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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by John Cole|  March 29, 20116:56 am| 38 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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I’m off to the hospital with my neighbor for another exciting fun-filled day of oncologists, otolaryngologists, and thoracic surgeons. I can barely contain my excitement. There are few things more uplifting than spending your day talking about tumors.

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Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    4tehlulz

    March 29, 2011 at 7:09 am

    >tumors

    Fukushima open thread?

  2. 2.

    cleek

    March 29, 2011 at 7:10 am

    on the positive side, you get to learn many big words.

  3. 3.

    roshan

    March 29, 2011 at 7:32 am

    Did everyone here read this?

    The Kill Team
    __
    While the officers of 3rd Platoon peeled off to talk to a village elder inside a compound, two soldiers walked away from the unit until they reached the far edge of the village. There, in a nearby poppy field, they began looking for someone to kill. “The general consensus was, if we are going to do something that fucking crazy, no one wanted anybody around to witness it,” one of the men later told Army investigators.
    __
    The poppy plants were still low to the ground at that time of year. The two soldiers, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes, saw a young farmer who was working by himself among the spiky shoots. Off in the distance, a few other soldiers stood sentry. But the farmer was the only Afghan in sight. With no one around to witness, the timing was right. And just like that, they picked him for execution.
    __
    He was a smooth-faced kid, about 15 years old. Not much younger than they were: Morlock was 21, Holmes was 19. His name, they would later learn, was Gul Mudin, a common name in Afghanistan. He was wearing a little cap and a Western-style green jacket. He held nothing in his hand that could be interpreted as a weapon, not even a shovel. The expression on his face was welcoming. “He was not a threat,” Morlock later confessed.

  4. 4.

    Bruce S

    March 29, 2011 at 7:34 am

    Joe Stiglitz really stuck it to the sour old coot Alan Simpson and his buddy, investment banker Bowles, calling their deficit reduction scheme a “suicide pact” – good stuff. Why isn’t Stiglitz chair of the CEA? (Yeah…I know…)

    http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/03/shoeless-joe-vs-deficit-hawks.html

  5. 5.

    R-Jud

    March 29, 2011 at 7:34 am

    There are few things more uplifting than spending your day talking about tumors.

    I imagine having one sucks pretty bad.

  6. 6.

    stuckinred

    March 29, 2011 at 7:40 am

    @roshan: Don’t bother LOOKING at the damn blog before you post a dumbass question like that.

  7. 7.

    roshan

    March 29, 2011 at 7:59 am

    @stuckinred: Sorry, my bad.

  8. 8.

    Bruce S

    March 29, 2011 at 8:08 am

    I like where it looks like Ezra Klein is going today:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/two_social_security_graphs_worth_thinking_about/2011/03/28/AFyO8ZqB_blog.html?wprss=ezra-klein

  9. 9.

    Genine

    March 29, 2011 at 8:14 am

    John,

    I’m sorry your friend is going through such a time but it’s good that you’re there for hir.

    Sending positive energy to you and your friend!

  10. 10.

    RSA

    March 29, 2011 at 8:25 am

    My sympathies, John. I spent a lot of time in the waiting room of an out-patient cancer clinic last year (six days a week for a month or so) and wrote a blog post about some of the conversations I had. It’s a little microcosm of life.

  11. 11.

    merrinc

    March 29, 2011 at 8:35 am

    I hope your neighbor is going to the cancer center at the university hospital. Against my most strenuous objections, my mother went to Fairmont General and I’ve got serious doubts about her oncologist’s competency.

  12. 12.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    March 29, 2011 at 8:39 am

    You are such a good guy John. Best to your neighbor.

  13. 13.

    JPL

    March 29, 2011 at 8:47 am

    John, Your neighbor is lucky to have you go with him/her. I’m sure your wit will help.

  14. 14.

    Svensker

    March 29, 2011 at 8:56 am

    @JPL:

    I’m sure your wit will help.

    He could yell at the doctors, that always gets a laugh…

  15. 15.

    rikryah

    March 29, 2011 at 8:57 am

    good luck, many blessings will come you way for being support…I honestly believe that.

  16. 16.

    suzanne

    March 29, 2011 at 9:02 am

    otolaryngologists

    I like mine. My OBGYN referred me to him because he is the “ENT to the stars”. Apparently he’s the doctor on call for musicians who are on tour here, and his office is filled with autographed photos. I have joked that I’m two degrees of separation from Bono and Eddie Vedder via the dude who sticks his fingers up our noses.

    Best of luck to your friend, John. It’s a good thing you’re doing. Your reward shall be in Heaven, if it exists.

  17. 17.

    Rosalita

    March 29, 2011 at 9:20 am

    On the upside John it’s not you getting medical treatment this year — you’ve stayed injury free.

    Seriously tho, good thoughts for your friend and to you for being there for them. It’s your friends that get you through.

  18. 18.

    Dan

    March 29, 2011 at 9:24 am

    It’s not a tumor.

  19. 19.

