TheBanyanTree: Update on My Adventure

[A. Christopher Hammon]

It occurs to me that while I shared the initial news of my unanticipated 
adventure following the diagnosis of a rare condition requiring surgical 
intervention and chemotherapy, I don't think that I have reported on my 
progress with that journey. Today marks nine weeks post-surgery, so let 
me share part of a column that I have just written for the Oates Journal 
to bring you up to date (although I am aware that there are a number of 
you that are following the Facebook updates).

.. A life-threatening illness, major surgery, chemotherapy, and a 
prolonged period of recovery that included sixteen days in  hospital was 
not how I planned to start 2010; but it was my good fortune to do so 
since it has given me the opportunity to hopefully add at least another 
twenty years to my life and to view each of those years as gift. Cancer 
is very rare in my family medical history; we have a lot of heart 
disease that has ended a number of lives before sixty -- including my 
mother and my youngest brother. And for those who avoid the early end of 
life from heart disease we have a significant history of later life 
Alzheimer's.

The surgery was more extensive than anyone anticipated; there was a lot 
more of the mucinous material than expected and it involved more organs. 
They removed the appendix, gall bladder, the right half of the colon, a 
significant portion of the omentum, and a golf ball size tumor in my 
diaphragm. They scraped the mucinous material off all of the other 
surfaces within the peritoneum from the liver down. All of this 
suggested a high potential for malignancy and a very bad outcome to this 
story. Not being very alert during the first part of my hospitalization 
I missed out on the experience that my family and friends had with the 
fear that I did not have much longer to live.

It took ten days, but the good news is that all of the pathology reports 
came back non-malignant and after another week in hospital I was sent 
home to continue recovering. I am recovering well. The surgeon has me 
back on my recumbent bicycle as part of my rehabilitation, although 
still inside on the training stand. Life is good and I am grateful for 
the opportunity to continue enjoying it. But this experience has been 
and continues to be an adventure that is challenging me to learn and to 
adapt to an emerging future.

Even as an involuntary adventure, and perhaps even more so as an 
adventure that I did not chose, this experience has pushed me in several 
directions of new learning; all of which beg for assimilation and 
integration. And that means that in addition to engaging in 
conversations with colleagues I need to be writing my way through this 
exploration to help me develop a deeper awareness and understanding and 
then sharing the insights that I encounter.

In the midst of this adventure I found myself discovering a new 
perspective on integrative, holistic care; I am seeing more of a digital 
era style collaboration that includes key roles for the patient. Since 
this is a key part of our mission at the Oates Institute, I look forward 
to sharing more on this.

While the work that I have been doing with narrative research in 
ministry over the last half dozen years has focused my attention on the 
significance and frequent absence of pastoral listening, the hospital 
context provided a diverse and significant clinical lab for observing 
listening practices. Again, this is taking me deeper into an area of the 
Oates Institute's mission and ministry leadership that I have been 
exploring.

My workaholism and my tendency to overlook physical symptoms that I 
should pay attention to played a significant role in the surgery being 
more extensive than anticipated. By writing off symptoms I was 
experiencing as the effects of too much stress, I came close to crossing 
the line of being able to recover. Friends and family have been calling 
my attention to this for some time, but now they have my attention. One 
of the books that Annie gave me as "recovery reading" was Stuart Brown's 
Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates 
the Soul (2009). It was just what the doctor ordered and I look forward 
to sharing more about that with you.

Coming out of the initial phases of this experience-- we are looking at 
2010 as a recovery year--I am aware that I need to make some lifestyle 
changes in how I integrate work and play, passion and innovation, and 
calling and ministry as I seek to learn from and adapt to the emerging 
future. This takes me back to Scharmer's Theory U and the close circle 
of friends that includes the clergy peer group exploring how we apply 
Theory U in practical application. The question that we are asking 
ourselves is how do we implement real, sustained, and meaningful change? 
This is the journey I am on and I look forward to reporting on what I find.


Cheers,
Chris
 

/_________________________________________
A. Christopher Hammon, D.Min.
Director of Online Learning and Publication//
Wayne E. Oates Institute
Integrating Spirituality, Ethics, and Health
http://www.oates.org/