IT WAS 25 YEARS AGO TODAY

TUMOUR IN THE FOURTH VENTRICLE

 For Theo

Suspended, slung
in mid-air for surgery,
son, you are alive,
a metal halo,
screwed into your skull
to still your head.

The swaggering neurosurgeon
cuts out a circle of your skull, pulls
it out like plug to reach your brain.
The careful knives know where
they have to go, removing
every evidence of tumour.

Learning to pray
again, we wait
for the angels,
to deliver you,
so lightly held
back into our lives.

We rearrange what matters,
make promises we will
be unable to keep.
By evening
the closure
is handsomely sewn.

O what a beautiful scar!

Thanks to surgeons Williams and Brownstone, and all nurses and other health professionals that assisted during the 8 hour surgery.

Theo was released on July 1st 1995, and had 33 radiation treatments in August of the same year. There has been no recurrence. He trained and worked as a radiation therapist, and now works in IT  for CancerCare Manitoba. He is now working from home, and enjoys lunch with his wife and two children.

 

 

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