On Death & Dying

I hadn't planned this topic, but my dear 90 y.o. grandmother just spent the last 2 weeks in hospice care after we unexpectedly learned she had terminal liver cancer. Six weeks prior, she'd gotten a clean bill of health and had perfectly normal bloodwork. Not only that, she astonished and confounded both her doctor and myself with her incredible endurance to the end. I would never have believed she would have lived 14 days - right after admission, she was running temps as high as 104 and clearly had fluid in her lungs. The decision to stop agressive measures was made in order to make her comfortable. So her I.V. was stopped and we prepared for her to pass from death into life.

The next morning though, she was dehydrated, her fever had broken, and she was amazingly alert and talking. Withdrawing agressive measures had improved her status! The cancer eventually caught up within a short time, but she remained comfortable and all her friends and family were able to visit. She passed away only four hours after a final pair of nieces arrived from Texas. None of us dreamed she would've still been here.

As a doctor, I am once again humbled by the magnificence of the human machine during the dying process. And I use "machine" deliberately, because machines are designed -- and although we are living bodies with a soul, our cells are tiny factories, our organs are rich industrial complexes, and our brains, corporate headquarters. Even facing death, the human body has a will to go on working like nothing else I've seen. No surprise, I guess, since God was the architect!

Blessings, Ronda

First Blog Post: An Old Dog Can Learn New Tricks

Only because of my precious daughter, who set this blog up, am I able to share my ACFW memories. And those memories dim fast because I turned 50 today and suddenly discovered half my brain is now missing. Not really, but it feels that way! Half a century old, wow. But since my daughter insists a blog is a piece of cake (birthday cake, no less-haha) here I go.

My first ACFW recollection is an ACRW memory, because there were only about 250 members when I joined. I had written a Christian romance and I saw all these familiar names - Gail Martin, Marta Perry, Lenora Nazworth, Lynn Coleman, Colleen Coble...so I leaped to join. And when I found out ACRW had an annual conference, I could hardly wait to go. Luckily another ACRW member who also hated to fly and lived in Indiana was going, so we made a date to fly to Denver. A lifelong friendship was born as we discovered not only did we look like twins separated at birth, our lives had so much in common! Crystal Miller is really not my sister other than in Christ, but at long last I've got a sister.

I had attended many other writing conferences, but ACRW was my first Christian
one. I couldn't believe it at dinner that night, when all these people I'd never met sat down together, editors, agents, writers alike, and we all bowed our heads in prayer. It was a jubilee, I'd come home after nearly 7 years of writing, the Spirit had led me to the right place.

Through ACFW and its networking, God has led me to finish a medical thriller instead of a romance, I've met so many wonderful, kind and generous authors willing to share their skills, and I found a Christian agent. And hopefully will soon find a Christian publisher.

FYI, yes, I'm a real doctor. If you were at ACFW Nashville, I'm the one that went running when a young gal fainted at breakfast, and two people collapsed at the end of the conference, one of whom ended up with a pacemaker. Linda Baldwin then suggested I get some roller skates, but thankfully, everyone last year at Dallas stayed well!

Hope to see you in Dallas this year, with half my brain missing--- Ronda