Ring the Bell!

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When I first started my radiation treatments, my son’s girlfriend asked me if they had a bell in the radiation oncology department like they do in the infusion center. I didn’t know what she was talking about so she told me about her mother’s chemo therapy. Trisha’s cancer was an aggressive one. Over the last two years of her life she went through four rounds of chemo therapy. Apparently in the infusion room there is a bell hanging on the wall. When a patient completed their series of treatments they would ring the bell on the way out the door. I thought it sounded kind of silly, but who was I to judge? After traveling to and from the cancer center every day for the last month the bell has taken on new meaning. (Yes, they have one in the radiation oncology department.) Radiation therapy is nothing compared to chemo therapy, but I was so ready to be done with it. Over the course of the last month I have made friends with several people going through the same thing I was going through. It didn’t take me long to realize how fortunate I was. Several of the men were facing 45 treatments instead of the 20 I had to deal with. Many of the patients spent a month or more getting chemo therapy before being sent on to the radiation oncology department as well. Today was my last treatment. I rang the bell while my new friends cheered and clapped. I rang it more for them than for myself. I walked out for the last time today, but they will be back there again tomorrow. I wanted to remind them that they too would one day ring the bell.