Wednesday, June 6, 2018

No Man Is an Island

After being diagnosed, my first inclination was to to go to my bedroom, put my head under the covers and ignore the world. Fiends kept calling me and I ignored the calls. Finally, I answered the telephone in frustration.


PUBLISHED June 05, 2018

Jane has earned three advanced degrees and had several fulfilling careers as a librarian, rehabilitation counselor and college teacher. Presently she does freelance writing. Her articles include the subjects of hearing loss and deafness, service dogs and struggling with cancer. She has been a cancer survivor since 2010.

She has myelodysplastic syndrome, which is rare, and would love to communicate with others who have MDS.
Many of us, at one time or another, may have heard the part of a famous poem by John Donne: “No man is an island; entire of itself... any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind…”

I have always been intrigued by this quote and believed it to be true. I am a very social creature by nature. It is not unusual for me to go out with friends three or four days a week. When one is single and doesn’t cook, this is a real plus! I often joke about Sita, my hearing ear service dog. She was so shy from being abandoned and thrown out on the streets before her rescue that the trainers were not sure she had the ability to be a good service dog. Within a year of living with me, no one ever believed she was shy, and 10 years later, they laugh if I tell them! Now she is so social that she greets everyone she knows with wagging tail and little excited hops. She has not been abandoned since and is much loved. I also tell people that living with me, she had to be social and there was no choice! Sita and I are blessed to have many friends, neighbors and family members who love us as a team.

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