Exploring the Jungle - a Column by Mary Lott

“No, you don’t have cancer.” The doctor was explaining what my bone marrow biopsy had revealed. “You do have an abnormality in your blood that may develop into either leukemia or lymphoma, but right now, you do not have cancer. We have to watch and wait.” This conversation was in…

“Mike, stop!” I yelled at my boyfriend, now husband, as we crossed an intersection in Auburn, Alabama. “Let me move that turtle out of the way.” A few disgruntled drivers were in cars behind us. As a soft-hearted nature lover, I made everyone wait while I dealt with this more…

“You should’ve started writing earlier. Now you’ve wasted the time and won’t get it done by deadline. This is what you always do: You’re always late and disorganized. You really ought to give up. You’re not any good anyway.” That voice in my head is my worst enemy. There’s a…

It was a rare Saturday morning with nothing on the schedule, so my husband, Mike, and I could sleep in. Except that I’ve forgotten — temporarily, I hope — how to sleep late. I awoke close to the usual time. Since it wasn’t raining, I thought I’d get some light…

Grabbing the best spot in front of the TV, I make myself comfortable on pillows. It’s time for the Kentucky Derby. The first Saturday in May is reserved for me to enter a world of majestic horses, excitement, and mint juleps. In the week leading up to the derby, I…

Last summer, my right knee hurt. As far as I know there was no injury; it just hurt. The pain grew to the point where I hobbled around the house. I used food delivery services and generally babied my knee. Eventually, I went to my doctor. At the doctor’s office,…

“Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel/ Never ending or beginning on an ever-spinning reel/… In the windmills of your mind.” When I try to figure out cold agglutinin disease (CAD), my mind goes round and round and never quite settles on one…

In March, a prayer request was passed through our expatriate community here in Indonesia. Someone was suffering the lingering effects of a bout with dengue fever. A follow-up message soon arrived detailing what was happening. This person had low hemoglobin levels, was weaker than expected, and was a little yellowish.

I blinked several times in the bright sunlight as I started down the stairs that had been rolled up to the airplane. The airport seemed strangely built, with two large buildings topped by tall, cone-shaped roofs. A man was at the bottom of the stairs, and we instantly recognized that…

“Easy, easy,” I said in my most reassuring voice. “It’s very easy to get to my house. There are only two turns.” Despite that, the courier from the shipping company was telling me that I lived too far out in the jungle for him to possibly find my house and…