I haven’t talked about this with a lot of people, but I’ve managed to live long enough to have cancer, my flavor being prostate. It’s not a dire thing. I have to take androgen suppressent pills for a couple of years to knock it back and I’ve finished a course of radiation treatment. Neither has presented anything like the long list of possible side effects in all those papers the oncology center handed me, and it appears for now that surgery and/or chemo won’t be necessary.
There are a few effects, though. Some weakness and fatigue. Maybe 10 to 15 yards off my drive. The hormone situation gives me hot flashes (I know… no sympathy, right?), but on the other hand, I seem to be a little more sociable☺ The radiation course did get a little rough by the end–they seem to know just about how much your systems can take. About three weeks later, I’m feeling much better. Feeling lucky.
You begin to learn a little about luck by the 30th time you ride the Lobby K (for kryptonite?) elevators down to the basement radiation clinic at UW. It’s a big place with a lot of cases. There are very nervous new cases. Very advanced cases. Messy cases. There are many, many people whose pride and sense of privacy have never been dealt such a blow.
And most heartbreaking of all, there are children.
In the face of all this, there are the crews. The amazing technicians who manage to work through schedules that so many variables have twisted into knots, at the same time making every effort to comfort some very uncomfortable patients.
I wanted to thank them, and much more to encourage them, so I gave them a very special box of assorted handmade chocolates on my bell day. It’s all I knew how to do. I hope they enjoyed them.
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