co-inkydinks

After my treatment on Tuesday, we decided to check out the cancer garden. This is obviously not the official name. They don't grow cancer there or anything. But it's this beautiful indoor/outdoor garden on the 8th floor of the cancer center where cancer patients are welcome to come for some "serenity now". I have to admit, it works. It's beautiful. The outside roofdeck garden has stunning views of the Boston skyline. I am glad there are wealthy people who are willing to underwrite such things. These things do actually make a difference, so, thank you wealthy people.

There is also an inspiration wall on the 8th with stories of cancer survivors. We immediately recognized a photo of the world-famous orthopaedist from BI who diagnosed me (he was previously based at MGH). While I found him less than cuddly at my diagnosis (in fact, it was downright awkward), the woman who wrote this testimonial of her cancer story, and about him, said that he was really the only doctor she trusted completely. Who knew? It's funny how your individual experiences can be so vastly different. I do credit this BI doctor with putting a word in to hook me up with the cream of the crop talent on chordomas at MGH. I'm pretty sure, from the comments of my present surgeon, that that happened either over emails or cocktails, but the important thing is that it happened, and I am eternally grateful for that.

We also visited the cancer resource room, where they have tons of books you can check out on cancer, and a few computers. On the cover of one of the free magazines they distribute was my high school classmate, the now-famous Ethan Zohn. If he is not famous to you, you probably have good television taste. He was the winner of one of the early, more popular seasons of "Survivor". Gosh, I never thought until this very moment what meaning that show title has for him now!

He is currently battling Hodgkins Lymphoma. I had a big crush on him my freshman year in high school, when he had a really unfortunate hairdo and didn't know I existed. I did manage to get over the crush, and the hairdo, pretty quickly. I do think now though that it was a weird coincidence seeing him on the cover of that magazine. We lead vastly disparate lives, yet there is this slight thread connecting us again now. Maybe seeing that cover was just a sign of, "You're not alone. There are people your age, heck even people you vaguely know, with cancer." I don't know. But it did make me feel a little bit better.