Rough and Tough

This is Milana, one of Susanna’s Montana friends. She wrote a text this morning (or late last night) asking if I’d write something for her blog today. I was so happy to get the text that I cried. Yes. Of course. One time Susanna said to me that she didn’t know how she’d ever repay her friends, they’ve done so much for her. All I could think of at that time, and now, was how much she’d done for me and how could I ever repay her. She has such a big and generous heart, filled with some kind of perfect blend of grit, perseverance and love. The theme above describes her day yesterday. But it could also describe her, along with grace and beauty and incredible vivaciousness…that “ants in the pants kind of girl”.

This is what I know via Scott and her morning text: Overall Susanna is doing well, but yesterday was a rough day for her as her digestive system was slow to get working again after the surgery. (I guess this happens sometimes with major surgeries.) But it is slowly starting to work again. Yesterday she still had the epidural and that probably helped with the pain, although she hates the effects of the narcotics. Today the epidural will come out. It doesn’t look like she’ll get out of the hospital today. At this point there are no other complications.

One time, after having taken a wrong turn in Yellowstone Park, we rode our mountain bikes 18 miles the wrong direction up Dunraven Pass. The bikes were cheap and heavy in those days, but we kept pedaling, trying to catch up to the rest of the group, thinking they were ahead of us. They weren’t. They’d turned taken a different turn, the right turn. On a hike up Sacajawea Peak when I got low blood sugar and couldn’t take another step, she cheerfully handed me a gu and we kept going. Another time, during an extreme bout of cabin fever in Bozeman, due to several 30 below zero days, we put on all of our clothes and waddled to the store.

I think of her like this: making the best of a bad situation through sheer determination and humor. Rough and Tough. There will be tough times. Yesterday was one of them. It is one tough day behind her. Hopefully today will be better. I am so grateful for her doctors and good medical care. I am so grateful for her love and courage. I am so grateful that friends and family surround her, so that she doesn’t always have to be brave and strong. I am so grateful that she is so well loved by so many. It’s clear that we are in this fight with her. There will be lots of laughter and tears. We’ll just put on all of our clothes and waddle through it with her.

Susanna's god daughter's two daughters, Piper and Violet.