Dear Cousin Kenny
This is me Carlo, taking the opportunity to write to you DIRECTLY. You know how these things go with her, I am the star and SHE plans & write. I’ve had enough of this storytelling of hers ; I am the fucking cancer, I want to tell my experience.
– Get off my desktop you and go deal with that ,
She said that, sounded VERY angry and at this very moment she ingested a poison , yes my friend a real hardcore poison to shut me down..
Here she comes. I’ll come back later.
Dear Ken,
Sorry for that, the moron is still around and he’s .. well you know my fucking cancer.
Yesterday was cure N° 4 , first round in a new protocol of three. Hard stuff as other patients describes it. So far, after almost 16 hours I am still fine, even better than I used to be for the last weeks as I was passing through the famous “enough of this shit step” . But my meschpucha support team and friends and GP helped me catch my second (or was it the third) breath.
I have had good news to pass about my genome which is not as rotten as I thought. What a fucking relief for the kids!
So yesterday marked a new step, I know days that are coming might not be the best but here I am 120 days after surgery and still a pain in the ass. Planning for spring after two more rounds of chemo and 25 to 30 radiotherapy sessions. I should be glowing in the dark and hope not a danger for our third grandchild who is expected to join us into this world at this time.
Being able to write about other topics as these stupid organizations trying to fool the patients and put some “cancer money ” in their deep pockets gives me a hope that I could go back for hardcore activism again.
As you see dear cousin, I am fine, southern style (fahn) and leaving skid marks. Lots of them. Wishing you the best. Love from this side of the pond.
You see she’s a Fucking Gladiator ! I guess I won’t be able to write to you again. Bye Carlo. (But I’ll be back, as you know who used to say)
Fuck off, Carlo! Without this gladiator (gladiatrix?) you are nothing, a parasite without a host, no more noble than a slime mold. This is one customer you do NOT want to piss off! I understand she bites when provoked.
I saw the English headline and suspected this was for me. Not all of your friends are illiterate. We specialize in that over here.
I had a few days away from my daily Web visits for year-end parties and my 18 month follow-up inspection to ensure that my own interloper, Carlo’s cousin carcinoma, remains on holiday (X-ray, blood work, and a visit with a very earnest, young second-year resident). It is a different world on this side of cancer, where you get to keep your street clothes and dignity, mostly.
My bulk doctors are with the state university hospital. I love teaching hospitals, the only real exception to the mercenary business health care in America has become. Over there you get to weigh in on health care policy (as you have regarding the Mammobile). Here one gets as much say in health care policy as one has in the recipe for McDonald’s fries.
I have been lucky, blessed by circumstance in the discovery of my tumor by accident, its type and size, and the doctors who cared for me. I spent yesterday evening with some wonderful dance friends, newlyweds at 55 and 72, she a brilliant dancer who had melanoma removed from one of her feet last year, luxuriating in the pedestrian cares of a holiday afternoon. Once you enter Cancerland, it is never completely out of mind, but there is life, good, sacred, miraculous life.
So I send you love from over here. Keep kicking, keeping Carlo out-of-bounds, out of the game. – KT