posted
The first close friendship I ever had began when I was fifteen years old. Chuck and I went through high school and college together, we double-dated together (and got rejected together); we were confidants and counselors and chums through every important event of life.
Several years ago Chuck called to tell me he had cancer. The initial prognosis was very good, although he did have to undergo difficult treatment. In typical fashion Chuck shaved his head before the chemotherapy began, covered it with glue, sprinkled it with gold glitter, and walked around the house in his underwear, calling himself "Chemo-Man."
Chuck and I lived more than two thousand miles apart at this time, but we talked every Saturday morning during the time he was undergoing treatment. The chemotherapy destroyed his appetite; he was unable to keep food down; he became so gaunt and emaciated that he was almost unrecognizable even to his children. At one point an infection set in, and his condition was briefly touch-and-go because the chemotherapy had so weakened his immune system. But Chuck pulled through, and eventually he completed treatment. Chemo-Man had prevailed.
A month later, Chuck had his first posttreatment checkup. He called me that night: The cancer was back, the doctor told him, at levels as high as they had been before treatment. Being a doctor himself, he knew that the return of the cancer this strongly, this quickly, meant that he was going to die. It was a death sentence.
I was numb. When I went to bed that night, I couldn't even pray. "It's some mistake," I protested. "They'll find out it's okay." I marveled at how quickly denial sets in.
At 6:30 the next morning, Chuck called again. "You won't believe this," he said. Someone in the lab had mistakenly switched his results with those of another patient, who had not yet even been through treatment. It turned out that Chuck's cancer was gone and has not reappeared, these many years later.
"I'm going to live, " my friend said. "I'm going to see my kids grow up. I'm going to grow old with my wife. I'm going to live." For a few, moments we just wept on the phone like a couple of characters out of a Hallmark commercial. Chuck told me he was filled with a gratitude he had never known. He couldn't stop touching his kids or hugging his wife. Things that had bothered him before faded into utter insignificance. He was going to live -- and suddenly he did not just know intellectually but actually experienced the truth that life is a gift. We don't earn it, can't control it, can't take a moment of it for granted. Every tick of the clock is a gift from God. Every day is a Dee Dah Day.
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
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Forgotten Fay
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
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Now children, can we say, "LAWSUIT?!" Good!
Meh... tired of the glurgy gooyness or glurge.
-------------------- "Smile for me when I cannot Smile anymore..." ~ Myself Posts: 174 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Jun 2006
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I don't know - the story isn't glurge is the traditional sense because its missing all the glurge icons: puppies, Jesus, etc. It's not to my taste, but that's because in addition to the depressing "you could die at any time..." message that accompanies "...so enjoy life while you can," there's also the thought that for many people, the death-sentence test results aren't wrong.
-------------------- Fools! You've over-estimated me! Posts: 3745 | From: New York City | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote: At 6:30 the next morning, Chuck called again. "You won't believe this," he said. Someone in the lab had mistakenly switched his results with those of another patient, who had not yet even been through treatment. It turned out that Chuck's cancer was gone and has not reappeared, these many years later.
Yeah, that's great and all, but...I can't help but picture some poor sap think his cancer had gone away by itself, cancelling treatment, and then dying.
-------------------- I like to go down to the playground and watch the kids run and jump and scream, because they don't know I'm only using blanks. Posts: 942 | From: Illinois | Registered: Jan 2004
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Do you have any wine? All of this would go a lot smoother in an altered state of reality. Posts: 779 | From: Southampton, England | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:In typical fashion Chuck shaved his head before the chemotherapy began, covered it with glue, sprinkled it with gold glitter, and walked around the house in his underwear, calling himself "Chemo-Man."
I think Chuch has problems beyond cancer.
Wtf is a deedah day?
-------------------- Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't. Posts: 285 | From: Woodbridge, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
So, all we need to do to get people to appreciate life and what they have is tell them that they're going to die, then say "Just kidding!" the next day.
It'd make everyone so much happier.
Posts: 225 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by snopes: Chuck told me he was filled with a gratitude he had never known. He couldn't stop touching his kids or hugging his wife.
Shouldn't that be the other way round, or do I have a dirty mind?
-------------------- Nico Sasha In between my father's fields;And the citadels of the rule; Lies a no-man's land which I must cross; To find my stolen jewel. Posts: 4912 | From: VA | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by snopes: Chuck told me he was filled with a gratitude he had never known. He couldn't stop touching his kids or hugging his wife.
