A world of scalpels…
A well-designed bullet leaves the barrel, spinning, makes a small entrance wound, then fragments, mangling flesh. The exit wound is a large red crater.
Well-designed medical terminology rolls off the professional tongue, spinning, makes a small entrance wound in heart or brain or spirit, won’t know how much mangling is going on until there is an exit wound which does not appear…yet…
Husband and wife, 69 and 68, have paid numerous dues, enjoying life between payments.
First, possible thyroid cancer, a thyroidectomy leaves a necklace scar above collar bone. No cancer. Man and woman are grateful, enjoy life.
Second, cholecystectomy uncovers strange growth on ovaries; blood tests show high levels of cancer indicators; before the second surgery husband prays like hell to Dian Cecht, Miach, Airmed, Irish gods of healing, says he will take the cancer on himself if only his wife is spared and it turns out she is because…
Third, hysterectomy finds no cancer, but massive endometriosis fusing ovaries together, explains the agony every month ignored by doctors; she should never have been able to have children but has given birth to two. He and she are grateful for their blessings, enjoy their lives.
Fourth, not much later he has extremely high prostate specific antigen levels, biopsies show pre-cancerous cells, looking like his prayer fulfilled but somehow subsequent biopsies find no cancer; no need for surgery or radiation, PSA goes back to normal. Husband and wife gratefully enjoy their lives.
Fifth, cholesteatoma erodes wife’s inner ear bones, infiltrates mastoid bone of skull, not cancer but it still could invade her brain, kill her, so mastoidectomy. Wife lives on, heals over time, near deaf in one ear, sense of taste impaired. Husband and wife are grateful and enjoy their lives.
Sixth, the woman’s gynecologist takes a biopsy from which is diagnosed vulvar melanoma, so rare there is no established treatment for it, so surgeon prolongs her life by cutting out a large piece of genitalia and a lymph node; recovery is excruciating. No one is enjoying life.
Mucosal melanomas don’t give a damn about chemotherapy; radiation in that area would be too destructive; immunotherapy a long shot but the only one. Treatment isn’t over yet; gratitude is felt for wife’s survival, enjoyment is a moot point…
Seventh, she is highly sensitive to immunotherapy, itching rashes, exacerbations of arthritis, sheer exhaustion but she keeps on working for Meals on Wheels; the final straw is debilitating colitis which could become life threatening; immunotherapy discontinued at six months, halfway through. Maybe it was enough. Who knows? Not the docs. He and she are grateful but don’t quite get back to enjoying life. Hope and dread live side by side. She decides to retire while she is still healthy enough to enjoy retirement. Gradually she gets her energy back. Life becomes more enjoyable.
Certain cliches and platitudes make the man want to vomit, like One Day at a Time, Count your Blessings, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes you Stronger, Let Go and Let God; the list goes on and on and on; that there is truth in some only increases his resentment; throughout, on and off, the woman has shown courage, positive attitude, fatalism, crying fits, despondence, comebacks, fear, rage, humor, tempered optimism; what the hell could anyone expect, but husband and wife find things to enjoy in life and wait and see wait and see how many years will there be of wait and see…
So far there is no exit wound.
~ Wry Welwood
May, 2021
Written in response to J.D. Harms’s Scrittura’s Wednesday Word Prompt of 5/12/2021, “revelatory”.