One of my fondest memories as a kid is watching the movie FANTASTIC VOYAGE. In it, a group of scientists and their ultra-futuristic laser-packing “submarine” are reduced to cell size and injected into the blood vessels of a world diplomat in order to destroy a blood clot in his brain.
What would a FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Breast Cancer look like? I’m going to write a novel here, short chapter by short chapter and I’m going to include the latest research and I’m going to imagine the entire story here for your delectation. Likely it WON’T be once a month…
Kim Lin Ghandi, world-renowned philosopher and The Last Hope For World Peace studied Dr. Olubunmi Nwagbara – Ohloo to her close friends, Dr. O to those who wouldn’t try her last name for fear of offending her – a renowned breast cancer researcher and physician, working with the best hospital on the planet.
The massed military might of the Revived Super Powers of India and China threatened each other over the highest mountains on Earth from one end of their 3500 kilometer shared border to the other. Hostility between Beijing and New Delhi had risen since the fall of Communism in the West and the shift of the planetary economy to the Far East. They stood on the brink of nuclear war.
These forces had collided in the once-small city of Rochester, Minnesota at the once- local Mayo Clinic.
Kim Lin Ghandi nodded as she looked up at Olubunmi Nwagbara and said, “Da yawa masu saisaita tsininnukansu a ƙyalasr ɗaki.”
Ohloo blinked at her in startlement and said, “‘So many spears rest their points in the tiny room.’ Where did you learn that?”
“Among the Hausa women in northern Nigeria.”
“When were you there?”
“Many years ago when I first started touring.”
“You toured in developing countries?”
Kim Lin laughed. “At first, those were the only places capable of talking about spiritual matters without sneering.” Ohloo blocked disbelief on her own face before it blossomed into a sneer. But Kim Lin wasn’t fooled and sniffed.
Ohloo said, “Point taken.” She sighed and said, “I need to get going. I’ll check back with you in a few hours.”
“Will you be going home?”
Ohloo laughed outright. “This is my home, Lily."
“You sleep here?”
She glanced out the window at the slashing sleet, lowering her voice, “More often than I’d like.”
“You have a husband? Boyfriend?”
“I’ve had both and currently have neither.” She turned back, “You?”
“My husband left me when I got the first breast cancer diagnosis.”
“Asshole,” Ohloo blurted before she could clamp her mouth shut. “Sorry. I’m sure he was a good man.”
“He was at one time. He supported my work. Traveled with me all the time. But as more people recognized me, the more he felt like part of my luggage.” She touched her chest. “This was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“You know that that’s an urban myth, right? Breast cancer patients are not more susceptible to divorce.”
Kim Lin smiled faintly, “As I said, we’d drifted apart. The divorce was a legal formality.”
Ohloo stepped to the door. “I guess we make a good team, then. Hopelessly devoted to our work.”
“I used to love Olivia Newton John in Grease.”
“There you go. We were destined to be in the same place at the same time.”
Kim Lin nodded slowly then said, “I’m tired.”
Ohloo nodded, “And I have work to do. We’ll talk later.”
Resource: http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/intimacy/partner
Image: http://medgadget.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/Fantastic-Voyage-200x290.jpg
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