Reflections2017

Yesterday. I found myself in a nondescript mall near a nondescript food court. I deduced that it was popular because it was full of people of all descriptions. It was noon, so folks were in the same state as me, hungry. Walking past the array of offerings, I am always on the hunt for something Asian. I prefer this food because it is traditionally more nutritious than the typical cuisine of over- fat, salted and deep fried American. I can taste most Asian food. Since going through many radiation treatments 18 months ago, taste is still challenging. Besides, I get to use chopsticks. I always like practicing with these utensils. Aha, Thai Delights! Now, this will do. Following the customary ‘good afternoon’ exchange between the young Asian-looking server and myself, she began to talk about their special for the day. Catching only a few words, I immediately raised an open right-hand palm and said, "Whoa!" I showed her my information card that indicates my difficulty with hearing...

The One Ear Man was on the Shanghai "Maglen," a high-speed train going NorthWest from Shanghai and Beijing. The train left Shanghai's Hongqiao Railway Station some time ago. It crossed the Yangtze River, made famous by Chairman Mao Zedong’s swim in 1966. It has been an uneventful trip, and the novel he is reading, A House Divided , by Pearl S. Buck seems a little too heavy in the “navel gazing" and light on the action at this particular point in the story. Buck is rapidly becoming one of his favourites. She has such a passion for the ordinary people, especially those that work the land. She has almost a religious fervour about China at the turn of the 20th century. The One Ear Man has learned so much about China’s history and its people from the setting of the three novels. Sitting across from the One Ear Man, the Three Travelling Companions seem a little bored. His conclusion is based on a large number of times they have passed back and forth the tatter...

In addition to the regular classes, there is a requirement for all healthcare students enrolled at this college to take weekly tutorials. This is part of their course load as they progress toward their certificate. Each tutorial aims to reinforce points that were raised in the formal lectures of the week. It is a relaxed environment and students are encouraged to engage in dialogue, the superior way to learn. This particular tutorial is about relationships and how they are essential to our health and happiness, especially in times of distress and sickness. The connection is a topic that does not get too much exposure in the current literature studied by healthcare professionals, at least not that the One Ear Man found while researching the subject. So, he thought it essential to discuss it in a tutorial.
Apparently, there are many ways to teach and learn. The One Ear Man found that one of the most effective vehicles for a teacher is the story. He is a storyteller at heart, so it fits. ...

Shortly following his release from the hospital after head and neck surgery for cancer, the One Ear Man decided, along with his doctor he could resume teaching healthcare students. So, he did. He began his first class on a Tuesday afternoon, right after lunch. I consider myself to be in a very fortunate position, the One Ear Man began. I am both a college teacher who stands in front of you day-after-day teaching Microsoft Office and Google Docs within the context of the healthcare profession. I am also a cancer survivor. So by being hospitalized, I have observed both sides of the business; what we teach and how my former students practice. What a window of opportunity I now have handed me by being able to talk to you here today. You, who sit in front of me will be within a year of working in a medical clinic, on a ward in a hospital, or perhaps an 'old folks' or extended care home. Maybe you will be working in a hospice. You will be nursing the very people I spent some time wit...

The One Ear Man entered the classroom at precisely 7:35 a.m. Students start trickling in at 7:45. The schedule states the class begins at 8:00 sharp simply because of the way the contract between the students and the college reads. A fascinating observation; something that the One Ear Man has seen happen over the years. There is a similarity between a church and a classroom. In both, it begins to fill from the back of the room. It never starts to fill up from the front. Years ago, when the One Ear Man was a novice at teaching he made it a point to care about the space between himself and the students. He actually took the podium, and with the help of a burly young woman, (I caught you on that one dear reader. You expected to read ‘burly young man’), between the two of them moved the podium to the back of the room and had everyone turn their desk around! Boy, were they surprised. The One Ear Man was unconventional then and still is. Students call him an “un-teacher teac...

