Strength and Healing

May 1, 2024 — It’s a bittersweet part of this community: At least once a week, a caring Cardie will email us to say essentially what Nancy McGinn did recently. “I’ve just sent another of your cards to a friend diagnosed with breast cancer. I think it’s going to be a long, hard journey, so I want to thank you for always giving me a way to say the right thing.”

That’s the challenge, isn’t it? To know that right thing to say, especially when the occasion is so daunting. Inside the new pussy willows design reads, “With you all the way.” Today, that card is going out to one of our own: Cardie Madeline Stockbridge on Monday shared, “Not good news. Will be scheduling two surgeries: One to explore and the other to remove.” 😔

We’d describe Madeline as the kindest, most wise, witty, and positive person imaginable. You can see for yourself in our Cardie Newsletters — when you click on Leave a Message, Mad often graciously shares her thoughts and feelings with the community there. Beyond her engagement meaning so much to us, she expresses herself so eloquently that we now just file her Comments away for the future; otherwise, no other Cardie would have a chance to be featured in our Great Cardie Quote of the Week as we could run MadMessages each and every Friday!

Since 2020, when we began offering our Cardie Yoga class with the amazing Paola Villegas free to any community member who wants to join us via zoom, Madeline has been the first to arrive and welcome the rest of us with a cheery, “Greetings from Wisconsin!” It was in September of ‘21 that she first mentioned her health challenges. “Last week I had my annual checkup at the Mayo Clinic to make sure colon cancer hasn’t reared its ugly head again. The day before my appointment, my anxiety was off the charts, but then I came to our class with Paola and felt so calm afterwards. My tests came out clear and I write you with an incredibly grateful heart!”

When we responded with shock — as well as admiration for her candor — Madeline explained that, “I share my medical journey so openly because I want people to be educated about genetic links and advocate for their health.” Then she boldly and bravely told her cautionary tale.

“In 1984, I lost my 35-year-old brother to colon cancer,” she said, “the same disease that had taken our mother five years before. My brother made me promise, ‘Please get checked frequently. This isn’t a coincidence.’ After my brother passed, I took all my genetic link paperwork to a urologist who looked through it, then at me, and said, ‘You’ll never get bladder cancer; you don’t smoke.’ When I explained the family history, he insisted, ‘You’re perfectly healthy. And if you’re just going to worry about getting cancer, I can’t help you.’”

Yikes. “I left feeling like a hypochondriac,” Madeline said, “and I didn’t go back. But heeding my brother’s warnings about the genetic link saved my life. At 40, I had my first colonoscopy and, right away, precancerous polyps were found,” she recounts. “That was in 1991 and it was not until 2014 that the bladder and ureter cancers started. I can still hear the gastroenterologist saying, ‘It’s cancer, and it’s likely that your entire colon will need to be removed.’”

Part of every year in the decade since, the amazing Madeline has been hospitalized for either more cancer surgery or treatments. Every year. And yet you can read into her every word the positive and joyful way she lives, wholeheartedly supported by the love of her life, husband Bill. She now knows that — when she cannot make it to yoga — we’ll set our intention as, “Strength and healing energy for Madeline.”

Two weeks ago, she reported, “Well, not such great news. Tumor in my bladder and surgery next Tuesday. Even my dr. was bummed. But that’s why they check me so often!” Later that week, “Surgery went well but was more extensive than expected. I now have a catheter and already had an accident with it; I’m sure we’ll laugh about it in the future, but not today. Thanks for positive energy. Keep it coming!”