Real Time

When the therapists get me settled in my mold and have taken care of the other preliminaries, they have to get me lined up with the beam machine for the treatment. Crucial to this alignment is the X-ray process. I broke my wrist in December and I have had a lot of X-rays on my wrist recently. I would plop my arm on the X-ray table, hold still for a few seconds while the technicians are out of the room, and it was finished quickly—a piece of cake!

The X-rays before each of my treatments are much more complicated. When they are treating my right side the proton beam is lined up on my right hip. One giant arm comes out of the back of the gantry and comes alongside my left side. Another giant arm comes out and is under my body. When the beam is lined up for treating my left side one arm is on my right side and the other is above me. Each of these arms is a very complex X-ray machine. They are not taking still images; these machines are taking “real time” images of my pelvic area. The two X-ray machines send these real time images to computers that sync with the lasers and the beam machine to get me perfectly lined up for the radiation.

You will recall that I had to go so bad one night last week that I said something out loud—that’s a no-no. If I talk, there is movement, and they have to start the real time X-rays over. That doesn’t make the therapists happy. And, let me tell you this: with all the things they are doing to my body, I ain’t gonna get them upset.

You know me. I a farmer and farmers are curious: what does real time mean? The Oxford Dictionary says this: the actual time during which a process or event occurs. They used part of the word to define the word. Do you think that helped me understand it better? When the dictionaries don’t have good meanings for words, they cover up by giving you examples of how it is used in sentences. But, I still have trouble defining it.

However, I don’t have trouble defining real time in my own life. I think it means actions that one has committed or pledged to perform. I made a commitment for real time with Cheryl 43 years ago. Sometimes I have not been as faithful with that commitment, but I know the difference in real time and perfunctory time. I have had a lot of practice with perfunctory time.

 Being here for the treatments has been good for our marriage. Cheryl and I have had more face time in these three weeks than we have in any 3 months since we were living in West Africa. We have had real time. I have continued to work, but without other distractions, I have spent much more time with her. She insists on driving into the city with me for the treatments so we have an additional hour each day to spend with each other. I enjoy my real time with Cheryl. She is my best friend and main squeeze—yes I have other squeezes: two daughters, two daughters-in-love, and 11 grandchildren.

Today while getting my treatment I prayed that I would spend real time with the rest of my family and with my colleagues at work and with friends. Perhaps others may not readily recognize when we give them perfunctory time, but we know the difference.