Shouldn't that be the other way round, or do I have a dirty mind?
Yes.
-------------------- Stupid, stupid rat creatures! - Bone "The missionaries told us not to cut ourselves. It displeases Jesus." - Elsie Clews Parsons, Kiowa Tales, quoted in The Mourner's Dance, Katherine Ashenburg Posts: 695 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:The first close friendship I ever had began when I was fifteen years old. Chuck and I went through high school and college together, we double-dated together (and got rejected together); we were confidants and counselors and chums through every important event of life.
Aw, come on, isn't anyone going to pick apart this opening? Fine, I'll do it.
1) You never had a close friendship until you were fifteen? What were you, the boy in the bubble? 2) You saw each other through every important event of life. Except you didn't meet until you were a decade and a half into it. What, nothing before that was important? 3) You double-dated AND got rejected...together? Is anyone else reading homoerotic undertones into this, or do I also have a dirty mind?
Sorry if that was immature.
-------------------- "If God wrote it, the grammar must be infallible. Perhaps it is we who are mistaken." -MapleLeaf Posts: 977 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Oct 2005
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At 6:30 the next morning, Chuck called again from his cell phone as he left the hospital. "You won't believe this," he said. Someone in the lab had mistakenly switched his results with those of another patient, who had not yet even been through treatment. It turned out that Chuck's cancer was gone and has not reappeared, these many years later.
"I'm going to live, " my friend said. "I'm going to see my kids grow up. I'm going to grow old with my wife. I'm goi......." That's when I heard the loud horn in the phone. For a few, moments I just listened to the screeching of tires and crashing of metal on the phone like a character out of a Warner Brother's Cartoon. And that was it, Chuck had been hit and killed by the number 7 bus from downtown. Every tick of the clock is a gift from God. And God is a cruel, cruel master. Every day is a Dee Dah Day, if you're not Chuck that is.
-------------------- On the crusade to eliminate Moral Asshattery wherever it exists Member: AAMAH Posts: 2940 | From: Michigan | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Open Mike Night: At 6:30 the next morning, Chuck called again from his cell phone as he left the hospital. "You won't believe this," he said. Someone in the lab had mistakenly switched his results with those of another patient, who had not yet even been through treatment. It turned out that Chuck's cancer was gone and has not reappeared, these many years later.
"I'm going to live, " my friend said. "I'm going to see my kids grow up. I'm going to grow old with my wife. I'm goi......." That's when I heard the loud horn in the phone. For a few, moments I just listened to the screeching of tires and crashing of metal on the phone like a character out of a Warner Brother's Cartoon. And that was it, Chuck had been hit and killed by the number 7 bus from downtown. Every tick of the clock is a gift from God. And God is a cruel, cruel master. Every day is a Dee Dah Day, if you're not Chuck that is.
Crap! That's just what I was going to post.
-------------------- "No matter what kind of a twisted sexual mutant you happen to be, you've got millions of pals out there. Type in 'Find people that have sex with goats that are on fire' and the computer will say, 'Specify type of goat.'" Posts: 1112 | From: Ohio | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
At 10:00 one morning, John Smith called his wife. "You won't believe this," he bubbled. "Even though I haven't begun any treatments yet, the lab says my cancer is completely gone!"
"Do you know what this means? We won't have to go bankrupt paying $300,000 for the medical costs our HMO won't cover. I won't have to be enfeebled and sickened by months of chemotherapy and radiation treatement. And I'm not going to die!"
"I'm going to see our kids grow up. I'm going to grow old with you, honey. I'm going to live!"
For a few moments the couple wept on the phone like a couple of characters out of a Hallmark commercial. John returned to work, but when he returned home that evening he felt oddly drained and tired. Over the next few months, John and his wife were puzzled as he grew paler, thinner, and sicker ... and then one morning he didn't wake up at all.
After the autopsy, a stern yet sympathetic pathologist approached Mrs. Smith. "I'm sorry to have to say this," he confessed in a voice barely above a whisper," but your husband died from colon cancer. If only he'd sought treatment months ago, when the cancer was still Stage 1, he might be with us today ..."
