub soak and a massage, I ran out of gas. I had planted the sticky note right on the low fuel light. Even at the time, I had to laugh.

What are your stories?

Pondering the Liver

Some ancient cultures believed that the liver was the center of life. The Greeks thought that the liver was the source of love and passion. Author, Mary Roach, wrote in Stiff that if the liver maintained this prestige, cars would be sporting bumper stickers such as "I Liver-symbol NY" rather than "I Heart-symbol NY". Ponder that!

Something else I wonder about: why do people eat liver? Why eat an organ that basically filters out what the body needs to keep out of its bloodstream? Maybe it is because the onions taste better that way.

What do you ponder?

Laughter is Medicine

Laughter heals. Just in case I need to convince you, there is scientific evidence backing this up. The ground-breaking research on laughter was conducted by William Fry, professor emeritus in psychiatry at Stanford University. Starting in the early 1960's, Professor Fry studied the therapeutic benefits of laughter. He was able to show the immense physiological benefit that laughter provides. Fry discovered that laughter changes brain patterns, stimulates the immune system, and reduces stress hormones.

Although Professor Fry is retired from Stanford, he is still pursuing activities that make him laugh. Dr. Fry said, "that a minute of laughter is equal to ten minutes on the rowing machine." I assume he means actually rowing rather than just sitting there. So, if I row for 10 minutes and watch 30 minutes of I Love Lucy, is this equal to 310 minutes of working out? Imagine when I tell my doctor how much exercise I get!

Laughing our way to health

What's so funny about hepatitis? Heck, nothing at all. However, I am not going to let that stop me from finding something to clown around about. I figure I can either laugh or cry, so why not laugh? Hmmm, let me think about this. Choice number one: Think about having hepatitis C, cry, feel awful, my face gets puffy, my eyes redden, and I feel tortured. Versus choice number two: Don't think about having hepatitis C, poke fun at myself, manufacture endorphins, have tons of fun, feel better. That's an easy choice for me to make - don't know why I had to think about it.

So, what's funny about having hepatitis? I don't know but I figure if I create the space, the humor will come.