Decompression

When a SCUBA diver dives deep, or stays down too long, they must make stops at calculated intervals to decompress on the way back to the surface.  This is to ensure the nitrogen doesn’t bubble out of their blood and cause sickness or death.

Over the past month, our family has been thrown into the deepest ocean, figuratively, and we are slowly trying to come back to the surface, making stops along the way to assure that when we get there we will be healthy.  My daughter has been diagnosed with a type of bone cancer that happens in children just as their bones stop growing.  At a time we should have been celebrating her transition from child to young adult, she was dealt a tremendous blow and as long as I live, I will never forget having to go to school to get her and tell her she had cancer.

What do I mean by decompression stops?  At this point we all KNOW that she will be OK, but between now and then there will be some horrendous times.  But between them, we will stop and breathe, and know we made one more step toward the surface, and toward normality.

Last Wednesday, when my daughter went in for her chemo treatment, she was told she might not be released until the following Tuesday when the levels of the toxins fell to the right levels in her body.

On Thursday she was told that her levels had come down more than expected but she had a long way to go.  On Friday morning, her oncology doctor, Dr T, told her the levels had dropped so much that they were sure the labs had made a mistake and they were going to re-run the test.  Friday evening, an amazed intern came into her room and told her the level was low enough and she could go home.  With that, my family breathed a collective sigh and we had the weekend to relax and enjoy each other.  This was a decompression stop for us.

Out of all we are going through, we are again reminded that when you have a good day, it should be celebrated. You don’t know when the next one will come.  When a bad day arrives, smile and get through it. You do know it won’t last forever.  In the middle of all of it, find a place or an activity (you have seen mine) that lets you maintain your sanity and get to the next good day.  Those small decompression stops will get you to the surface.