Spoon Theory

     I was having coffee & visiting with Johanna one day last week.  She had come to Arizona with Darrah Sikora to shop and stock up at the Tuscon Bead Show  http://www.thetucsonbeadshow.com/index.php 
Darrah owns the successful ETSY jewelry company called Otis B., and Johanna works for her.
 http://www.etsy.com/shop/BriguysGirls  

    Since she was this far West, Johanna thought she might as well continue on to California and visit with all of her family and friends while she could.  She asked me about Mom, and how I was doing...and in my struggle to help her understand what my day involved, she smiled and told me to look up  this website. 
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/wpress/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/ 
   It would help me personally, she said, and would help me to explain the day-to-day life to someone who doesn't deal with (or is) a patient with a terminal or debilitating disease on a daily basis. The article was written by a woman suffering from Lupus, and her own struggle to define her need to make the sometimes selfish-looking hard decisions. Actually I found it very enlightening, even quite validating and relieving.   I shared it with Mom, and we talked about it, her good days and her bad days, and that sometimes when she's feeling good she overdoes it.  Then she, predictably, has a couple of bad days.  It's too high a price. 

Now we have a code:  "Can I have a spoon?"