I start radiation in about twenty-four hours. It's 1:17am on Tuesday here, and I'll be getting my first treatment at 8:00am Wednesday. Speaking of, I'm not sure that I've filled you in on how my appointment went last Thursday. Let me fill you in.
To start, this was probably the first appointment ever that I've been to on time to at the Ted B. Wahby Cancer Center. I bet the staff in oncology is SO happy that I'm done with treatment, because now I can't jam up their scheduling every other week. Plus, they don't have to run up and down the stairs to bring the lab a new order for my bloodwork every time I forget mine--which, if we're being honest, happened probably half of the time.
Anyway, I was given the grand tour of the radiology department and then the nurse took me in to get my vitals and then ask me a million-and-one questions about how I was feeling, if I'd been having any unusual symptoms from chemo, did I have any questions about what's happened so far, etc... She was really nice. Maybe twenty-five, twenty-six years old with a kind of quirky, fun personality. Immediately, I felt comfortable talking with her. So comfortable, that I decided to ask her my secret question.
I'm sure ever since I posted my blog about my radiologist, you've all been debating if he's had a nose job too. Well, I asked my new nurse friend if she thought he had and she just busted out laughing. Really hard. I was a little bit confused because I didn't know if she was laughing because she'd been wondering the same thing, or if it was because a lot of people ask. She said I should ask him.
I decided I'd just ask him his ethnicity instead.
Now before some of you get your feathers ruffled about the ethnicity question, know this. I have been asked if I'm part Mexican, Spanish, Mulatto, Puerto Rican, Asian (?), and Mediterranean, among a sea of others. I wasn't asking because I'm racially biased in any way. However, because I find the different races so fascinating, I've spent a lot of time viewing material about the various facial structures and characteristics within regional groups. Therefore, I was pretty sure if I knew his ethnicity, I'd be able to make a pretty educated guess as to whether he'd gotten a nose job or not.
I'm not sure he's ever had anyone ask him that question before. He paused for a second and then responded that he was black. This was where the conversation got fun.
"No, no, no," I said. "What's your ethnicity, your bloodline?" He started laughing.
"Is it because of my accent?" His accent? Then it was my turn to laugh.
"Your accent?" I replied. "I don't even HEAR one."
I then took a moment to explain that I was pretty sure he wasn't straight up African American, simply based on the fact that he had a relatively light complexion with freckles--but I left out "and because the bridge of your nose is pretty narrow."
Turns out, he's mostly African American with a pinch of American Indian and IRISH. That's where the freckles probably come from. And the American Indian is probably a pretty strong contributor to the narrow bridge. Before he'd told me, I'd been thinking maybe he had some non-American Indian (think Dubai) in him, but Irish blood hadn't even entered my mind. It makes sense, though, really.
We talked for probably at least a half hour, if not forty-five minutes, about different races and how some people still see the world through color-siphoning lenses while others have made more progress in the area of racial equality. It was pretty sweet conversation. Also, I learned that around here, a good way to get to know people is to join interest groups. For instance, "sewing" group. Or "first time expectant mothers" group. (No, I'm not expecting. It was the example he gave of a group his wife had joined)
So I might try that. If I can ever figure out where these groups are, anyway.
End of story--I don't think he's had a nose job. And now I know where his freckles most likely came from.
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