And the Winner is...

Tammy Rivers. (applause) Tammy, please email me to claim your prize: an inscribed hardcover copy of Happiness in a Storm.  Congratulations! 

Why is this announcement late? Why have I been postless for a few days?

My computer crashed. The optical drive on the DVD player was defective and overheating the computer. It's not a big stretch for me to pull out a lesson on Healthy Survivorship from this little-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things problem.

You see, my DVD player never worked well. But I didn't want to bother losing my computer for however long it would take them to fix. So I shrugged my shoulders, deciding I didn't really need to watch DVDs on this computer. When my computer stopped burning CDs a year or so later, I shrugged my shoulders again, deciding I could burn CDs on my laptop computer. Then my computer began freezing up on occasion. Last Wed it was every few hours. By Thursday, it was every few minutes.

Luckily for me, I copied everything onto an external hard drive before my PC crashed completely. That doesn't mean it was a wise decision. By ignoring signs of little problems that I could live with, I let them lead to bigger problems that interfered with my life in dramatic ways.

The lesson is this: As a Healthy Survivor, even if you can live with a nuisance problem, it doesn't mean you should. If the little problem can lead to a bigger problem, you may be losing your opportunity for a quick and easy fix. And a problem with your body is different than a problem with your computer or your car, as I explain in Blueberry.

Comments

[Jeffrey K Ferguson,MD]

I heard another doctor and cancer survivor recommend an article or poem written by you titled, I believe, " I have today." However, I have been unable to find this piece. Can you help?

Thanks,

Jeffrey K Ferguson,MD

[Linda Guebert]

Dr. Harpham, how can I contact you for speaker information? I am planning our Parish Nurse Wellness conference for 2010. I would love you to be our keynote speaker.
Would you have time to discuss with me?
Linda
309-779-5122
Parish Nurse Manager, Moline, IL