Waiting for the bell

 
   Those of you who have remained blissfully unaware of the cancer treatment world probably don't know about The Bell. 

    I too didn't know a thing about The Bell until we were getting ready to come here to the Really Famous Hospital for P.'s zapper treatments.  But we know about it now.  And we're waiting to hear it peal.

   To fill you in, these bells are affixed to the walls outside radiation and chemo rooms all around the country.  On the last day of someone's treatment, family members crowd around to snap pictures while the patient rings the bell.  Everyone in the room erupts in applause--doctors, nurses, technicians, and, most of all, other patients who know just what an accomplishment is represented by that golden sound.  

   Blog entries about the bell abound, as in here and here and here.

   So it's big deal, this bell ringing.

   As the weeks have gone by, we've watched a lot of other patients get to ring the bell as they've wrapped up their 30 or 35 or 40 sessions with the proton beam.  This often involves cake, watered by tears. 

    Soon, it will be our turn. We're on schedule for P.'s bell ringing ceremony soon, since he's got only nine treatments left to go.

    I've got the camera ready.  Think we'll get all weepy, too?

    You betcha.