I’m off to the hospital with my neighbor for another exciting fun-filled day of oncologists, otolaryngologists, and thoracic surgeons. I can barely contain my excitement. There are few things more uplifting than spending your day talking about tumors.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 38 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
4tehlulz
>tumors
Fukushima open thread?
cleek
on the positive side, you get to learn many big words.
roshan
Did everyone here read this?
Bruce S
Joe Stiglitz really stuck it to the sour old coot Alan Simpson and his buddy, investment banker Bowles, calling their deficit reduction scheme a “suicide pact” – good stuff. Why isn’t Stiglitz chair of the CEA? (Yeah…I know…)
http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/03/shoeless-joe-vs-deficit-hawks.html
R-Jud
I imagine having one sucks pretty bad.
stuckinred
@roshan: Don’t bother LOOKING at the damn blog before you post a dumbass question like that.
roshan
@stuckinred: Sorry, my bad.
Bruce S
I like where it looks like Ezra Klein is going today:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/two_social_security_graphs_worth_thinking_about/2011/03/28/AFyO8ZqB_blog.html?wprss=ezra-klein
Genine
John,
I’m sorry your friend is going through such a time but it’s good that you’re there for hir.
Sending positive energy to you and your friend!
RSA
My sympathies, John. I spent a lot of time in the waiting room of an out-patient cancer clinic last year (six days a week for a month or so) and wrote a blog post about some of the conversations I had. It’s a little microcosm of life.
merrinc
I hope your neighbor is going to the cancer center at the university hospital. Against my most strenuous objections, my mother went to Fairmont General and I’ve got serious doubts about her oncologist’s competency.
Cheryl from Maryland
You are such a good guy John. Best to your neighbor.
JPL
John, Your neighbor is lucky to have you go with him/her. I’m sure your wit will help.
Svensker
@JPL:
He could yell at the doctors, that always gets a laugh…
rikryah
good luck, many blessings will come you way for being support…I honestly believe that.
suzanne
I like mine. My OBGYN referred me to him because he is the “ENT to the stars”. Apparently he’s the doctor on call for musicians who are on tour here, and his office is filled with autographed photos. I have joked that I’m two degrees of separation from Bono and Eddie Vedder via the dude who sticks his fingers up our noses.
Best of luck to your friend, John. It’s a good thing you’re doing. Your reward shall be in Heaven, if it exists.
Rosalita
On the upside John it’s not you getting medical treatment this year — you’ve stayed injury free.
Seriously tho, good thoughts for your friend and to you for being there for them. It’s your friends that get you through.
Dan
It’s not a tumor.
Cacti
So, how many love bombs of humanitarianism are we dropping on Libya today?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
You’re a good guy to take your neighbor.
kindness
NPR was Fox Lite again this morning: U.S. Civil Rights Division In The Hot Seat, Again.
Here they used Han von Spakovsky, noted Civil Rights Division voter caging chief to suggest the Obama Administration is bad. The New Black Panthers case along with Texas Representative and birther Rep. John Culberson (R) to suggest the Obama Justice Department will only protect black Americans.
NPR….they are dead to me.
kindness
How come I can’t correct my entry? I click Edit and it’s telling me I don’t have permission to Edit my post even though I have 3 minutes left.
The R is for Republican, not what ever circle r means.
Failure, Inc.
test post
jcgrim
John, you are a good man. Anyone who volunteers to spend an exhausting day in doctor’s offices and hospitals talking about someone else’s tumor has a place in heaven. (Whatever heaven means)
Your friend will never forget.
moe99
As someone whose life was upended completely in Sept. 2009, with a lung cancer diagnosis, I can appreciate your help for your neighbor very much. You are a good guy. I have two friends who are good guys like you and I am unutterably grateful to them for all the trips they’ve taken with me.
Tsulagi
Been there, got the T-shirt. Suck it up. Dad had the added joys like emptying mom’s surgical drains at home, rubbing on creams in areas where skin had peeled off due to radiation, taking mom to intravenous chemo sessions at a hospital, and more.
However I assume you’re doing this for your neighbor, not you. If s/he doesn’t have family to do this, you’re earning good karma. Nice of you.
Joe Beese
@Cacti:
We’ve got a coalition, bitches! Nothing can stand in our way!
TuiMel
@R-Jud:
I can attest to that. Mastectomy three weeks ago today. Chemo starts Thursday.
Nutella
Since this is an open thread:
How about that David Weigel crying for poor, poor Andrew Brietbart, hounded from the front page of HuffPo by those awful liberals?
No mention of Brietbart publishing doctored videos except in a quote from the evil Van Jones. Just Brietbart as noble victim of a vicious left-wing conspiracy.
mazareth
Good on you John for helping out your neighbor. Friends and family were a huge part of me getting through my thyroid cancer surgery and recovery. Two years ago today I was meeting with a nuclear medicine Dr to get my big blue pill of radioactive iodine.
You’re right that “tumor” and associated words are rarely part of any kind of uplifting conversation.
I hope your neighbor pulls through whatever they have to go through in the next few months.
R-Jud
@TuiMel: Sweet Jesus, TuiMel. May your treatment be successful, your recovery swift, and your bills much smaller than expected.
fraught
Must remember if I ever get cancer: go for treatment alone.
No matter how kind anyone who might go with you seems to be on the outside, he’s grumbling ans miserable on the inside.
Even though it’s not his CANCER.
eemom
@fraught:
yeah, I was kind of wondering about that. Hope his neighbor doesn’t read the blog.
sukabi
@Svensker: he could treat them to one of his epic “Fuck you all” rants… that would shake things up a bit…
McMullje
You are pretty nice for such a tough guy!!!! Best to your neighbor.
And Another Thing...
@fraught: Sorry to disagree, but any kind of medical treatment that is at all serious (ie. worse than an uncomplicated broken leg) should not be done alone. It’s very stressful for the victim/patient, and most people won’t hear/process/remember what the doc/technician says. There really can be a physiological reason for this. People/family members who partner are truly guardian angels. It’s not unusual for the partner to have prevented a medical error. Medicine is dangerous territory – travel in pairs.
John once again demonstrates that he really is a softie.
John Cole
@fraught: I wasn’t complaining, just stating the fact that talking about tumors is depressing.
Violet
@fraught:
I think it’s gallows humor. John is a really good guy for helping his neighbor. Good for you, John. Your neighbor is lucky to have you.