I wrote this this morning and wanted to share with those of you interested in my last blog as well as those who have supported me so beautifully through this journey. My gratitude is deep and wide. I hope that you'll stay with me on this new chapter. As always, please feel free to be generous with comments, critique, suggestions. Also, please share with your networks my message of destigmatization of mental health issues, trauma, and certain health issues (e.g.HIV).
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| Summer 2010 |
I’m also a 2-time cancer survivor. I think that the “athlete profile” written in the October 2014 Momentum Magazine for the Des Moines Marathon packets, tells my “cancer story” the most succinctly:
“At 41, Holly was in the best shape of her life. She was running 20 miles a week, doing yoga and kickboxing. She had a fully marathon under her belt. And then, in 2010, she learned she had non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Her first thought was of her sons, then 3 and 6. Her second thought: “After realizing that I probably wasn’t going to die, but that I had a hell of a fight ahead of me, I said, ‘$^%&^’, now I’m going to have to run another full marathon’ because I knew about Team in Training,” which raises money for blood cancer research. Six months of treatment sent Holly’s cancer into remission, but in [August] 2011 she got a new diagnosis: early stage breast cancer. Still, she ran a marathon with Team in Training in November of that year. “I didn’t go inside myself,” Holly says. “I fought off depression and anxiety through fitness (specifically running), and most importantly, I didn’t quit.” Her goal now is to run a full, half or tri in all 50 states, and she’s 12 states in. [now 13] “ I think what I would say to anybody facing ANY challenge, including cancer, is to face it head-on,” she says. “Be honest about your hopes and fears…Life is so beautiful, yet fragile and temporary. Be present for it.”
While I was getting my masters in Colorado, the Columbine High School shootings occurred (April 20,1999). I was working as a graduate assistant in the program’s campus counseling center at the time. My supervisor there left to direct the agency that was created to assist in healing of the Columbine High School community in Littleton, Colorado (Columbine Connections). She recruited me to assist. Thus, began two of the most amazing years of my life. My boss ensured that we were all trained in the most up-to-date trauma therapies as well as ensured there were ample opportunities for self-care in the face of being helpers in a traumatized community.
When the grant for the agency was drawing to a close a couple of years later, I needed to start looking for other work. I ended up coming back to Iowa in 2001 to manage the federally funded Ryan White Part B program (a program that provides medications and support services for low-income people living with HIV) for the state health department. I have been there ever since. When I first started almost fourteen years ago, it was blatantly clear to me the direct correlation between trauma and the acquisition of HIV as well as the ability for those living with HIV to adhere to their medication (an extremely critical component of remaining healthy as well as eliminating the transmission risk). At that time, I didn’t have the support or the wherewithal to get traction on this concept.
Fast forward 14 years. Today there is a lot more evidence, specifically the 2012 analysis and subsequent report of Iowa Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) study, about the direct correlation between trauma and the susceptibility to disease and infection, as well as health outcomes. This includes cancer.
Read a summary of ACE’s here:
As a result of a few public speaking opportunities surrounding the 2014 Des Moines Marathon and also attending the Above and Beyond Cancer’s (ABC) An Evening of Inspiration, I have finally determined and articulated how I should be using my voice and the generous gift of survival.
Briefly, it is to work toward a greater public awareness, and associated policies and programming, to acknowledge and address the stigmatizing effects surrounding mental illness and trauma. Inherently associated with these concepts are social determinants of health, but I believe it goes deeper-it’s more of a root cause.
My recent blog entry goes into this a little deeper. You can find it here:
Recently at the state health department, I have formed a group of managers from HIV, childhood health, cancer, tobacco, domestic violence, obesity, minority health, substance abuse and mental health to coordinate a response to recent studies confirming the relationship between trauma and physical health. It’s probably the most exciting thing I’ve done in my entire life-combining almost all of my past professional and personal experiences into one vision and mission. From my understanding, my vision and mission for my life work beautifully aligns with ABC’s vision and mission. As such, I feel that I would greatly benefit from being a part of ABC’s organization and that ABC would likewise benefit from my participation.
I hope that you’ll consider my application and choose to have me participate in your 2015 excursion…
…and Beyond.
Holly, I was directed to your blog through a mutual friend, Corey L. As I read your words all I kept thinking was, such a big life! Such a big life! I recently watched a TED talk about the very same topic, How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime. Sometimes it feels that although things may look pretty bleak in this world on the surface, that some of the long lost puzzle pieces are beginning to become clear, even in the midst of the bleakness, maybe because of the bleakness. Wishing you success in everything you do! Karen
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