Waiting rooms.....

I’m not a really patient person. But when you’ve got a patient on your hands, waiting is the name of the game. We have spent a lot of time in waiting rooms. Inevitably we bring a host of things to keep us occupied: iPhone, books, Kindle, magazines. Often I just end up people watching. Mostly we use our iPhones and update Facebook, check and write emails, respond to text messages from our concerned friends, or I sometimes play Scrabble - an iPhone app. When we are together we are often holding hands so you learn the art of one hand iPhone manipulation. But when she’s off getting blood draws or scans it’s just me hanging out. I like to watch the reception staff - it tells you a lot about the ethos of the place. Swedish Cancer Institute is great - they greet people and get to know people and you hear a lot of “Hi Honey”, or Hi Sweetie”. Lots of arm touching and small hugs - pretty meaningful to the people in for treatment. It’s interesting to see the range of people, meaning at various stages of treatment. The ones in the thick of it - looking and feeling pretty awful. Offset by the ones who have come out the other side, hair growing back, a pep in their step, a smile on their face. Of course Meagan looks fantastic, as she doesn’t appear to have cancer, so sometimes you get the feeling people are looking at her and wondering, what the hell is she doing here messing up our ‘hood - this is for CANCER patients. I sometimes feel like standing up and announcing, “we are here for a reason - my lovely wife has fuckin’ metastatic melanoma!”. Being the well behaved person I am, I don’t though, I just smile sweetly when we make eye contact and I see the curiosity in their eyes. Keeps ‘em guessing.