Cleveland's Seidman Cancer Center Tower

Editor's note:

The architecture of Seidman Tower is absolutely amazing.   The view is breathtaking from the top floor - like that of an eagle, soaring over Little Italy, past Lakeview Cemetery, across Cleveland, and toward Lake Erie, itself.  That may seem flowery.  However, should you find yourself in that place, in that moment, you'll understand what I allude to.      

11100 Euclid Avenue is a hopeful place, even when the diagnosis might become - extremely sad.

Clip from a Dr. Who episode, here:

 "Everything ends - and it's always sad...."

In my mind, the real magic at 11100 Euclid Avenue is the healthcare team, working inside the building and across the region at a satellite location.    These are the people who are working tirelessly to push the envelope of patient care - especially on the top floor.  That's floor 10.    

Both at this location, and in the far suburbs of Cleveland, the healthcare team puts to use the "tools in the toolbox."

Perhaps there is a tumor board.  Picture a long table.  Seated there are doctors with lots of training and experience who talk to each other.  They talk to others around the word.    Now, with high speed internet, ideas get shared more quickly around the globe.   Maybe they conference others in.   Like a ZOOM meeting - but with attendees who are really smart people, or should I say, people who are smart with oncology or smart with some particular medical situation.   

It's my understanding that all of this is regardless of the hospital branding and that in general, doctors all talk to each other about latest treatments at symposiums.   They switch hospitals.  They go back and forth.   For example, there would be conversations or published papers shared between doctors that might be something like: 

"Well, tried this here and this didn't work.  But them, we tried this other treatment here - and it worked."  

Remarkable.  Pushing the envelope of how to proceed - or not.   And I could tell you more stories in real life.

In same cases, life may be prolonged for the patient.  This way, a patient might life out, his or her life, "full-measure" - sometimes.   Sometimes he or she will go back to work, albeit with a few changes.   In some cases, the patient will live a normal life.  Remarkable.    

Afterwards, there might be a support group.   This way, the people who until recently were patients, can "keep their heads screwed-on straight" after all of those procedures.  Radiation.  Chemo.  Stem cell transplants.  You know: "All that jazz...." 

I would imagine the support groups are a very good idea.  It seems to me that if a patient would be in a cancer support group or if the patient would commiserate with others having a similar condition, then a few things might happen over time.   Others in the support group would not always pull through and they would be overtaken by the disease.   For the living, some patients might even develop a survivor's guilt.  He or she might be amazed that they are still here "in the material world."  He or she might question "why" they are still here.  A patient with survivor guilt might ponder, "How come this person in the support group didn't make it - but I did?" and  "Why am I here?"   

Regardless of all that, sometimes, it's really the end.  And that might be surprising to everyone involved.   And the truth is, science can't fix everything - even though you thought that it might - or you thought that it would.  There are limits for every intervention, not just cancer care.  

There are limits for the treatments associated with old age.  Limits to treating medical conditions, in general.  And that is a painful lesson to learn.   Especially when the limits of treatment / the limits of medicine / the limits of science are reached for that special someone that everyone here on earth had loved, so dearly.   Sadly, life doesn't go on forever for any of us.   

So go live each day.

Work hard.  Yet maybe at some point, take that trip to someplace that is really cool  - maybe with the people you love and the ones who "love you back..."    (That's how this section "Trip to New York" came to be!)

Truth be told, when I mention "living each day" that doesn't have to be a destination that is completely "over the top..."   And some of the most fun memories, for me, were those created right at home,  or just down the road, or while in the trenches at work with my "work family" while all of us were "rowing the boat together" working away at some task.   You meet all kinds of interesting people.

Here's another thing to ponder.

If you do take a vacation, perhaps you are  a "lone wolf" - or over time, you've become a "lone wolf."

I look around.  I see countless examples of folks "going it alone" these days.

Love hasn't worked-out, for some of these people.  

(The stories I could tell you....*sigh*)  

Or for whatever reason, they don't want to be in a relationship - and that's fine.

There are a million different scenarios here, so it's difficult to generalize.

And I thought about editing this part out -  but hear me out about people and their pets.

Maybe you have a pet dog?  Perhaps like others from all walks of life that I've met, you might treat that puppy dog as if it was your child - because (in some cases) there is an inability to compromise with other human beings.  Or you don't want to enter into a legal contract with another human.  Again, there could be hundreds of scenarios, here.    However, what I have noticed about the human condition is that one person fussing over their dog is not an isolated example.   

What I've begun to notice is that people really love their dogs and often times they love their dog more than their fellow humans.   Everyday, they tell me why they love their dogs so much.  "My happy dog greets me when I arrive home...."  or "These dogs tell me when they are ready for their dinner...." 

Oh, here comes a baby carriage!   Oh, is that a baby boy or a baby girl in that baby carriage?   Neither - it's a dog!   What?  Hahaha

Similarly,  "Well, I would go out tonight, but I have to be home by 8 p.m.  You know -  to let my dogs out...." 

Look, I've seen it all.....

And I suppose there are worse things you could do with your time,  than fussing over a dog, planning your life around a dog.  

You could spend countless hours and days perfecting an online portfolio - like the one you are reading now - and the portfolio still won't be perfect.  lol.

Now, getting back to these people's dogs.

So perhaps you have someone watch the dog and you take that vacation by yourself - or you don't take a vacation at all because you have a dog - or you have several dogs.

But after being on the road and working as a field rep "out there" driving across the countryside all-alone for decades overnighting in what would typically be cheapest motel in each town, I can tell you, with 100% certainty:  "That's not me...."

In my mind, most of the joy arrives in sharing "what you seen" or "what you did together" with others throughout the day's events, be it daily life or during a vacay.  Then, jawing about what happened, afterwards, over dinner.  Decades later, you will still be talking about that vacay or the day's events.  "Remember when...."

Truth is, none of us, here, will go on forever...

And any one of us could walk out that door and be flattened by say, that proverbial cement truck*  on the way home.

*No disrespect to cement truck drivers - and it wouldn't have to be a cement truck.   You can simply switch-on the evening news.  You'll see the details of countless other possible conclusions of people's lives - due to some mishap or another.  Depressing.  Now, if only I had a dog next to me while watching all of that depressing news at night.  I'd pet that dog's fur and perhaps it would ease my mind?   Keeping a dog is a lot of work.

And now, back on-topic to something uplifting, for the conclusion of this thought:

The inspirational conclusion of this section, would be me giving proper respects to those people who are there for you and for your family when it looks like "the end."

And like I mentioned above, sometimes, it is "the end."   And even when it is "the end", then these people are amazing communicators.     I would need therapy every day if I had that job as end of life doctor / end of life nurse - but at least you are helping people through a tough time - so maybe that's the upside?

And, sometimes, happily - it's not "the end."

A patient might be sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, in tears, and not able to recognize their life, anymore.  Life spinning out of control.  Circling the drain.

A nurse appears.  Tells you it's going to be okay - even if it doesn't appear that way in the present tense.

They've pulled out all the tools.  Brought together all the teams, in order to keep life going on.  Sometimes.

We are blessed to have amazing hospitals here in Cleveland - and great people working there, too. 

Thank you for your service.   

We are grateful.  

-The Wible family

The photo, below, was pictured on April 8, 2021 by me, Tom Wible, during a walk around the neighborhood to clear my head.

I had spent most of that week sitting in the guest chair in a patient room trying to help.   

Introduction