Blue Roses

Do you remember the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams? This is an appropriate question coming from Knoxville since Williams’ dad Cornelius is buried here in Old Gray cemetery. I visited the grave last fall and it’s a flat grave to the right of archival building as you enter.

If you remember the play, you will remember that the fragile protagonist Laura mentions that she had a crush on a young man Jim (the gentleman caller) in high school because he was kind and called her blue roses after he heard she had pleurisy.

That’s what I thought of yesterday after my Cat scan results came back. The results didn’t show cancer anywhere other than my lymphs on right side currently being treated. It didn’t even show the cancer on the left that was biopsied (positive) on Monday. It’s on the skin and subcutaneous lymph channels so it’s hard to detect. I’m just happy I’m still stage 3 and this cancer is regional.

But what the scan did show was some pleurisy (a little fluid) in my left lung from all the radiation. 72 on left and 22 currently on right. My rib area has been painful and no one has been able to tell me why. So at least I now know why I cough a little before I go to bed and why it’s hard to turn over.

So like Laura who felt that the blue roses labeled her as a “special” anomaly, I identify, since my cancer has acted very strangely, perplexing almost everyone. I’d like to be “normal” and healthy but I’ll take blue roses over cancer.