Sunnyside Up

By Nicole Rogers

The Wizard of Oz was a great theme for the Owen Jr.  Fair because personally I love this movie and watched it every year, once a year, when I was a kid. As I sat and watched the movie on Saturday afternoon, in the Old School gymnasium, where I gathered with my classmates for school assemblies and gym class so many years ago, it really brought back warm memories. Watching as an adult, I saw the symbolism more clearly. The cowardly lion, who was able to summon courage when he really needed it to help a friend in need; the Scarecrow who thought he needed a brain but was the brains behind helping Dorothy get home all along, and the Tin Man who believed because a real heart did not pound beneath his skin made of tin, he couldn’t love but from the beginning revealed enormous capacity to love. It was the seeking of love, courage and knowledge combined with the help of friends that manifested these virtues in these beloved characters.  During their journey along the yellow brick road, they were putting their hope and trust in a magic wizard who would instantly grant them their wishes when the great Oz showed them that they had the power within them all along. What a great story!

The premise of “there is no place like home” also radiated over the weekend events as friends and family returned to their hometown to attend not only the fair but the All Class Reunion and the FFA Cows, Plows, and Wine fundraiser. Sunday morning, my husband and I attended the community worship at the fairgrounds and were greeted with such warm wishes and several hugs. I feel I should fill our readers in on his condition as many have asked about it. The short story, well maybe not so short, is that he has been unable to walk unassisted since last February and now relies heavily on a wheelchair to get around. He has been through over a dozen tests to determine what is causing all his pain, weakness, nausea, fatigue and weight loss. In early June, his neurologist gave us the devastating news that he believed he had ALS which may leave him severely disabled and possibly only a few years to live. Besides the weakness in his legs, the neurologist thought he saw weakness spreading to his upper body, even though when he asked me if I noticed him getting weaker I said “no, I think he is getting stronger as he gets up from bed and rises to his walker.” I don’t think he really heard me. We walked out of his office, silent and stunned, and in disbelief. It was a teary ride home as the news set in slowly. Travis said “Well, if this is it, I will think of it not as I only had 15 years with you but we got to have 15 years together.” I agreed as tears rolled and I tried to focus on the drive home.

After a time of sorrow and thinking how am I ever going to handle this? I thought, no this can’t be the right diagnosis, I don’t see the weakness spreading and even if it is ALS, we don’t have to accept it. We can fight this and keep searching for answers to his current symptoms of pain, nausea, fatigue and weakness. In the middle of June, I reached out to a Nurse Practitioner, Sharon Barnhardt of Gundersen Lutheran, who was one of many medical professionals that have been involved in Travis’s case and came in late in the game. I asked her (as I had his other doctors) about his chronic lower back, leg and knee pain. She looked at an MRI that was taken back in March and said she noticed a bulged disc and vertebrae impingement that could explain this pain. This was news to us! Why didn’t anyone of the other doctors see this? Anyway, I passed this knowledge on to the physical therapist Travis has been seeing and he gave us stretches and exercises designed to help. And, our prayers and the prayers of many of our loved ones seem to be answered, he is getting stronger and stronger. The pain in his knee, leg and hip have retreated, leaving only the pain in his lower back. He can lift himself up to the walker and wheelchair, no longer has nausea or extreme fatigue. He can now sit up for a whole Orioles baseball game and has made several trips to our favorite café.

What Travis and I have learned on our sometimes-harrowing trip down the yellow brick road is that we should never stop seeking answers, leaning on friends and family, looking for the strength within, and living our dreams. And like the land of Oz, after you go through such bleak, dark days of sadness, the colors of the rainbow are so much more vivid on the other side.