A Prologue to Learning The One Ear Man enters this particular class on the morning of their first day. Looking around the room, he sees the anticipation on the faces of the College-age Students. As usually is the case, many seem to be from places other than Canada. This is obvious by what they were wearing. Good morning class. I am known as the One Ear Man because that is what I have, one ear. For the next six days, we will be engaged in the Level 1 curriculum for computers. This is a mandatory course for your healthcare certificate, that takes you almost 9 months to earn. Before we get started, I want to tell you a little about what happened to me in June of last year. ‘Why do I only have one ear?’ you may be thinking. I'd instead tell you up front than sitting there wondering and not thinking about the computer lesson. I had head and neck cancer and had extensive surgery and radiation treatment to become cancer free. Yes, I got rid of cancer. But I lost my right ear. Wit...

(C) Sun Wukong 2018 Dedication This short story is dedicated to Roselyn C, my new friend. In transit heading south on the main road going toward the large university in the late afternoon in early October, the One Ear Man noticed a College-age Student entering the bus. She took a seat near the One Ear Man. Within a stop or two, she retrieved from her backpack a poster-size picture of a puppy and looked longingly at it. Time passed. She continued to stare at the picture. "Your dog?" asked the One Ear Man. The College-age Student simply nodded. She looked so sad. "I lost my Shih Tzu two days ago. I put posters up everywhere I could think of. No luck with finding my dog!” She continues to look at the photo. As time passes, she appears to look even sadder. "Your situation reminds me of a story," said the One Ear Man. Allow me to tell it to you. Without waiting for a response, he continues. It takes place once upon a time, in a far off land that is made up of many ...

One Ear Man has no right ear. It was lost to cancer over a year ago. If anyone asks, he is still recovering and is in adjustment mode. He is getting used to his new reality. In all aspects, the One Ear Man appears physically normal. If you see him on the street, you would not give him a second glance. He looks like Everyman. The doctor who performed the surgery did an excellent job in the opinion of those who offer one. Also, the One Ear Man always looks like he needs a haircut. So where his right ear used to be is sufficiently concealed. On this particular humid summer morning, he finds himself on the 55 heading downtown. The bus is quite empty since it is past the busy time when people are getting themselves to work.  One of the things that the One Ear Man is discovering is that with very limited left ear hearing, he can virtually ‘tune out’ the world and be comforted only by his thoughts. All too often this is a good thing. For he has always prided himself by being a ‘deep thi...

  The clock keeps ticking.

  It is hard to believe that it has been 12 months since my life-altering operation (2 June 2017). But it has. As I sit here in the Waiting Room anticipating the calling of my name, I cannot help but reflect on 'the good, the bad and yes, the ugly' over this time in my life.   The most positive aspect was finding a Cancer Buddy. She, along with her reflective spouse is of great benefit in providing the encouragement I need when my morale requires a boost or a simple kick in the back end!   Like this morning. I could not help but text my Cancer Buddy and communicate that I was experiencing a 'bump in the road.' She immediately sensed my frame-of-mind through my subtext. Soon good tidings flowed from her heart. My Cancer Buddy is wonderful. Every cancer survivor should have one. Nobody can quite understand like someone who is going through what you are personally feeling. 'Been there, done that' is not merely a tagline. They speak the same language.   ‘Empathy...

Balloons are for lively, happy times!   As I patronaged a big-chain grocery store the other day, I noticed in the flower and plant section, clusters of balloons all pumped full of air and bobbing around because of the warm air coming from a nearby ceiling duct. They were all so colourful, swaying this way and that in the air. Some spelled out Happy Birthday. Others showed Happy Faces. Each was interesting because of their movements. They were all shapes and sized and seemed full of life. Balloons are for happy times!   Unlike the balloons, some things move so slowly that it does not dawn on you that they are moving at all. Such usually happens in grade school during the latter days of June. I sense this is happening to me with hearing loss. It is a long-term battle. Still, losing one's hearing is like maple tree sap moves in February can be seen as a positive. Moving so slowly gives me the time needed to correctly understand that I was losing one of my senses and prepares...

Within the last two-weeks, I was asked for a favour and write on an impending book on cancer by someone I know very well. I agreed. I am choosing an Abstract of Brian's Story . An Abstract offers a sense of what the work is about without labouring and thereby discouraging the reader who first lays eyes on it, perhaps in a bookstore. In other words, what is the heart of the book? Brian's Story is not a medical book. Instead, it deals with a full range of human emotions after experiencing the diagnosis of head and shoulder cancer, through the operation and radiation therapy to recovery. Above all else, the text is very personal. It tells the story of a regular joe who used to carry a black tin lunchbox around, along with a pocket protector and a slide ruler when such items were fashionable. In this tale, he is not yet at the end of the journey. He has not been declared cancer free by the medical establishment. The best evidence suggests that declaration can be made only after...

