Gatorade and Memories

Today's post is brought to you by Saltine crackers and the letter G for Gatorade.  The Saltine crackers made their debut early in the day when Willie asked for some during his 3 AM chemo infusion.  He has been feeling a bit nauseous, but they give him anti-nausea medication regularly to combat this.  The Saltine crackers do the rest of the work in combating his queasiness.  His early morning treatment went well and Dr. Mitra was eager to inform us that Willie is now more than half way through his treatments!  Hooray!  Dr. Mitra also informed us that he is taking the holiday weekend off!  That received some jokes and jabs from the rest of us who are certain that he lives here.  He is always here.  I swear he has a secret bed somewhere in the hospital that he sneaks a few hours of sleep in each day.  He wears a wedding ring, so I can't help but wonder what his wife thinks of his long hours.  Or maybe she's a doctor too and doesn't even notice.
"It must be hard to be married to a doctor," I said to Willie the other day as I was contemplating the busy schedules of every doctor we've met here.  "They must never see their families."
"You don't just become a doctor, Missy." Willie said to me in his characteristic wisdom, "I'm sure the people they are married to have been with them through all of their schooling and training for their career and knew what their schedule was going to be like.  It's not like they just became busy one day."
Good point Willie!  I often feel I am in the presence of a genius when he says things like this.
It made me wonder what expectations I had when I got married.  I knew I was marrying a plumber who may get calls at any time of day or night.  I also knew that we live in a small town so the furthest of jobs wouldn't take him more than 15 minutes away.  Most importantly, I knew that I was the number one priority and if I really needed him, he could rush home at any moment.  I'm not judging the relationships of doctors and their spouses, but there must be some sort of understanding attached in which the spouse must realize that they don't have this luxury of knowing that their doctor spouse could drop everything and come running if the situation requires.  In short, I am happy to have myself a plumber for a husband!
More importantly, I am proud to have a man of courage who has taken on this trial of cancer with such ferocity that I doubt the cancer will be able to handle.  Nobody messes with Willie Beavers.  His cancer is about to discover that.
The first time I met Will was at a summer camp in Massachusetts.  I was a young 20 year old pursuing a degree in nutrition, he was a cultured 24 year old living the carefree life of a traveler.  We were working at Camp Kingsmont, a weight loss camp for overweight kids and teenagers.  I was there to save the world of fat children everywhere by telling my personal story of how I had overcome childhood obesity and lost 80 lbs.  He was there because the camp had a gym and he wanted to have access to weights during the summer!
Whatever our reasons for being there, the most important reason, which was unknown to us at the time, was to find each other.  I was introduced to Willie a few hours after I arrived at camp.  This was Will's second year at the camp so I was the new kid on campus and presented my Utah roots well when I arrived in a pair of overalls and had my hair tied into a bun. Those were my "skinny overalls" and they represented months of dieting and gruelling workouts to fit into them.  No one else knew that; however, and in retrospect, I must have perfectly fit the stereotype of a Utahn. 

Tattoo on Will's upper arm. 

We had a staff meeting that night and I made friends with another girl who was new to the camp.  We sat together on a bench and listened to the director welcome all the staff and explain about the camp.  I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was looking at me.  Not just looking at me, glaring at me, staring me down, daring me to look back in their direction.  I slowly turned my head to find the source of the dramatic stare and smiled when my eyes fell the source: a tattoo on the upper arm of a guy sitting two people away.  I laughed and told my new friend about how I could feel the tattoo staring at me.  She lifted her finger to his arm to cover the eyes and we both laughed.  Now we had caught the attention of the tattoos owner.  We told him why were were laughing and he cracked a tiny smile.  We then introduced ourselves and I made a note in my mind of his name.  I then filed a note next to his name: Don't mess with this guy!
Anyone who knows Willie can attest that he can appear gruff on the outside.  We would often tell Chuck Norris jokes at camp and insert Will's name in them because he is that kind of tough!  As I look back at that moment now it feels like another lifetime.  At that time I had no intention of talking to him again and felt I could make it through the summer without having to come face to face with him or his tattoo again.
I had come from a very different culture where tattoos were synonymous with jail time and trouble makers.  I could only judge him based on what I had been taught, so I knew that we would never be more than co-workers at a summer camp together.  Boy was I wrong!  I am so grateful to Willie and our friends from camp for helping me learn to love people from every walk of life.  That's never been hard for me to do.  I always assume everyone is good until they prove otherwise, but my time at camp helped me develop my capacity to love others regardless of their past or circumstances.

Whole Foods Market: The happiest place on earth!

My Mom is still here today and we took a field trip to Whole Foods Market to do some sizing up of our competition.  For me, Whole Foods is heaven.  I am a nutritionist and am at my happiest when I am surrounded by good foods in a store where I can read labels all day!  I don't know if there is a term nerdy enough to describe me, but I love it!  Today we checked out different brands in their store that I want to carry in our store, the Health Habit.  I found all sorts of gems that I can't wait to start carrying at home.  
We spent a few hours there then returned just in time for Will's afternoon Chemo.  He received his final IV pushed treatment this afternoon and has 3 more infusions of the second medicine left.  We are almost there!  Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers in our behalf.  We marvel every day at the love we feel from all of you and it is most definitely strengthening us during this time.  We look forward to celebrating Will's remission with all of you very soon!