When I was sick...

How things have changed. Ed, a Stem Cell Transplant recipient, some 60 days out tells the story of how he thought he would let his old friend come over to see him at home. He did the necessary asking about illness and said to his friend to come by. As they were visiting his friend shares the story of how he had recently visited another family in the hospital or their home and he found out they had TB. Poor Ed did not know what to do. He had invited someone to see him who had been exposed to TB. SCT recipients are first of all immunosuppressed, meaning we are susceptible to just about everything with little defense against what is out there. Secondly as the transplant progresses we lose all of our immunities we were given with inoculations and shots during childhood and later. By 1oo days or so we have to be re vaccinated for all of these. Ed was just beyond the 60 days. Ed thought he had covered all the bases. He was angry at his friend. I hope he is okay.

My reason for telling this story is there is a tension that is going to exist for awhile for all of you and for me. If you grew up in the church or are involved in a church this is where you learned it is good to go visit and say "hi" to the sick and the shut-ins. This is the place where people are more prone to hug one other and embrace several people over the period of a Sunday Morning or social gathering. It is one of the last place SCT recipients should go and conversely a hot spot for the spread of anything like colds, flues, viruses and yes TB. And then with holy and good intentions, of course you want to go to visit the sick, the shut-in and pass on the goodness of the holy gathering. Bless you for that. You certainly have Jesus' blessing.

So here is the tension. I, like Ed, must look out for myself. That means I must look upon all of you as possible carriers of even rare TB. It feels to me like I am being rude and offensive when I ask to be kept at a distance. I could even appear judgemental. I ask your patience on this. For at least the first six months I must look out for this myself. That will mean I will often be wearing a mask and perhaps sometimes gloves. I will stand back like I am the one with the disease to spare you the responsibility, for it is up to me and you have no way of knowing everything about the health of everyone with whom you have been in touch. Do you recall those "Perfect Attendance Badges" they gave out in school? There is another medical model that says if you are sick, stay away from others. There are not to many rewards or badges for that, but taking your flu or cold to work, or school or to others, or others in large groups also needs to be to be looked at, as possibly dangerous to others as well and not necessarily virtuous.

So I had to put this out there because in a few weeks I will probably be home and these issues will come up. I continue to covet your prayers and support and as the boundaries become more flexible I will let you know and we can reconnect.