Never going to keep me down

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down.
Tubthumping (by Chumbawamba)

When naturalist and science writer Steven Jay Gould was five years old his father took him to the Museum of Natural History, on the itinerary, the skeleton of a twenty-foot tall tyrannosaurus rex. Gould writes, "As we stood in front of the beast a man sneezed; I gulped and prepared to say my Shema Yisrael [last prayer]. But the great animal stood immobile in all its bony grandeur, and as we left, I announced that I would be a paleontologist when I grew up."

The Shema is our traditional prayer for when dying is immanent. When the doctor says, "It's cancer," you are facing a protracted struggle, not the quick strike of a giant animal. In Faina's case, it is like getting knocked down, but not knocked out. She has been getting up, making her days meaningful, just about every flick of the calendar, since the doctor's call (yes, she found out by phone) on April 13th, the first knock down. She pines for returning to her office and resuming her practice. She occasionally despairs of her life on hold. Through it all, nothing keeps her down.

Things have been much better lately, the knock downs farther apart. Last Tuesday, she was told she can start drinking and the varieties of herbal tea in our cupboard have grown. She called me at work, two days later, when the flow from the fistula went from near zero to about 40 milliliters over the span of about an hour. Since that episode it has gone back to zero, so drink up. A few days ago, she even took a sip of my IPA while watching the Phillies make their way back to the World Series.

Today, a big step. Real solid food. Ever true to her Leningrad upbringing, stepping up to the plate, she did the mashed potato. Now we watch, wait, and listen as the tuber makes its way through her intestinal tract. This can be a milestone, starting the transition from TPN to gaining nutrition, for the most part, the old-fashioned way, fork and knife in hand. We'll have an order of tyrannosaurus burgers please!


Warning! This song was number 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the 20 Most Annoying Songs.

Tubthumping