    Cacti

    March 29, 2011 at 9:56 am

    So, how many love bombs of humanitarianism are we dropping on Libya today?

  20. 20.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 29, 2011 at 10:40 am

    You’re a good guy to take your neighbor.

  21. 21.

    kindness

    March 29, 2011 at 10:48 am

    NPR was Fox Lite again this morning: U.S. Civil Rights Division In The Hot Seat, Again.

    Here they used Han von Spakovsky, noted Civil Rights Division voter caging chief to suggest the Obama Administration is bad. The New Black Panthers case along with Texas Representative and birther Rep. John Culberson (R) to suggest the Obama Justice Department will only protect black Americans.

    NPR….they are dead to me.

  22. 22.

    kindness

    March 29, 2011 at 10:51 am

    How come I can’t correct my entry? I click Edit and it’s telling me I don’t have permission to Edit my post even though I have 3 minutes left.

    The R is for Republican, not what ever circle r means.

  23. 23.

    Failure, Inc.

    March 29, 2011 at 10:59 am

    test post

  24. 24.

    jcgrim

    March 29, 2011 at 11:27 am

    John, you are a good man. Anyone who volunteers to spend an exhausting day in doctor’s offices and hospitals talking about someone else’s tumor has a place in heaven. (Whatever heaven means)

    Your friend will never forget.

  25. 25.

    moe99

    March 29, 2011 at 11:39 am

    As someone whose life was upended completely in Sept. 2009, with a lung cancer diagnosis, I can appreciate your help for your neighbor very much. You are a good guy. I have two friends who are good guys like you and I am unutterably grateful to them for all the trips they’ve taken with me.

  26. 26.

    Tsulagi

    March 29, 2011 at 11:54 am

    Been there, got the T-shirt. Suck it up. Dad had the added joys like emptying mom’s surgical drains at home, rubbing on creams in areas where skin had peeled off due to radiation, taking mom to intravenous chemo sessions at a hospital, and more.

    However I assume you’re doing this for your neighbor, not you. If s/he doesn’t have family to do this, you’re earning good karma. Nice of you.

  27. 27.

    Joe Beese

    March 29, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    @Cacti:

    how many love bombs of humanitarianism are we dropping on Libya today?

    We’ve got a coalition, bitches! Nothing can stand in our way!

  28. 28.

    TuiMel

    March 29, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    @R-Jud:

    I imagine having one sucks pretty bad.

    I can attest to that. Mastectomy three weeks ago today. Chemo starts Thursday.

  29. 29.

    Nutella

    March 29, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    Since this is an open thread:

    How about that David Weigel crying for poor, poor Andrew Brietbart, hounded from the front page of HuffPo by those awful liberals?

    No mention of Brietbart publishing doctored videos except in a quote from the evil Van Jones. Just Brietbart as noble victim of a vicious left-wing conspiracy.

  30. 30.

    mazareth

    March 29, 2011 at 1:09 pm

    Good on you John for helping out your neighbor. Friends and family were a huge part of me getting through my thyroid cancer surgery and recovery. Two years ago today I was meeting with a nuclear medicine Dr to get my big blue pill of radioactive iodine.

    You’re right that “tumor” and associated words are rarely part of any kind of uplifting conversation.

    I hope your neighbor pulls through whatever they have to go through in the next few months.

  31. 31.

    R-Jud

    March 29, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    @TuiMel: Sweet Jesus, TuiMel. May your treatment be successful, your recovery swift, and your bills much smaller than expected.

  32. 32.

    fraught

    March 29, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    Must remember if I ever get cancer: go for treatment alone.
    No matter how kind anyone who might go with you seems to be on the outside, he’s grumbling ans miserable on the inside.
    Even though it’s not his CANCER.

  33. 33.

    eemom

    March 29, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    @fraught:

    yeah, I was kind of wondering about that. Hope his neighbor doesn’t read the blog.

  34. 34.

    sukabi

    March 29, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    @Svensker: he could treat them to one of his epic “Fuck you all” rants… that would shake things up a bit…

  35. 35.

    McMullje

    March 29, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    You are pretty nice for such a tough guy!!!! Best to your neighbor.

  36. 36.

    And Another Thing...

    March 29, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    @fraught: Sorry to disagree, but any kind of medical treatment that is at all serious (ie. worse than an uncomplicated broken leg) should not be done alone. It’s very stressful for the victim/patient, and most people won’t hear/process/remember what the doc/technician says. There really can be a physiological reason for this. People/family members who partner are truly guardian angels. It’s not unusual for the partner to have prevented a medical error. Medicine is dangerous territory – travel in pairs.

    John once again demonstrates that he really is a softie.

  37. 37.

    John Cole

    March 29, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    @fraught: I wasn’t complaining, just stating the fact that talking about tumors is depressing.

  38. 38.

    Violet

    March 29, 2011 at 5:01 pm

    @fraught:
    I think it’s gallows humor. John is a really good guy for helping his neighbor. Good for you, John. Your neighbor is lucky to have you.

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