Recent events in politics and related news have prompted me to reflect on things I do not have in common with Ted Kennedy.
- I did not lead a floor fight at the 1980 Democratic Convention.
- I have not had a roman à clef written about me by Joyce Carol Oates.
A trifle more seriously, Kennedy has apparently been diagnosed with a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe of his brain.
This is similar to what it appears I’ve got, but not quite the same. Going from the most to the least clearly known:
- Mine’s in the temporal lobe rather than the parietal.
- We don’t know that it’s malignant.
- We don’t know that it’s a glioma.
The results of the biopsy should provide the definitive answers on the latter two points. So for the time being at least, I’m in distinguished company, but it’s not very close distinguished company.
Is it bad that — just for a second — I thought, “Oh jeez, there’s no update. He was supposed to hear back about the biopsy by the 26th!”? I mean, here you are, waiting to hear if the tumor is malignant, and I’m grumpy because I want to read the next installment.
I look everyday for updates.