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| Date Entered at Shared Experience: 06/13/2001 |
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MOUTH |
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Actually, I had a naso-pharangeal tumor that spread to my lymph gland in my neck. It was 1963. I was 21. I smoked. I discoved this lump in my neck about the size of a golfball. I felt very lethargic. My guess is that the doctors knew right away that it was serious/cancer. They put me right into the hospital (Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA) and I was operated on within a few days.
After being in the hospital for about 3 weeks, having a roomate who had the same doctor I had die of cancer in my room while all along my/our doctor said, "Johnny, you're going to be OK and you'll be out of here real soon," which, except for the Johnny part, he said to me, too), I had a month of cobalt therapy.
When I told my doctor that I had auditioned for a job, going on a Community Concert tour of the U.S. as an instrumentalist with the Harry Belefonte Singers, he told me I should/could NOT go. "If you do this, it's in 'God's hands,'" he said. God? Who believes in God? Not me, that's for sure. It bothered me him saying this. I wanted a "real" doctor, not a shaman, a witch doctor. I trust science. Plus, he's lied to my (dead) roommate.
I did not die. I still am an atheist. I do not smoke and I detest smoking. Eventually, over the years, the cobalt therapy I'd had damaged my hearing. I am no longer a musician. I miss that very much. I miss being able to hear. I do not see this life as a blessing. |
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No chemo. Just cobalt therapy for me. It was 1963. |
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A month of cobalt therapy. |
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The pits. I lost my hearing from the cobalt therapy. I do not like living like this: not being able to hear. |
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What does this mean? What a non-descript phrase, "Information Gathering" |
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