How has the Corona Virus impacted you and your business?

What action steps CAN you take or have you taken during this time?

I’ll share some important action steps to keep PRO-ACTIVE and keep your business moving in the upward direction in such a time as this, but first, if you’ll allow me to share something a bit personal.

The Corona Virus Takes Me Back to 1988…

Six year old April sat on the hospital bed in 1988.

“We need to run more tests, but it may be leukemia,” they said.

After they left, I looked at my mom and asked, “Am I going to die?”

I did not ask because I was afraid.

I was not afraid.

I was ready to meet my Maker and see my Savior.

I only wanted to know.

I’m grateful my mom didn’t sugar coat it.

“We don’t know.”

I don’t know exactly what happened after that exact moment, but as a mom now, I can only imagine the pain that question must have brought to my mom, but she didn’t show it. She just continued to love me. We probably went back to playing a card game, which would become a favorite pastime of ours for the many future visits to get several IV bags full of medicine.

One of the tests that would come would have to be without my mom in the room. They would stick (what appeared to my 6 year old mind as) a foot long needle into my hip, pierce the bone, and scoop out some marrow for testing. I do remember that one.

What prompted the initial doctor-visit-turned-hospital-stay, is that I had a bruise, my mom tells me, that covered the front of my abdomen from side to side. I vaguely recall the bruise.

My mom told me the doctors had to rule out child abuse and I was separated from them for a few hours until that was obviously not the case. I don’t recall this either – maybe that’s when they did the fun bone marrow sampling. 🙂

As it turned out, I did not have leukemia, I had an auto-immune disease called ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura) brought on by my MMR booster shot. Basically, with ITP, my antibodies find and mis-identify my platelets as “foreign” and remove them, killing them off.

Platelets are what clot your blot, so you don’t bleed out and die from a cut or have internal bleeding from a fall or bump.

With a CBC test (Complete Blood Count), doctors found that I had 14,000 platelets. On average, a person should have 250,000 – 500,000 in a CBC test.

At 10,000 a person can no longer live. That was close!

Over the next 5 years, I would have many CBC tests (my arms resembled a pin cushion) a half hour from the farm only to discover my platelets were low and off mom and I would go.

Thank you, Mom!

Thank you, Dad, for working so hard and doing your work and mom’s when we had to leave! And thank you for providing for us to be able to go! And thank you for getting a second job driving bus so we could have health insurance!

We’d travel another hour and fifteen minutes to Marshfield Mayo Clinic to receive hours of IV medicine, including hemoglobin and gamma globulin. Then back home and to another blood test soon after. I still have scares from some of the IVs on my hands.

Growing up in a small town of 556 at the time, has its advantages. Amazingly, I was never picked on for needing to wear a helmet at gym and on the playground. I had great friends.

I also had an aid with me throughout the rest of Kindergarten to make sure I was not bumped or cut. She was my Sunday School Teacher, Mrs. Buzze. She was great!

I had a wonderful doctor – Dr. Silberman at the Marshfield Mayo Clinic. She was an older lady, heavy accent, and Jewish. I liked her a lot. She was straight forward, but cared.

At one of my visits with her, at 11 years old, a new procedure was discussed.

“It may be possible to remove the spleen and not give the platelets a place to be filtered out.”

No more doctor visits, CBC tests, IV’s, helmet wearing at gym and on the playground?

Sign me up!

I had the splenectomy in 5th grade and had something like a month off of school. Don’t worry, there was much homework sent home and I kept up on it! My spleen was the size of a nerf football. Spleens should be the size of the persons fist. I was above average. 🙂

I can still remember taking a shower in the basement with my side wrapped very well by my mom. (Thanks, Mom!) Looking like a mummy at my middle, I was still afraid water would get in and infect the incision.

I had two clips put in where the spleen organ ends were. I can still feel them from time to time and I get nauseated just feeling them…yuck!

The actual incision was only 4-5 inches, but is now a good 9-10 inches. Growth and having a baby stretch out your stomach will do that. Well worth it! 🙂

What now?

Well, my crazy antibodies are still doing their thing – marking my platelets as foreign to remove them, but even crazier, without a spleen, they are not being filtered out and killed off, so I have a somewhat normal platelet count (approximately 120,000 usually).

Without a spleen, I have a lower immune system. If someone sneezes, I’ll be sick for a week, if I don’t take care. Flu shot? Sick for 2 weeks, miserable.

After I married Steve, I moved down to Florida and found a new doctor, but he was not as familiar with ITP.

I allowed myself to be scared into his belief that what will take me out is Pneumonia. I got the Pneumonia vaccine.

Guess what I got? Pneumonia. Sick for weeks. Live and learn. 🙂

The bottom line is that I am sick often, don’t have a ton of energy naturally, and catch most anything that is going around.

I have to work really hard to stay healthy. Running, taking Apple Cider Vinegar in every glass of water, take oil of oregano upon feeling the slightest bit ill, put Sovereign Silver drops in my eyes daily, and downing 6-10 capsules of Amazon Rainforest sourced vitamins a day. I drink 20 ounces of water immediately upon waking and swallow my first 6 capsules.

