BUILDING A RINK

The month of July is our usual month for celebration. My wife Terry and I celebrate our birthdays within three days of each other. (I’m married to an older women for 72 hours every year). It’s also our anniversary month and the month for family BBQ’s and cottage time.

This year, however, our celebrations were more subdued, our cakes a bit smaller. Terry and I felt suspended in a seemingly never ending game of wait and see. My energy level began to wane as fluid on my lung had returned due to my abdominal tumors. My oncologist, Dr.Goldman, who hadn’t seen me in almost a month, seemed happy to pump me out. When we met, he shared his exasperation with the delay in my next biopsy date but clarified that although my first biopsy was inconclusive it did confirm that I had large cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, (sorry mom…my gall bladder is fine). When Terry asked why the results were inconclusive, he went on to explain that a more definitive diagnosis would help map out the chemotherapy regime that would best address the tumors in my chest and abdomen. As a chilling aside, he added that a bone marrow biopsy was on the horizon just to make sure the cancer had not reached my blood. He also said he was considering starting chemo before the second biopsy before things could get any worse. As he continued to drain my lung of fluid, I don’t think he realized how much he was draining my hopes at the same time.

A few days later, a phone call brought news of an earlier biopsy date set for July 22nd followed by chemo on July 29th. The wheels were in motion and thankfully, the chemo cart was not put before the biopsy horse.

By the second week of July, the waiting seemed interminable. I had been diagnosed over a month earlier and yet I still awaited the answer to my Final Jeopardy question. My patience was being pushed to the limit and I felt as though I was slipping through God’s fingers.

And then I got to thinking about one of my talents. Actually I have four talents, four things in my life that I am really good at: entertaining three year olds, making French toast, creating a good math test and building a backyard skating rink. To build a good rink, you need a flat surface, a good cold snap, plenty of water, and patience, lots of patience. Under ideal conditions, I have transformed our snowy backyard into a glassy rink in just four days. But sometimes, due to inconsistent Toronto weather, my rink would take weeks, sometimes even months to get off the ground. To build a rink, you need to persevere and be patient.

I guess building an outdoor rink in July is just that much harder to do.