Trees, trees and more trees....

I have a primary care physician, Dr. Swift. He belongs to a medical group, Health Care Partners. My hospital is Torrance Memorial. They all associate with each other for services and together contract with HealthNet, my insurance company. I also work with radar scientists (sorry, I left the rockets at Boeing) and it seems I understand more about what the scientists and engineers say than the aforementioned folks - health care, ain't it a bitch! Having started my journey by meandering through the "Forest of Health", I would like to take my hats off to all of the critters that inhabit the forest and say "thank you". I can't wait for the rest of the adventure. 


I refer to the "forest" because of the old adage about not being able to see the forest for the trees - I don't want to focus too much on the cancer and then miss what is going on in my life. I don't want to concentrate on the tumor and miss the rest of Wesley's senior year of high school. I certainly don't want to linger on the bronchoscopy (actually two of them and I am still having dreams of both) and not look forward to growing and developing my relationship with Stephanie. 


When I used to work at Disneyland as a custodial sweeper (yes, I was employed at the house of the mouse), I worked outdoors all over the park. It was great to mingle with the cognoscenti who inhabit theme parks and be able to clean up after them. We started work before the park opened, continued during the open hours and then finished up shortly after the park closed; all in the name of trying to maintain the cleanliness of the park. After working for a number of years at the "Happiest Place on Earth", it truly had become a job to me. But every now and then, in the midst of the 60,000 visitors (the parks capacity at that time), I would glimpse something that instantly transported me to the Disneyland I had visited as a child - and it was a job no longer.


So now, especially right now, I want the "glimpses" to last longer. I know that I can make the glimpses last and make them become my reality because, although I may have cancer, cancer is not my job.


SURGERY: We met with Dr Swift today and expressed my desire to go under the knife in Westwood. After a bit of Stephanie persuasion, he supported my position and started to work on the referral. Keep good thoughts that the referral is approved and I can get my scar at UCLA.