rockychunk

First of all, thank you for the hours of fantastic entertainment. My question: Please relate to us your most horrible fan story. One that was downright creepy or even illegal. Tell us how that made you feel, and whether it caused you to regret your celebrity.

I noticed from one of your previous posts that you're from New Jersey. My older sister was born with PKU in New Jersey in 1955, before mandatory PKU testing at birth became a law. She wasn't diagnosed until she was 5 years old, and the brain damage she incurred was permanent. My parents became (understandably) obsessed with this issue, and lobbied tirelessly before the New Jersey state legislature until mandatory PKU testing was signed into state law. I am always gladdened when I hear about folks like you who benefited from their efforts, and are now living normal lives as a consequence of it.

Surgeon here. You don't know how much I admire you. Every once in awhile I'll have an operative patient with early dementia. Post op rounds on those patients are quite taxing. I'll examine the patient, then stay in the room to discuss the patient's progress with the family member. Usually, during those few minutes, I'll be asked the same question by the patient 5 or 6 times in the span of ten minutes. By the end of the encounter, I can't wait to get out of there. I can't imagine doing this all day, every day of my career. Kudos to you and your seemingly inexhaustible level of patience.

Typical radiologist. A study gets ordered to diagnose one of two disorders, and they give you three pages of all the stuff they can't rule out with the study.

This is a great answer. There really isn't a "one size fits all" way of telling someone they have cancer. I've been a practicing physician for 27 years, and I've had some patients that you can tell that the moment I've said "cancer", they just zone out and don't hear another word I say. I usually just see these folks back in the office within 24-48 hours to allow them to digest the news. Others want the whole deal right then and there, and insist in a relatively unemotional way that I spell out every aspect of their therapy during that first post-biopsy visit. Most times I guess correctly which person is which, but sometimes I read the signals wrong. I'm always learning about people.