Some call it a stream of consciousness .   I think that I overthink.   Sitting by the window staring out at nothing really on this predawn day, the monster I have been calling Doubt is back! This time it seems worse than ever. My scheduled head and neck scan are merely days away. Maybe that is why the monster has returned. This, the second scan, like the first that started my journey along the road with melanoma will reveal whether or not all of the cancer cells have indeed been all destroyed. Or perhaps they have not.   They have. I mean why have the cancer cells not been entirely eradicated from my body? Cancer has been treated for over a hundred years. The medical knowledge base along with the technology on this disease has grown exponentially. There is no question.   And yet…   And yet the sun shines on both sides of my face does it not? Of course, it does. Why should the right side of my head contract this disease and not the left? I have no answer....

       Some of the ideas and words were provided by LH in text messages; a breast cancer survivor and my “cancer buddy.” Without her, my fight with head and neck cancer would be so much more difficult.        I am well into the 7th month of living with head and neck cancer. Currently, I am awaiting a CSAN, followed by a consultation with my surgeon. With everything that has happened with my health during the seven months, two things are apparent. First, there is the need to have a “cancer buddy.” Second, you must decide that with cancer, you are in for the long-haul. Both are critical in fighting and destroying this disease.         Cancer is such a despicable disease. It is sneaky. It invades unsuspectedly and works at destroying DNA quietly, usually with no fanfare. It is difficult to detect until it shows itself because you are not looking for it. In my case it was a lump on my right ear th...

🎶 🎶  🎵 “The cat came back, we thought he was a goner But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away. Away, away, yea, yea, yea”  🎵 🎶 🎶   "The Cat Came Back" is a comic song written by Harry S. Miller in 1893. It has since entered the folk tradition. In more recent years it was popularized by Dr. Seuss in 1958. Ole Mister Johnson tried to get rid of the old yaller cat. “But the cat came back.” In my case the “old yaller cat” is an allegory for my taste buds that left shortly after the Radiation Treatment began. ‘Sun Wukong, we are out of here!’  They left four months ago. That is a long time eating tasteless breakfast, lunch and dinners. During that time I also contended with ‘dry mouth,’ a medical condition caused by the lack of saliva. One of my glands was removed as part of the cancer operation. Even using a moisturizer, food continually stuck to my teeth and gums. Yuk. You can well imagine...

Reflection 38 -- The Metamorphosis  For most people, year-end is a time of reflection -- looking both forward and backwards. As one-year dissolves into the next with regularity and no apparent change, 2017 turns into 2018. But for this cancer survivor there is a little more. It can best be described as a metamorphosis. I have become or more appropriately, am becoming someone, I wasn't. I am changing.  I selected the word "metamorphosis" with a great deal of thinking. For it describes something very unique in nature. Most beings start and end life in essentially the same state. They are unchanged. For example, a young dappled white pony ends up as an old white mare. Its "mortal coil," to quote Shakespeare's Hamlet, remains the same. It is very few that experience such a large change in their physiology, anatomy and psyche to merit the label a metamorphosis change. That small percentage that do may be considered very special indeed. I contend that cancer sur...

* Dedicated to my new friend LH who is a cancer servivor and coined the phrases "new normal" and "new reality".    After over 8 1/2 months of living with the cancer melanoma, including the recovery of the disease, I have finally come to accept that there has been and will continue to be a significant change in me. I am living through a paradigm shifted from the “old normal” to the “new normal” because of the cancer. This is a new reality. (First verbalized by LH while we were discussing such things along with her husband over lunch, I think, or simply coffee. She is a breast cancer survivor and is learning her “new normal".)    Thinking back, the "new normal" has been taking place since my operation. I have just never completely rationalized it. That took a teaching moment for me to put this label on it. It happened a week prior to a Christmas concert I attended.   A good friend of mine invited me to the concert in her apartment complex. They have...