Follies

The treatments are going smoothly - a veritable routine. I start off by going to the lobby on level B early for my appointment. I found I would often be treated earlier if one of the other patients was late which was more often than not. If I didn’t get called it was just fun to get to know the other patient waiting their turn. After a while you start to look forward to treatment just to meet up with your lobby friends. Sometimes you see the patient or it’s the wife of a prostate patient and in one case the mother of the patient.

I had noticed this mom earlier in my treatment. She would sit by herself in one of the corners head down with an empty stroller. That meant her child was being treated for cancer. I knew it must be heart wrenching for her to be there. So I went up to her and introduced myself and asked how her child was doing. I expected to hear the story of a brain or spinal cancer. She floored me when she told me her two year old had prostate cancer.

Kids are often treated for eye, brain and spine cancers which are not easily treated by other means without severe complications. All of the radiation treatments, protons or x-rays require the patient to lie as still as possible when he is zapped. Since children are not capable of understanding the need to be still they are anesthetized for every one of their treatments. In this case of a two year old little boy he had identical treatments to us with the addition of being anesthetized and because of his age had chemo. Amazingly the youngest child I heard of treated for prostate cancer was 18 months old.

I honestly enjoy the patient camaraderie in the waiting room. It is a very unique experience. I can't really put into words but when treatment ends I will miss this connection to all of these people.

This week one of my new patient friends Steve and his wife Carol, Connye and I went to Palm Springs for a matinee and dinner. If you are in the mood for something different you have to go to the Palm Spring Follies http://www.psfollies.com/ check it out. It is one of the funniest stage shows I have seen in a long time. The dancing is very good. The costumes are stunning and the dancers are very sexy. All of the dancers had impressive resume of Toni’s, Broadway repertoire and highly acclaimed careers. Here is the shocker. The youngest dancer is 58 and the oldest show girl is 84, the oldest show girl on record. Sitting in the row 12 you could not only not tell the age nor guessthey were the age they claimed. They danced like very young dancers. Yes, they leapt and did the splits like the young. Definitely worth going!

Dinner was at a restaurant called Johannes. Excellent with good atmosphere. I would go again.

It is hard to believe I have now reached the 80% completion mark with nine treatments left. I am now officially feeling short (short on time in Loma Linda).