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Dot - Hostess Alumni 2002

Dot - Hostess Alumni 2002

Date : 04-29-2003 - 09:26 PM - Readers : 638

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Hello and welcome to Hystersisters.

My name is Dot, I'm 44 - have a wonderful dh and two boys ages 8 & 11. I live in Central Missouri...the Show Me State. I have a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice/Sociology and work full time writing federal grants to plan and coordinate programs for the local public housing authority. In my spare time I'm a typical sports mother spectator..baseball, basketball and football...LOVE to watch my kids. Some of my favorite past times include wandering through antique malls and flea shops, gardening, cooking and reading books. I'm active in several local advisory boards that range from Adult Basic Education to Child Death Review Panel.

My medical history probably mirrors lots of others with irregular periods, pain, etc..so after a year of dealing with that my gyn. suggested a hysterectomy for fibroid on uterus, cysts on ovaries and endo. Found out about it 3/9/00 and had tah/bso on 3/22/00. Like many others upon finding out the "news" I frantically hit the internet looking for information..and of course found a vast amount of information butnot the support I was looking for... UNTIL my insurance co. called a week before surgery and told me about HYSTERSISTERS. I've been "hooked" every since. I totally stopped looking and was glued to this site in search of answers, comments, ideas and support. I was welcomed with open arms!!! I couldn't wait to have my surgery so I could come back and offer support to others...

I'm honored to be a hostess on the Hysterectomy Support Board and hope that I can help make you as comfortable in this life altering decision as the other hostesses and ladies helped me. This is truly a journey and communicating/sharing with women that are on the same paths around the country is truly remarkable.

Dot

... A special note from Music Lady, Alumni Hostess 2002:

I'm not a big believer in omens necessarily, but Dot always had a thing about "signs". We would never have a conversation without her saying at some point, "You know how I am about signs!" She would often see "this or that" as a sign that she should do something or other, etc.

This "sign" started on the day I met Dot in real life in July 2001. At the front door of my house, I noticed that my Korean lilac bush had a tiny sprig on it that was actually blooming!! This was very strange because those shrubs bloom in April here, and had already had their bloom time. I laughed and told Dot, "Hey, that's blooming for YOU!" (Purple was also her favorite color.)

Well, last year, the year that Dot was diagnosed with cancer, this beautiful shrub contracted some sort of blight. One by one, the canes started to wither and die over several months. I would always prune away the "sick" canes in hopes of saving the shrub. Finally, there was nothing left of the shrub but a little stump, and I resigned myself to digging it up in the spring and planting something else. Interestingly, none of the other surrounding plants caught the blight, including my other Korean lilac.

A couple of weeks ago I had a new front porch poured, and the workman told me not to dig up that stump, that he felt it might come back to life. Well, yesterday, the day Dot left us, I noticed that the little stump had a small sprig of blooms coming out of it...the very same size as the one on that July day long ago. I stopped and stared at it long and hard and I felt a wonderful warm feeling come over me. I had a peaceful moment that cut through the grief, knowing that Dot was in heaven where she was healed at last.

Dot lost her battle with cancer on April 23, 2004. Please know that every time I visited Dot during her illness, I brought all of you with me, too.

She will be remembered at HysterSisters for her caring and encouraging words. We will miss her. - Linda Sell Gurney

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