Tuesday, January 10, 2006

The fabric of life

Some remarkable occurrences in my life go far beyond mere coincidence.
To me, they prove the interconnectedness of everything in creation.
A visitor to my blog took note of my medical condition, and mentioned it recently to a friend of hers, a medical researcher at a major U.S. university.
It turns out that this researcher developed an experimental drug that may be helpful for people like me with parathyroid cancer.
This is an extremely rare disease, so the odds against such a perfect confluence of timing and circumstances are quite high.
But I don't think it's just a coincidence.

The blog visitor gave me the researcher's e-mail address and we began a correspondence. The drug is now being tested in clinical trials at five hospitals [1/13/06 update: I erroneously reported four in my original post] in the United States, one of them the hospital where I'm being treated.
I forwarded the information on the drug study to my endocrinologist at that hospital. She said she is familiar with this clinical trial but didn't think it would be beneficial for me. Her understanding was that the drug wasn't especially effective against parathyroid cancer. She quickly added, though, that if any evidence developed to the contrary, she would be interested.
I indicated these misgivings to the researcher. And he responded with evidence.
Now, my endocrinologist is interested.

Is all this a coincidence?
I don't think so.
Everything happens for a reason. Everything is interconnected. I don't think there's anything mysterious or magical about it. That is, unless I insist on complicating things and making it so.
My eldest sister called this whole sequence of events a "cosmic coincidence." I'm inclined to say that it's cosmic, but basic.
No smoke, no mirrors.

Of course, this may all turn out to be a potential option that wound up a dead end.
But I think to dismiss it as just that would be to miss the point entirely, and tragically.
The point is, we're all in this life together, and empathy and compassion are what make it bearable.
When we manifest compassion, wonderful things can happen.

---

I got the results of my Friday blood test this afternoon, and my serum calcium level has risen since the last test. I'm not surprised. I was expecting this. This level fluctuates, but there are existing medical options to control it -- not to mention the possibility of the new study drug.
The fight is over only when a person concedes defeat.

9 comments:

LBseahag said...

I loved the last line...its so true...in so many aspects of life...

hang on to the hope...you are a team effort :)

Kim said...

"when we maifest compassion, wonderful things can happen."

this is great news for you to have another researcher and another possibly helpful drug on your side.

i don't try to over-analyze either, but i do notice the phenomenon of drawing certain people and energies into our orbit.

i'm sorry to hear about your test results, though. i wish you the very best of luck.

luck is such a strange word, it doesn't quite capture what i'm really wishing for you, but not believing in god or any plan for the universe, i feel like it's all i have. let's just say, i'm wishing you good things!

Michael said...

Hi JZD,
Yes, choosing not to fight is the flip side of the coin.
But with my health situation, I think that eternal vigilence is the price of being sick. At least that's the approach I'm going to take for now.

Hello LB,
As always, thanks so much for your encouragement. Have a great time in Kansas!

Hey g,
I agree completely. We can make ourselves receptive to positive things, or we can block them, and it's all in our frame of mind.
I think there's a lot to be said for "good vibes" and "bad vibes." It's not pseudoscience.

Hey Kim,
Seems like you and g are on the same wavelength. And, as ever, thanks for your good wishes!!

Anonymous said...

All I know is, as long as I'm here, I'm going to keep taking the next step, and the next, whatever that looks like. (I wrote that and then looked at the top of the page and saw again what you'd named this post :)).

We're all doing this ... I'm seeing us each walking along on our separate pathways, and we know the others are there on their paths. The pathways wind around sometimes, come together and then diverge. Every now and then we look over at each other, wave, share what's going on, hold hands sometimes. It's comforting to know I've got companions, even though I know I can't do it for them and they can't do it for me.

Chris said...

Your pro-action is inspiring. Many take their lives and put them in the doctor's hands, helpless. No! No magic here- this is karma in action!

What better example than the story you just gave...

Thank you

Michael said...

Hello Anu,
Thanks so much for your beautiful wishes! I wish the same for you, now and always!

Hi Kitty,
I agree with what you say. I also think we're all walking up the same mountain.

Hi Chris H,
Many thanks! I just hope I can hold it together when/if things turn really hairy.

Sheila said...

When I was younger, I was very existential in my thinking: there was no plan, and the only meaning our lives had was that which we chose personally, and also in that process of searching and choosing. A coincidence was just that, and I found people who saw deeper meaning in everything to be rather annoying. That the universe (orderly though it may be) was without a plan seemed glaringly obvious to me.

Then later in life I started paying better attention, and for a while I think I was on the right path for me (I was on a roll!), and suddenly the synchronicities became too much for me to dismiss as mere coincidence. I kept meeting the right people at the right time, one good thing led to another...

Anyhow, you surely seem to be sending out the right sort of energy. Here's sending some back your way :)

Michael said...

Hello Sheila,

First off, welcome to my blog! Thanks for your comments.
I don't know that there's a plan in the conventional sense, but I truly believe that we affect events and outcomes in our lives through the attitudes we project to others, and those that we use to sustain us to the core of our being. It's just the old good vibe-bad vibe dynamic, I suppose.
Thanks for your good vibes!!

Michael said...

Thanks, LB! Indeed, I'm very grateful for all the support I've gotten through this blog.