chapter 6: part 5 Study Your Doctor

continued from chapter 6: part 4

Now we come to doctor number four. Between doctors two and four we are talking a matter of a few weeks from the time I drove Hal that first time to the Emergency Department until he was discharged from the hospital after his surgery.

I’m still fuzzy on this but I think this is what happened: the surgeon, Doctor Beam was about to go on vacation and the oncologist he was planning to refer Hal to was on vacation so in the interim Hal was to be monitored by Doctor Roberts, another surgeon. This turned out to be the darkest part of those first weeks.

On the day we met Doctor Roberts, we were ushered into the inevitably chilly, tiny examining room. Hal sat on the table and I perched on one chair, clutching our coats and other paraphernalia.

Enter the doctor, a medium size guy with trim body and a springy walk.

His first words were, “So, Mister Tennant, what can I do for you?”

Shucks, doctor, we had hoped you’d studied the report in your hand and would give us a little guidance.

Hal politely went through what had happened and that he was ready now for whatever sort of treatment he should be having. I made some comment about the cancer mestasisizing into the liver and worried about Hal’s chances, and this man, now sitting in the chair with his feet up on the equipment table between us, put his hands behind his head and said flatly, “Well, chances are he’ll be dead of cancer of the liver within two years.”

Of all the things that had happened in the past months, this was the lowest point. Neither one of us behaved badly; we heard the doctor out, he said he would continue monitoring and his nurse set another appointment for three week’s time. We left the hospital and got into the car. We just sat there looking at one another. We took a collective deep breath.

“Hey,” I said, “The hell with this barbarian. Let’s go have a super lunch.”

One thing you can count on is that I will think of food in a crisis.

We drove to our favorite Italian restaurant and were seated in a fairly secluded spot. We shared a bottle of wine and drank a toast to our future. We both cried a bit, then the wine did its job and we laughed and actually had a good time in that warm spot surrounded by lively, anonymous people. Afterward, we sensibly went home and made love.

continued in chapter 6: part 6