Post Number Twenty

Chemotherapy: Session One

Sitting in the oncology center as Terry begins her chemotherapy I am wondering how it can be that people working here and people here for treatment can be in such good spirit.  A young woman just came in to talk to a nurse.  Obviously she is well known here.  The staff greeted her by her first name.  She talked as if this was just another stop in a pleasantly busy day.  She joked about the weather and about the holiday and then she mentioned casually that she had just had a scan of some kind and that cancerous spots were discovered on her spine.  She mentioned it with the same kind of tone she might use to inform someone that she had just decided on a new hair style.  In this place the heaviest of medical issues are spoken of as casual routine.  People joke about the flavor they prefer for the poison they are about to receive.

Some may call this denial, but I am wondering if it is really a spiritual comfort with reality - a comfort I have yet to achieve.  "It is what it is."  I hear that phrase over and over again.  These are very brave people.

Dave Gladstone