Day 1195: "The Sandwich"

Day 1195: "The Sandwich"

I like to rip on the doctors sometimes, on how they "break the news" to the families of cancer patients. They do it so "matter of fact" as if "this is just another Thursday"...TO THEM.

We already knew it was cancer, but we were not sure how bad, and we had an appointment with the radiologist. I will never, ever forget the scene in my head. We walked into her office, it was dark, so we could see the images, yet it was that thing on her chair forever burned into my DNA:

A half eaten sandwich

It screamed to me, "yeah, yeah, this is the worst time in your lives but hey, it is lunch time for me."

I don't know why it hit me then or stayed with me now. Some of us have crappy jobs and we all have to eat.  But for some reason, that half eaten sandwich seemed to mock us, as the doctor explained the white stuff you see is all lymphoma. I am going to skip down a few lines, imagine the next lines are an image, what do you see?

Yeah, it was about 100 percent white, lymphoma/tumors all over the place, in her bone marrow...FUCK YOU sandwich is all I could think of then.

So, be cognizant doctors, when breaking news like this, be careful with your words and sandwiches or saying stuff like "just a second, I have to text my 95 year old mother Happy Birthday."

I guess, if you need a real image, don't be this guy:

As your patients and family are/should be: