Sometimes when one is hospitalized for a long period, one can make a friend for a lifetime. When my blood counts were plunging out of control, my doctors wanted to try a new drug that went into the bone marrow. So I was admitted to a pediatric cancer ward in my twenties.
However, there was another young man my age named Michael, who was battling leukemia, like most on the ward, much younger than us. We immediately bonded and became the "pied pipers" of the ward.
Years prior to this I had read the beautiful book written by Doris Lund, detailing her amazing son's leukemia battle. Eric was diagnosed at 17, fought hard, yet died age 22, in 1972.
One of the things Eric did once while hospitalized for a long while, was to put a live goldfish in what looked like a glass I.V. bottle...then attach a line which appeared to go in his arm. When his team of doctors came in, they saw him uncharacteristically hunkered down in bed. They asked what was wrong. Eric replied, "I'm feeling very scaly. " That's when the doctors then noticed the goldfish, and loved it.
So this brings it back to Michael and I...
When we both weren't desperately ill from the treatments we were getting, we found ways to keep ourselves going, and the whole ward going, with courage and laughter. Since the ward was kept in very sterle conditions we were isolated, so moments of laughter in the midst of hell could go a long way.
One day I told Michael about Eric, and that was all it took. We had to try to do what we then called the Goldfish Caper. In the Blog ahead will be what happened...
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