Jeff McCallum

The Daily Grind is indeed true for all of us. If I have learned the value of life and thereby, I hope, the value of patience, I believe I have also learned to appreciate those, all of those, who care for human beings and the tired,  frightened, hungry for hope desperate creatures we can become when beset by poor health. I can never thank them enough, and regardless of my condition, try to  remember to do so at every opportunity.

A Busy Day for Life and Death

It was a busy day for life and death

two pages behind

one on the phone

the two of us in the tiny office

waiting

the beeper calling insistently

a monitor malfunctioning

Unusual

I thought

wondering if we should leave the room

wondering if this moment reminded my medical oncologist

of residency

wondering how much we should hear

There were snippets of strategy

tiny forebears of tragedy

medial static caking

something growing almost as rapidly as the Big Bang

a condition radiation would not help

a cut in chemo dosage

and then

then he turned

and gave us his full attention

Explained every nuance of the CT scan

each possibility for the future

it was as though the rest were behind him

or waiting

for me

Better to Give

Patients bring us gifts all the time

the RN in medical oncology remarked

I wish they wouldn’t

It is we who should be giving them gifts

You are

I said

Everyday