Friday, July 18, 2008

An Unwanted Journey: Day 0966- The Knife

Some very good news...relatively speaking - I'm eligible for liver resection surgery. Monday afternoon, the surgical oncologist and I will talk about how and when it will happen, going under the knife for the second time in less than 30 months.

So why the happy mood? Well, as I choose to see it, I've just improved my survival odds by at least 300%. True, the 5-year survival rate on average is still less than 50%, but the image that keeps coming to mind is from the final scene of Monty Python's The Life of Brian (voted by many as the greatest comedy film of all time). If you've seen the movie, you know precisely where this is going.

Eric Idle wrote the song that was featured in that famous last scene - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. The protagonist is sentenced to death by crucifixion. As all the rescue attempts come to nothing, one of the other characters being crucified alongside Brian attempts to cheer him up by singing the song. Soon, we see 140 other people being crucified all singing along.

As the anesthesia takes effect, I'll be doing my best (while counting backwards from 100) to recall this image.



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