Living Life In Short Chapters

(1)

I’ve seen the equation Comedy = Tragedy + Time, which, by the way, never appeared in any of the texts I used during my career as a math teacher. However, this equation, whether true or not, has been explored by Chuck Lorrie who wrote According to the rules of comedy, your suffering will be funny after an undetermined length of time..

Now I’ve tried to use this adage in my book Looking Back ..... The Ramblings of Doc Irwin when writing about certain events in my life. The story of my falling off a ladder and the subsequent tale of my heart attack and triple bypass became a humorous story ..... but only because I survived and was able to view the event and all the related occurrences from a relatively safe distance.

But now I’ve decided to write about another event in my life and see if any humour develops as I venture into the story. I’m actually not sure if this is going to work, because even though the story began over 20 years ago it is still ongoing ......and I’m not sure enough time has elapsed. But this is a start.

(2)

It all began just before Labour Day in 2003, when I visited my doctor for my annual physical. Everything seemed to be okay until he read the results of the PSA test. The number was high, so he suggested a biopsy at Princess Margaret Hospital. And at this point I regretted having missed the ‘annual’ the year before, but convinced myself that the number was probably an anomaly and casually called the hospital for an appointment. They told me that they had just had a cancellation for the following Tuesday so I decided to take it and just get the job done.

(3)

When Tuesday came, my wife and I decided that opening day for a class of Kindergarten kids was a big deal and that it would be very confusing if their teacher was not there on the first day. So, while my wife set out for school, I hopped on the subway and headed down to the hospital by myself anticipating a quick in and out, so to speak. Well...... it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, and as I lay there in the little recovery room, I cursed myself for not driving to the hospital. My penchant