Thursday, January 21, 2010

The people you meet

Went down to Sloan last Wednesday for a treatment. No doctor visit, just a treatment. The appointment was at 2:30 so we took the 10:05 out of Albany and got down there around 12:30. It was warm (40 degrees) in the city so we decided to hike the 20 blocks up to 53rd st. to have lunch at the Stage Deli. The walk was nice and Times Square as usual was bustling with tourists. You can tell the tourist from the local by either their stare upwards (tourist) or their stare straight ahead avoiding eye contact with all the tour bus guys or the b-way show ticket guys. At this point I'm a mix. I still look and have mastered the friendly "no thank you" to the street sales folks. Lunch was delicious as usual. Had the corned beef half sandwich with a side of potato salad. We ended up continuing our walk over to the clinic. Another 10 blocks or so. Total distance from Penn to the clinic approx. 1.5 miles. Saved the cab fare.

We got to the clinic and had my blood drawn and sat down to our wait. We were sitting down in this area of the room and in walked a guy who wreaked of cigarette smoke. Smelled like he rolled in an ashtray. I'm a former smoker so I'll admit I'm a bit sensitive to the smell. Any ways I had to get up and move away from the offending odor. While sitting in our less smelly area of the waiting room I overheard this guys talking to one of the women who work the front. He was telling his story. His journey seemed to parallel mine except he was ahead of me. When he walked by I said hello and told him that I liked his story. He sat with us and filled us in further. He was diagnosed in 2004 had undergone multiple surgeries and treatment protocols and is now NED (no eveidence of disease). He went on to tell us that he was a teamster and worked as a key grip in the city. He told us about all the movies and TV shows that he worked on. He was very positive and made me feel great to have met him.
We also met a woman who had an incredible story too. She was around our age and was diagnosed with CC about 4 years ago. She told us she went thru some sugery and treatment was declared clean and was then whacked with breast cancer. She really was a trooper and was also very positive. She told us of her ordeal and was very comedic about it. Again I was glad that she came into our lives and shared her story and listened to ours.
It seems that the law of atraction was at work that day down at sloan. I was wearing one of my "Life is Good" shirts and smiling and feeling upbeat. What you think about you bring about and we were so lucky to bring 2 special strangers who we now consider freinds into our life.

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