A Magical Time in Seattle

I was in Seattle for about 24 hours, and my time there was one of the most exciting days in recent memory. When I thought things couldn't get any better, they did. 

My mom and Will and I landed on Saturday night, checked in to our sweet hotel, and headed off to a delicious dinner at the Steelhead Diner. The next morning, we grabbed a lovely French breakfast at Cafe Presse, and soon after, I was off to my acupuncture appointment.

We walked the streets of suburban Seattle, enjoying the crisp air, and came upon an unsuspecting two-story home: our destination. I was led up to a room on the second floor, stripped down to undies and crawled under the covers of the acupuncture table, and waited. Mary Ellen had explained how this appointment would work -- the queen of five-element acupuncture, Judy Worsley, would enter the room (followed by a bevy of acupuncturists watching and learning from the queen), chit chat with me for a while, determine my treatment for the day as well as follow up treatments, observe Mary Ellen as she administered the treatment, and give her thoughts on how it went, etc. Sounds simple enough, and pretty fun. 

It was INCREDIBLE.

First off, Judy is awesome. She was super cool, incredibly warm and comforting, and clearly brilliant. We bonded pretty much immediately, as I told her all about my diagnosis, treatment, my personal attitude, my moves on the basketball court, and pretty much everything else. The other acupuncturists (I call them ducklings) laughed at all my jokes and seemed a little blown away by my positive attitude. Mary Ellen was there too, smiling with encouragement. I realized at that moment, though she and I have only known each other for a few weeks, we'd bonded over those weeks. As I held Judy's hand and talked with her, I could tell that Mary Ellen was proud of me, like I'm her little star. It made me feel great.

After about 30 minutes, Judy was ready to huddle with Mary Ellen and the ducklings, so they all left for a downstairs room while I continued to relax and wait for my treatment. About 15 minutes later, Judy and the group came back. What the heck? I was sure that only Mary Ellen and Judy and maybe one duckling, at the most, would be coming back -- but there they all were again. Judy apologized and said they had a couple more questions. She said that she knew the answers to their questions, but preferred that they hear from me directly.

They asked me what my feelings were about death. Particularly, would my attitude be the same if I knew that I'd lose this battle?

I stopped for a second. I wanted to be thoughtful about this and really check my gut before I answered. I checked it, and I answered. My attitude would be the same.

Of course my attitude would be the same. When you're a competitor, you compete. You fight and you exhibit a fighting spirit throughout the entire battle. Even if I had a handwritten note from God herself saying, "WunderGlo, this is gonna be it for you. Sorry about that," my attitude wouldn't change one bit. You fight for your life, and you believe in yourself, and you're positive and confident and that's the end of it. I'm a sore loser, but only when the fight isn't fair. But I've got the best attitude, a strong body, an even stronger will to live, and the best people caring from me including my doctors, Mary Ellen, my parents and Will, my family, and my friends. So yeah, no attitude change.

I could tell that a couple of them were actually, legitimately blown away. Judy smiled and touched my cheek. "I knew that already," she said. She looked over at two of the ducklings, who were immediately embarrassed, and asked, "Now, do you have any more questions for her?" They shook their heads. And then they all left again.

Soon after, Mary Ellen came back with a smile. "As always, you were the star," she noted as she entered the room. Yay! 

Treatment went great. There were a few new spots where I got some needle action, and I felt invigorated and relaxed during the entire process. Judy came in to check my pulses when it was all over, but before she did, she took my hand and looked me in the eye. "You know something," she started, "I believe you. I believe in you 100%. I can't make any promises about what is going to happen with you, but I believe that you're going to be absolutely fine. I believe you." 

I smiled, but I'm sure my smile didn't actually convey how happy her affirmation made me. It was great to have a vote of confidence from this passionate, incredibly cool lady whom I loved immediately. Then things got better. Judy took my pulses. This consists of the same physical process of taking one's normal pulse, but taking the pulse from 12 different spots (6 on each wrist) which correlates with 12 different meridians in the body. I haven't started speaking fluent five-element acupunture-ese yet, but I'm learning.  

Mary Ellen is always pretty excited at the end of my treatments when she takes my pulses, seemingly because my body has reacted quite well to the treatments, but Judy seemed really amazed. As she took them, I could tell she was impressed by my body's reaction to the treatments, and when she finished, she told me, "I really do believe you're going to be fine, especially if you continue to respond to treatment like this. This is amazing." 

Soon after, I said goodbye to Judy and Mary Ellen, got my clothes back on, and hit the streets with my Mom and Will, feeling like I was walking on clouds but actually pounding the pavement to a nearby bar where the Duke-Princeton game was being aired. Yes, I was in Seattle and I just had a stellar acupuncture session, but I'm not going to forget about my Blue Devils. Priorities, people.

This is also where things got better.

We picked this particular bar, Buckley's, because Will had done a little research and found that Dukies would be gathering there for the game. There was one Dukie there, a '71 grad named Buzz, but he was all we needed. 

This guy was super, super cool. A fellow Blue Devil, a fellow lawyer, and a really interesting guy. During halftime, we talked about the team, why I was in Seattle (that's when I let the cat out of the bag about the cancer), my blog (of which he already knew because of the link that the Duke fan sites posted to my Duke Basketball-related post), practicing law, the tech world (he runs a company called ActiveWords), and Duke's recruits for next season (we Duke fans are always looking toward the future). Mid-way through our conversation, Buzz dropped the bomb. The best bomb ever.

"So what are you guys doing for Thanksgiving weekend?"

Buzz and his friend scored four front-row tickets to the Duke/Oregon game, scheduled for the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Portland, and he offered me and Will his two extra tickets. I tried to keep my cool as I accepted immediately, but I was flipping out. As if having an incredible acupuncture session in a beautiful city with delicious food wasn't enough, I was going to see my beloved Blue Devils from the front row in a week's time!!

The game was beautiful -- Duke won by 37 points -- and Buzz's offer was even more beautiful. Things are just coming together brilliantly for this future cancer survivor.

After the game, we strolled through the famous Pike Place Market, where I purchased a small Tupac painting (the artist could not believe I was buying it for myself at first, but soon understood my love for the rapper was real), saw massive fresh fish, and was awed by the gorgeous flowers and fresh fruits that lined the market stalls. We grabbed some delectable dinner at Wild Ginger, took a brief rest at the hotel, and jumped on the light rail to the airport. 

The trip could not have been better. It's still soaking in. That's a lot of awesome to pack into 24 hours, don't you think?  

Seattle rocks. And so do my new pals, Judy and Buzz.