Someone else

Steven is at school today and is doing pretty well. He still won't let me shave or pull out the rest of his hair, so he has got just a few patches of very short hair left. And it bothers him to touch it with a hat or anything, so he has been bare headed lately. I think he'll be a lot happier about school when it is warmer or when he starts wearing hats.

I just wanted to share a few things he has said to me recently. When we were waiting to be discharged from the hospital, he laid his head back on his hands and said, "You know, this place really has great service. The nurses are really nice and will get you whatever you want. When you have to have a scan, they let you watch a video. I mean, it's just a great place. The only thing that isn't so good is the food."

And then last night he said, "I keep thinking about this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where they get robbed and the mom says, 'This is the sort of thing that happens to someone else' and the dad says, 'I guess someone has to be the someone else'. I keep thinking that is what it is like for me. I never thought I would ever get cancer--I thought that only happens to someone else." I told him it was probably a good thing that he never thought it would happen to him--chances were that it wouldn't. He thought about that for a while. I think he was wondering what it means that he is one of 5 in a million kids to get osteosarcoma.

I've thought about that a lot myself. Another recent conversation we had gave me hope that maybe it's so he'll be motivated to work on a cancer cure someday. He was reading a book about different jobs people have and he came across the job of biochemist. He got really excited and called me over to read about it. He said, "I bet there is a lot of money in cancer research. Maybe I could be a biochemist when I grow up." Perfect. The only thing better is if someone beats him to the cure.