When I told N I didn’t understand Carter’s decision to undergo radiation at his very advanced age, N’s reaction was unexpected.
“Maybe his wife is still alive,” he said, “and he doesn’t want to leave her company even a minute earlier than is absolutely necessary.”
I’m very loved.
Rosalind Carter is still alive, and said to be much more accepting of the cancer than her husband is.
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The second part of the phrase made it sound kind of suspicious.
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Sometimes radiation is done not in an attempt to cure but for palliative reasons, and there are new, very sophisticated techniques that limit side-effects. That is to say, the right kind of radiation treatment may make a cancer patient more comfortable in whatever time they have left even without lengthening that time.
We can hope that is the case here, that Carter has doctors who are helping him to carefully weigh the quality-of-life side of things. Sadly, not all doctors do, some are still too gung-ho about pursuing every treatment at all costs. They give cancer medicine a bad name.
I have also read that Rosalind is not taking this as well as Jimmy but that is not to say that her feelings won’t evolve. I think they are bound to. I have read as well that Carter is taking an experimental medication so we can give him credit for helping medical science move forward. That seems to fit with his personality, doesn’t it?
On an another note, what a smart husband you have!
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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