An Evening With the Girls

I got together with a couple of girls from work this evening and had Dinner at the Olive Garden in Plano.  One of the girls, whose name is Phyllis, has been out of work for a year now due to illness and I haven't seen or talked with her since I last saw her at work a year ago. It was very nice to see her and hear how she's doing. It turns out that she has Neuro-sarcoidosis.  With this disease, abnormal deposits of white blood cells and abnormal tissue cells accumulate in the brain, spinal cord, or peripheral nerves, and these areas can become inflamed. Phyllis' vision has been affected by the disease and her doctor is treating her with corticosteroids, which suppress the immune system and reduce swelling.

The corticosteroids have caused her to swell in her face and stomach. She also cannot return to work due to the fact that her immune system and been suppressed.  With her vision problems she has difficulty driving, especially at night. This must be so difficult for her as she is a single mother of a 13 year old girl.  Her daughter came with her to Dinner and is a very nice young lady!

It was nice to catch up on what is going on at work as I've been our since December 3rd due to my surgery.  Apparently not much went on because work was shut down from December 24 - January 2nd for the holidays.  I go back to work on January 8th.  One of the girls said that a female manager received a layoff, which made me feel bad because she's a nice lady.  She's 67 years old though and was able to retire so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Here is a picture of all of us at dinner tonight:

Jana, Phyllis, Sandy, Judy and Mae at the Olive Garden

I pray that Phyllis can recover from her illness or at least get it under control enough so that she can live in comfort and go back to work!  I've recently learned first-hand how fragile health can be and am very thankful that mine is returning quickly!

I also got to talk on the phone for a while today with my dear friend Tegan, which was wonderful as always!  It's very nice to have friends and spend time with them!