ummbilicus-blog

[ummbilicus-blog]

8/30

Tears streaming down her face as she worked through denial and heard the word “tumor” not “pseudocyst”.  You have a tumor.  It may grow and spread if we don’t resect it.  You have a tumor.  It is not fluid-filled like a cyst; it is a solid mass.  Here is the picture on CT.  You have a tumor.  A pancreatic tumor.  

He didn’t say a thing.  

They are in denial and bargaining.  She is young.

[ummbilicus-blog]

We've been married for 65 years, and we do everything together! I can't live without him-- I'm not ready to do that. Oh, but he wouldn't want to live like THIS. And he wouldn't want a breathing tube, I know. He definitely would NOT want a breathing tube... even though I want one for him, to keep him alive longer... but I can't do that to him-- when we get to heaven, he'll be mad at me!... Okay, well, you have to do this one thing: when it gets to the end, you HAVE to call me, and keep him alive until I get there... I have to hold his hand as he takes his last breath.

Susan, on Francis

[ummbilicus-blog]

Why venture outside of the US to help people when there are millions in the US who need help?" "There are two answers to that. First is that the needs abroad are more desperate and so efforts to save lives go a lot further. For example, put in a well or start a school, and you can transform a village for years to come; pressure a government to stop massacring its people, and you avert a genocide. The second answer is that our compassion and humanity should not depend on the color of the other person's skin, or passport. We're all members of the human family. That said, we should obviously do more to help people at home. But we can do both--just as we journalists can write about both needs at home and needs abroad.

Nicholas Kristof