March, 2003

Dear old and new friends, relatives and new acquaintances,

Saw the cardiologist this morning. We agree that I can live with "atrial fib" without efforts to regulate my heart.

New research confirms that the aged can ride it out with coumadin to prevent strokes. I chose to do that. This means it will take a while to come to terms with the coumadin dosage but I am faithful about the "pin pricks".

This decision, for example, would mean I would not call a dear friend to take my blood pressure on a morning when my pulse was wildly fluctuating. I would eat breakfast and wait for it to pass as it did on February 8 en route by ambulance from Urgent Care to the Emergency Room.

He does not think my case warrants a jolt, cauterization or the search for a new miracle drug. Pacemakers are for people with very low blood pressure, and mine, now that I am a new medicine is doing just great. No more horribly swollen ankles that the last medication offered.

Just to prove that we live in disturbed times, last Friday when things seemed to be under control, a series of obscene phone calls reached into my night. Think I have found the remedy to that intrusion.

The embroidery keeps my soul and psyche stitched together. Saint Mary Catholic Church offers balm for my spirit and a Catholic Writer's group to engage my intelligence with peers.

Am on the library committee of this retirement home, will talk about Tangible Hope at a potluck of Eugene activists next week. On Monday nights Bob and Marion and I gather as Three or More for silence, prayer, Breaking Open the Word AND discussing a book together. For Lent it will be Jim Forest's THE LADDER OF THE BEATITUDES. I go to the Sunday dinners at Ann's home where there are teenagers and pets. Last night she took me to the symphony. What more could a mother hope for?

Well, a less frightening world, so be sure.

Don't think Martin Sheen originated the statement

          We are not asked to be successful.
          We are asked to be faithful

so I stitch small stitches into my prayers for Peace on Earth as I try to remain faithful

with Love,

Justine  

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