![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwG2-1MIGu5Pe7S2qFEsV4I0K7jSvjggw6ti-_qMtzgodknPaxnKy3nr4ogQGL1gI7sxKFjRDG-2rvgGN-p8fJcU3PWBgDNwOMzmgwLj4F7o5gamhASHOsLxcrDAVt2LVMFJfnD9iHhStZ/s400/MLS+6%253A13%253A11+-+Letter+from+Doctor+to+Boston+College+Page+1+%25288%253A12%253A92%2529.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie66GGfFX0Gi3tMUZNIgLCjtnM5d0bZTDNE9TY9b6nYQHPLXiyIn7eeuQSCpm4iZ0dDT_6WaXAJY4khDVWfjvqp0EitGQA87c-U_Wx0etqg7c3gOTHoUDjjApWn6XwTIP3JWen7HaEHPp-/s400/MLS+6%253A13%253A11+-+Letter+from+Doctor+to+Boston+College+Page+2+%25288%253A12%253A92%2529.jpg)
19 summers ago, I was in the middle of treatment for a cancerous brain tumor and was due to start my freshman year at Boston College. My favorite parts:
- My alphafetoprotein level was over 800, and normal is less than 15 (this number is also what told my doctors I had cancer, and made my scheduled brain surgery biopsy unnecessary)
- The use of “germinoma” reminds me of this scene from Fletch:
Fletch - Paper Bag - watch more funny videos
- The line “he may be able to avoid radiation therapy” – When I was diagnosed, they said I would need chemo and radiation, but really had no explanation for how well I responded to the chemo
- “He would like a full load with five courses, but this may be too ambitious for his first semester.” – Looking back, it probably would have made more sense to take off my first semester (like my doctors and parents suggested), but I didn’t want cancer to tell me when I should start college – and I didn’t.
- The prediction that “there is some chance that he would need to be hospitalized for IV antibiotics” came true. I was hospitalized in the middle of September and was at UMass for two weeks – my longest, and last cancer-related hospitalization.
- The exceptional, excellent, determined, and intelligent comments…not going to argue.
- All of the doctors that were involved with this letter reminded me of this scene from Spies Like Us:
Here we go Bruins, here we go! Play the whole 60, boys!
No comments:
Post a Comment