Blood work this morning: wbc is at 2.09, below normal (as expected at this point), but the good news is that everything else is more or less within normal range. I should wash my hands a lot and avoid people who are sick, but can otherwise do whatever I want. Yay!
So I stopped off to buy an energy bar on my way to the Y. I had to wait to pay until the clerk had finished a long conversation with the person ahead of me. Okay, I thought. I have plenty of time, and it's a nice day.
The clerk looked at me. "You look like someone who'd be interested in hearing this," he said. "I have colon cancer."
"Gee, that's too bad," I said. He must have noticed my scarf. " Mine is pancreatic."
He did a double take. I guess he hadn't noticed it after all. "Gee, that's too bad," he said. "I've had two colonoscopies, and they took out two tumors. The other was just pre-cancerous." He went on to tell me all the details, sizes, exact locations, how much it had hurt, and what the doctor had told him. After a while I thought, You know, this is more information than I really need from a total stranger.
He went on, "And then he asked me if I was gay. Why would he do that?"
"I haven't the faintest idea," I mean aside from the fact that your gestures are straight out of the first Cage aux Folles.
"I know I told him about the rectal bleeding -- " This is definitely too much information. -- "but it's not as though my friend and I ever do anything." I didn't need to know that , either.
I managed to move the conversation over to treatment options. He isn't getting chemo or radiation, but he still doesn't feel well. You know, bloating? No, please, don't tell me about your bloating. He told me about his bloating.
Finally I was able to pay for the energy bar. At the last moment, he pulled his thoughts away from his own situation and said, "You know, I'll be praying for you."
It struck me that those of us with cancer form a kind of community. Sometimes it's a weird one, but it's there.
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4 comments:
Since this poor guy (gay) was in shock, he isn't bound by normal rules of etiquette. When I consider the concept of A praying for B, it sometimes occurs to me that, if you want someone to pray for you, what you really need is someone with a great store of holiness, not just some dude you meet in the store. But I don't know about this because one never can tell which prayers will be answered. Still, it would seem much more reassuring to have Desmond Tutu and Mohatma Ghandi praying for you, instead of Bachiagalup the fruit stand man.
A-muse says, This is the funniest thing Blue Spruce has ever written.
Uh, Lucie---what about the metaphor of the energy bar----heh-you really NEEDED one for that episode.Anyway, glad to read about your blood results. Keep a-goin'
My,my,my,what this guy lacks in social graces he more than makes up with in down right charm!
I am glad you are a spunky woman Lucie, I would love to have seen your face during this in counter. You are so in control that he probably had no idea how insensitive he was!
We are no Desmond Tutu but we are praying for you too!
Here I am catching up after a few days away from electricity and internet and such. Lucie my Dear you are on such a rollercoaster, aren't you? But the highs and the lows seem to be predictable in every sense (frequency and amplitude0 and you manage to knit through the lows even (god you make me laugh so much - you are a a very funny writer). I'm glad you are currently bouncing back with the wbc. and if it helps, I am the Goddess of the Seas (which I'm pretty sure i've told you before) and I've been praying for the cancer in you to leave. So there. Be gone already, y'hear?
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