These are handbasket times

A large part of my job, say 40% (at the minimum), involves listening.

This means I'm tuned into Twitter, FB, local and national news reporting agencies, and other means of "listening" to the latest, both in general and what's being said about the hospital.

Today is a banner day in terms of news. We have a potential nuclear meltdown in Japan which is being touted as worse than 3 Mile Island, very wobbly global financial markets, shootings in hospitals in Bahrain, etc. It's times like these when it gets a bit emotionally overwhelming to scan through Twitter to see if there is any health news worth retweeting or posting about.

Something that helped me to pull the day together and get my bearings was remembering a friend. It's Brain Awareness Week, and when I write blog posts for the hospital, I try and infuse something personal, whether it's a recollection, an anecdote, a story or an image. Today it was all of them.

Cheryl Schafer Collins was a patient I met here at the hospital about a year ago. I was doing a follow-up video interview with her after her Gamma Knife surgery, which is targeted radiation for hard-to-reach brain tumors. She was a dynamo, a force to be reckoned with. Her energy was amazing, even during the tough times. She always had a kind word for everyone, fought back against her lung cancer diagnoses with ferocity and took her treatments seriously. When she'd come into town, we'd try and get together for lunch or just a quick visit. I last saw her at the end of October when she was in town to meet with her oncologists. We met for lunch, and she was her usual feisty, warm self. I got to meet her sister and her son, and we had a nice time catching up and discussing her treatments and what was going on in her life.

A few weeks later I saw on Facebook that she was back at the hospital, but it didn't seem worrisome. And then she was gone. That can happen sometimes, especially when it comes to cancer. The immune system is weak, and pneumonia can take down the strongest of wills.

I've thought about Cheryl often, and when I was writing the post for Brain Awareness Week, it seemed a perfect opportunity to mention Cheryl and feature her last video interview with us.

Even though I didn't know her long, she made a lasting impression on me. Her message was simple - live life. Be present, be kind, be yourself.

So for all that's going on in the world these days, the terrible injustice and disasters and violence, her words are ones I can live by.

Here is a link to the post on our hospital blog. And you can see Cheryl's video here.