Flu and Fear

Last night we were watching “Finding Forrester” the great movie with Sean Connery as a J. D. Salinger-type writer. And John began to have abdominal pain. Note: See right there, “abdominal pain”…not a tummy ache but “abdominal pain.”

So I begin to ask questions, examine scars, assess levels of pain. No I’m not a doctor or a nurse I just play one in my head. (And yes I did have a Dr, Kildare shirt when I was 13 and crazy about Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey).

Good news: I stayed calm
Bad news: I assumed the worst.
Good news: I packed a small bag; got out the hospital notebook and made sure I had phone numbers and a cell phone.
Bad news: I what?

It was a tummy ache. He slept on the couch. I put myself to bed and made me stay there.

This is what cancer does to you—or to me. I was ready to go, blue notebook in hand, expecting the worst.
It was just the flu.