Old Spice

After bedside rounds on the other side of the hospital, I followed Dr. Lantra in the next patient's room.

"How are you today, sir? Has any one shared with you the results of your imaging studies?" he asked upon entering.

The man in the bed raised his head and lifted his wooden garage-door eyes to address the questioning doctor.  His coarse silver and gray hair took the form of the impression left on his pillow.  In another setting I imagined his hair spiking off the top of his head in all directions, reaching for more room to stretch out.

"No, doctor," was his strained reply.  He swallowed.  "No, doctor," he repeated more convincingly.

"The chest x-ray showed a shadow that is suspicious for cancer.  They found a mass on bronchoscopy and sent a piece of it to pathology.  We are still waiting for the results.

He smacked his lips together in a way that made his tattery and tapered beard jiggle back-and-forth for a couple of seconds.  "Okay, then.  We'll wait."

"How's your appetite?"

"Not too good.  I've been sipping on my water; I never did like Jell-O." he said matter of fact.

We felt his belly.  It was firm and full but it wasn't tender.  His bowel sounds were normal.  The abdomen was starkly contrasted to his skeletonized chest wall.  The hospital gown barely stayed on his shoulders, but it didn't seem to bother him.

"Have you ever smoked, Sir?"

The yellow-blonde discoloration of his otherwise silver mustache was evidence enough but he dignified the question anyway.  "Since I was 13 years old.  That makes it, uhm, a little over 50 years." he said to his dutiful grown daughter listening patiently by his side.  Then he looked out of the window.

Taking advantage of the silence, I briefly surveyed the room of this man who was so different from myself.  I noticed his deodorant on the bedside table was only partially capped.  The familiar red cylindrical tube was unmistakably the same brand of deodorant that I had used to freshen up earlier that same morning.

I took a moment to consider what I had just observed and then leaned forward, inching up to the bedside to listen a little closer.

-Brad Schow, 2012