The pathologist suddenly perked up, and a wide grin spread across his face as he raised his voice and shouted enthusiastically, "But on the other hand, look at the bright side, Mrs. Smith: Every tick of the clock is a gift from God. Every day is a Dee Dah Day!"
quote:At 6:30 the next morning, Chuck called again. "You won't believe this," he said. Someone in the lab had mistakenly switched his results with those of another patient, who had not yet even been through treatment. It turned out that Chuck's cancer was gone and has not reappeared, these many years later.
"I'm going to live, " my friend said. "I'm going to see my kids grow up. I'm going to grow old with my wife. I'm going to live." For a few, moments we just wept on the phone like a couple of characters out of a Hallmark commercial. Chuck told me he was filled with a gratitude he had never known.
"Yay! God gave someone else cancer instead of me!"
This is probably the worst kind of glurge - the kind where someone else gets raped or contracts a terminal illness instead of the main character, but it's okay because the unlucky person isn't given a name.
Guess God wasn't looking out for them. They were probably a gay heathen anyway.
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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quote:The first close friendship I ever had began when I was fifteen years old. Chuck and I went through high school and college together, we double-dated together (and got rejected together); we were confidants and counselors and chums through every important event of life.
Aw, come on, isn't anyone going to pick apart this opening? Fine, I'll do it.
1) You never had a close friendship until you were fifteen? What were you, the boy in the bubble?
Hey, I didn't have any friends at all until I was sixteen, and I just lived in the suburbs. Take that, glurge writer.
And maybe I'm just warped, but I thought Chuck's friend was a girl.
Sister "but maybe that's just my own experience..." Ray
"There can't be a war on Christmas. Even Cambridge has decorations up!" - an observation I made Posts: 2719 | From: Chicago, IL | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:The first close friendship I ever had began when I was fifteen years old. Chuck and I went through high school and college together, we double-dated together (and got rejected together); we were confidants and counselors and chums through every important event of life.
Aw, come on, isn't anyone going to pick apart this opening? Fine, I'll do it.
1) You never had a close friendship until you were fifteen? What were you, the boy in the bubble?
Hey, I didn't have any friends at all until I was sixteen, and I just lived in the suburbs. Take that, glurge writer.
I had some fair-weather "friends" in high school, but no close friends until age 20.
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
I didn't like the fact that the guy was in so much denial he couldn't pray for his friend. Isn't that what you're "supposed" to do? I understand, but I don't see guys "weeping" on the phone with each other. That calls for a trip. Also ...getting rejected together? Time to lower your standards.
-------------------- "Fate is like a strange, unpopular resturant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never ask for and don't always like."-Lemony Snicket Posts: 1119 | From: Bronx, NY | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I can't stop thinking about the other guy who thinks his cancer is in remission, but later gets a phone call, "Sorry there was a mix-up and you're going to die."
How depressing.
-------------------- It's like they took a bunch of movies, put them in a blender and turned it on really fast!-Mystery Science Theater 3000 Posts: 2603 | From: Magna, Utah | Registered: Aug 2004
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I don't mean to hurt anyone else's head (mine is already hurting with this logical thinking for a glurge), but possibly a "Dee Dah Day" is a bastardized version of that Disney song. Y'know, the one that goes something like, "Zippa Dee Do Dah, Zippa Dee Aay, my oh my what a wonderful day".
And now I have an image of Tom Hanks singing that.
Trish "Mr. Mango on my shoulder...Frankie! Dance with me!!!" DaDish
-------------------- I would prefer not to. My blog Posts: 4789 | From: Rhode Island | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
My first thoughts were for the other guy, too. I can't even imagine how much it would devastate me if I got the call that said that they mixed up mom's results when they told her they got all her cancer...
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My rather young mom recently just went through chemo and at the end of the treatment they did tests and said she was now "cancer free." While certainly happy to hear this, it's not like she was calling all her friends and family and proclaiming she was going to live to a ripe old age. After this experience, she's much more of a "live in the moment" kind of person.
-------------------- "Bad grammar makes me [sic]" -- seen on a t-shirt Posts: 319 | From: Upstate NY | Registered: Oct 2004
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I was worried about the other guy, too, but at least this story does state that this was before treatment. When the lab caught one mistake, they surely caught the other, too.
But I would have been MUCH happier if ChemoMan was now a volunteer at the hospital, helping other people get through a rough emotional time. As it is, it's a sort of self-satisfied vow to enjoy life.
Posts: 457 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Jan 2006
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