Exploring the Jungle —Mary Lott

Carefully, I put my full glass of soda on the tray on my bed. Pokey, my companion and loyal canine, snuggled next to me. Sighing contentedly, he sensed that we’d be together for a…

Turning my head away from the fiend with the needle, I closed my eyes and began mentally walking down a path through a forest. I had only “taken” a few “steps” when the nurse…

“Pokey, I’m back!” I called out as I returned from shopping. I staggered backward as Pokey assaulted me — slurp! slurp! slurp! — in an effort to jump on my shoulder and lick my…

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” —…

“But I’m leavin’ on a jet plane/ Don’t know when I’ll be back again.” — John Denver That song was running through my mind the other day. “Zip!” I jimmied open the zipper of…

“I’m going to prescribe Rituxan [rituximab] for you,” the doctor said. I immediately envisioned myself losing all of my hair. I had no idea what to expect, nor did I understand anything about…

In May 2018, I entered the unknown “jungle” of a cold agglutinin disease (CAD), accompanied by what my doctor calls chronic lymphocytic lymphoma. CAD is a rare disease, and in April 2018,…

I carefully pulled myself out of the sunken bathtub and waited a moment before swinging around to stand up. I gripped the sink next to me, pulled up, and caught my breath. “Whoa!” I…

A student was waiting at my desk as I walked into the classroom. I smiled as I dropped my books on the desk and looked at her expectantly. She’d been absent the previous day.

I looked to the right and then to the left, searching in vain for landmarks. I had no clue where we were in the water. I was leading a group of divers and had…