A thoughtful Thursday

Years ago, while freelancing at Campbell Ewald in Los Angeles, I wrote a quiet and serious commercial for Kaiser Permanente, not my strong suit by any means. 

It centered around a woman coming out of a doctor's office and getting in the minivan with her family.

After a long uncomfortable pause, we cut inside the minivan and see the father and the kids crying.

VO: When you get cancer, the whole family gets cancer.

The Chief Creative Officer said the story and the restrained way it was told, made her cry.

I had no idea when writing this spot how prescient it would be. 

About a year and a half ago, I had to rush my wife to the emergency room for a stabbing pain she had in her back. It turned out to be a 3 AM inflammation of a kidney stone -- these things always happen at 3 AM, like smoke detector batteries.

While the hospital was doing the scans, they found a large tumor on my wife's liver. And two days later, we received the news that knocked our lives off the foundation. 

I share a lot about my life on this blog but was hesitant to share this. It is not easy, but cancer never is. However, watching my Debbie go through what she has gone through in the past 16 months has given me a strength I did not know I had. 

People will joke that having lived with me for close to thirty years has made my wife battle-tested. And there can be no doubt about that. And to be sure, the endless chemo treatments have certainly pushed her to the edge. 

Sometimes I wonder which is worse, the cancer that has thankfully not affected her liver function, or the chemo treatments which have the knockout power of a Tyson uppercut.

Nevertheless, she has persisted.

This morning, I am at UCLA hospital, in my biased view the best healthcare people in the world. And today Deb will be getting the Y90 radiation treatment which literally injects minuscule radioactive pellets into the tumor, hopefully obliterating it and putting us on a strict managed regimen. 

The world of Oncology has changed so much since cancer took my father's life more than 30 years ago. And thanks to the internet, and a little bit of maturity, I've learned so much about it. The helplessness with dealing with my wife's pain can only be countered by vigorous research and self education. 

I have made it my job to stay informed. And so we are, and remain, optimistic

I say all this, not to elicit pity. Nor for your thoughts and prayers, I think I've made it clear on my relationship with god. And right now we are not on speaking terms. Debbie is more spiritually sanguine, so Positivity, whether divine or earthly, is always welcome.

But for the 8 people who read this blog regularly, I thoroughly endorse regular visits to the doctor with an eye towards early detection. And that goes doubly to you fellas who don't relish that finger in the butt. 

It's a small price to pay to get your prostate checked and it's good grist for the mill when you're drinking with your buddies and need a good cheap laugh.

Finally, on a political note. 

This is where our leaders have failed us. Both Republican and Democrat. Cancer affects us all. Maybe billionaires could cool it with the dick-measuring space flights and do something valuable with their money. Fighting cancer should be made a national priority, in the private sector and the public one as well. 

We have the resources, the technology, the imagination and the wherewithal to tell Cancer to...

...Fuck Off.