lean on me
Thalia tumbled, trimmed, and trumpeted while transacting with their new tools. “Wheeeeeee!!! Any preferences?”
Urania transferred questions from screen to page with a felt tip. “Watercolor pencils. Much tidier. Orderly.”
“I agree… although I think with practice… we’ll find uses for the oil pastels, too. Mixed media.” Calliope peered over Nia’s shoulder. “Whatcha doing?”
“Leveraging our network.”
“That sounds… transactional.” Cal’s wrinkled nose spoke louder than her soft voice and word choice. “Are you making a physical copy of relationship building questions? To ask our caregivers? For building up book 4? We were stumped… asked for help… and it arrived in buckets.”
“Yes.”
“Blehhhhhh-ssssss-dddd in re-layyyy-shun-ship!” Tal looked up from the mushrooms. “That’s what we are… connected like mycelium.”
Mushrooms grow in damp places.
That’s why they are shaped like an umbrella.
~ Alphonse Allias
Here is a message that Typist has started sending to her friends.
You're a friend!
Will you help? 😃
…
I want to formulate a solid list of questions to start asking my caregivers. My preference is that they are somewhat personal/relational in nature. More about connection beyond the transactions of cancer care.
For example… my oncologist and I share a love of ice cream. I’m going to ask him something about ice cream. One of my nurses was pregnant during some of my treatment. I’m going to ask her if she had concerns about being around the poisons… I mean drugs.
So far I’ve had suggestions of:
Favorite movie, band, book?
Podcast that makes you laugh?
If you can think of curiosity fueled, relational questions for an oncologist, nurse, surgeon… big machine tech, phlebotomist… etc…
Will you send them along? Expand my thinking?
What would you want to learn?
Much appreciated!
I would ask caregivers to share something positive that they would say to someone struggling with their health. It would make them reflect and think. It might even refresh their mind so they see how much they really help people.