Coffee has been a big help. I didn’t drink it regularly until after giving birth to Samuel.

I did research when I was in college to see if I’d ever be able to have a baby. Many ITP patients have, successfully.

So, we had Samuel in 2010 – a miracle baby in my opinion. He had low platelets and was in the NICU for 12 days and had to have many IVs, spinal tap, CBC, and other tests until they said,

“We won’t know if he has ITP himself or if this is just your antibodies crossed over to him. The lifecycle of antibodies is 4-6 months. If they are yours, in 4-6 months his platelet count will rise and stay there. If he has ITP, he will continue to have low platelets.”

We waited, cried, prayed. I remember sitting in the NICU and I gave Samuel back to the Lord. I said, “He is a gift to us for as long as you give him to us, but I’m not holding on, I give him back to You. (As if by holding on I could somehow keep Samuel here? Not how it works.) Your will be done.”

Ultimately, Samuel did not have ITP, praise the LORD! We were told that all my pregnancies would be high risk. We decided to not have any more children.

I had wanted six. I grew up with  2 siblings, so if 3 is fun, doubling that would be even more fun! Don’t you love my logic? 🙂 This just proves to me again, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21)

This is one of two times I came close to death.

I don’t tell you this for anyone to feel sorry for me – I am SO THANKFUL for having this as my life. I’m SO GRATEFUL for the struggles and having had ITP.

How many of us can say they faced death at age 6? I am extremely blessed.

WHY AM I SHARING THIS WITH YOU?

It has shaped my outlook on every situation since. Am I ready to die today? Yes! Am I going do die today? Probably not!

Then let’s get moving and LIVE! Let’s help others! What CAN I do today? How CAN I get stronger? How CAN I help others? Let’s DO THIS thing called LIFE!

If I wake up not feeling well, oh my poor husband. Take some coffee, have my quiet time, keep moving forward and usually I will feel better soon. There have been many days when I feel light headed and weak in the shower. “I’m weak, but not out, so keep moving forward, April!”

There used to be many days (2013-2015) that I would feel nauseated just eating breakfast and praying, “Please don’t let me throw up. One more bite.”

Again, I do not tell you this to feel sorry for me, please. I am SO THANKFUL and SO GRATEFUL.

There are so many people much worse off than me. I often think about those women sold into slavery or those who were taken to Auschwitz, or those tortured for their faith in Jesus Christ, just in the last decade. I think about my friend who is in need of a kidney, but she works so very hard, even now. I am very blessed, indeed.

I don’t know your situation. I may know a little about some of your situations, but no one but God sees all that you have going on.

But I do know this.

The Corona Virus does not scare me. Don’t let it scare you into in-action.

Be smart, be safe, obey the law, be ACTIVE —what CAN we do to be productive right now?

Work slowing down or taking 2 weeks off doesn’t scare me.

Be smart, be safe, obey the law, be ACTIVE —what CAN we do to be productive right now?

Above all, let’s be grateful for this trial.

Whaaat? Grateful?

Yes. We are so very blessed in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, and other developed countries than many other countries.

After all, what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger—if we allow it.

“Never criticize, condemn, or complain,” said Dale Carnegie (thank you!).

I’m working on it, Dale.

Let’s do this!

Okay, so HOW we are going to do this?

How do we take action? What are we actually going to do with this time we’ve been given?

That is a topic we are discussing daily in the DYB Community for DYB Members. (Not a member? Join DYB here.)

Here are some bullet points:

• How to do virtual estimates
• What to put into a helpful email to send to all clients
• How to address current clients with new operation changes
• How to stay positive
• How to lead our team at such a time

Take this time to learn, reach out to others, encourage someone else.

WATCH

If you haven’t watched the Michael Hyatt Webinar about confidence in crisis, it’s well worth the time. https://michaelhyatt.com/3-actions-to-lead-through-todays-crisis/

If you haven’t watched Darren Hardy’s video about Leadership through the Corona Virus, it is shorter and excellent also. https://youtu.be/xVd9VFT88sE

READ

If you haven’t read Steve’s DYB Book, get your free copy here, just pay $6.95 S&H. After all, Steve created the DYB System in the recession of 2008. It was forged in the fire! You can grow in challenging times.

Need some encouragement? Read this Facebook post about the 2 Options the Corona Virus Gives Us and this post about how the DYB System was created – forged in the fire!

IMPLEMENT

Have time to implement? Here are FREE tutorials and templates  you can implement immediately: 3 Step Strategy to Get Leads on Facebook, Add an Online Booking Calendar to Your Website, Learn How to Prequalify Customers, Learn How to Find Your Target Market, Use Zoom to Capture Virtual Video Testimonials From Past Clients

LISTEN

Have time to listen? Listen to the DYB Podcast Episodes 1 and 2 and review the foundations of the DYB System.

REACH OUT

Which of your clients can you call today to ask how they are doing, listen, take a note, and share a hope.

Who is an elderly shut in that you know whom you could go grocery shopping for?

DO YOU USE BENJAMIN MOORE PAINT?

Find out what Benjamin Moore wants to offer you.

In closing, what action are you going to take during this time?

Leave your action steps in the comments below.