Posted 6/3/2024 1:16 PM (GMT 0)
Some of you may have noticed that for a while now I’ve been in a regular posting routine here on the forum.
A post on a topical thread about some aspect of PCa, or medicine, usually on a Monday morning, allowing for a week’s worth of replies. Then a humor thread and/or OT topic of interest thread on the following Friday.
A pattern that was never meant to be intentional, just sort of evolved.
But as was probably the case with a lot of us, my original plan, when first joining this forum all the way back in 2011, was first to benefit from the wisdom of others posting here, who had already been traveling for a while down the PCa road. Then, as I was able, perhaps post something of my own from time to time from my own experience, hopefully of use to others, especially the ones coming after me.
That was the first reason.
But then it turned out, as least the way I saw it, that my own PCa experience was really pretty ordinary, just an uneventful Gleason 6 prostate cancer, with no complications (my uro even called it a “garden variety” PCa). That was it, in spite of the fact that when I first heard the words “you’ve got prostate cancer!” it did scare the heck out of me, at the time not knowing the difference between G6 (what I was), G7, G8, etc.
So I wasn’t sure I had much to offer, just posting once in a while a little something about the IMRT experience I had had, making some small comment about it.
But then I realized that the forum here had the policy of allowing the posting of threads that were not strictly confined just to PCa itself, and its treatment. One could also post threads about related subjects, such as the psychology of living/dealing with PCa, cancer hospitals, the world of cancer in general, personal experiences with it, etc.
A good policy, inviting presentation of diverse facts and stimulating viewpoints.
That’s where my second reason for ongoing posting comes in.
As some of you may already know, I had a career as an academic librarian at the University of Florida for 35 years.
As such, I spent many hours on the university's library reference desk, as a Humanities specialist, responding to a daily stream of questions from professors and students on a wide range of subjects.
Everything from "Which Roman emperor succeeded Nero?" to "How many novels did Hemingway write?"
I loved fielding those questions! I felt like the Sherlock Holmes of the reference desk!
"Come, Watson, off to the reference collection to track down and bring to light the answer to the question that has been put to us!"
Or like street-smart film noir detective Sam Spade, approached by the distraught millionaire father ("My beautiful daughter is missing! Please find her!") and I was off to the streets, reference question style, to find the missing heiress!
Yes, as soon as I got those questions, it was off to the appropriate information sources, to go through them like a hunter on the hunt, searching for the answers, and hopefully finding them! An adventure!
And when I did find them, it was always a pleasure to relay them to the professor's office or to the student by phone, campus mail, or in person.
I enjoyed the reward of getting the job done! They wanted an answer and I found it for them!
But then I found that preparing and posting threads here on this forum was very much like doing my old job in the UF Library: hearing what amounted to patron (library name for people asking questions) inquiries, then I would formulate a search strategy to get an answer, and then go and get it, and post the result here.
l have kept doing that since I've been here, up to today, and had great fun with it! It's been sort of like re-creating a typical shift on the reference desk where I once worked. It's been like answering reference questions, in a way, "just like old times!"
I don't know how many of us would care to do that, doing now a version of what we once did while employed at the jobs we had in the past, or how many of us would even want to, but in my case doing so has been great fun!
I do hope the threads I've been posting, especially the Monday ones, have been helpful, or at least a little bit interesting.
But I can say preparing and posting them has been very rewarding and fun for me personally.
So stay tuned, as I have a folder full of thread candidates still under development, most of them probably to appear on a future Monday for your reading pleasure. (Or so I hope).
As I noted above, like telephoning (no email back in those days!) Professor Smith's office to leave a message that I found the answer to the question that he had left with me!
Just like the good old days!
And TWO reasons to keep posting here!