I went to chemo with my mom today and it was "Patient Appreciation Day". All the patients got big bags full of some really nice things. There was alos a coffee bar and they took orders from all the patients and visitors for coffee drinks. I enjoyed my tall mocha!
Anyway, when Busy Way-Too-Perky Nurse was preparing to give my mom her bag, she asked, "What is you diagnosis again?" (I think the bags must have been different for different cancers). My mom replied, "lung cancer", and Busy Way-Too-Perky-Nurse says with much enthusiasm, "Wow, great!"
Now, I'm all for oncologist offices being upbeat and positive, but my mother and I just kind of looked at each other and I told her (with the same enthusiasm shown by Busy Way-Too-Perky Nurse), "Well, darn, you should have done this (gotten cancer) a long time ago."
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Next time punch her in the face, but say thank you. Maybe she will understand the situation.
What an odd thing to say.
You didn't let her finish! She was gonna say: "Wow! Great! I'm glad this isn't the bag with the free carton of cigs in it." But you cut her off, ya meanie. You need to have more empathy for people and their feelings...
What a freakin' doofus
ouch... somehting tells me Busy Nurse had one too many free coffees.
Next thing you'll see Hallmark printing that up in a "Hope you get better because of your cancer" card.
Busy Nurse needs to rethink her positive Karma before sharing it with the patients. What a thing to say!
I'm with Kate. What a ridiculous thing to say. Hope your Mom's doing well.
Well what a great comeback though! I hope your Mom at least got a chuckle out of it later, laughing is supposed to be so good for us, ya know? Sometimes stupid crap flies out of my mouth too, but I'm pretty sure that nurse has me beat!
I'm thinking "patient appreciation day" is interesting in itself though. "thanks. We appreciate that you are sick so we have a job"? Maybe it could have been "we love our patients day" or something instead? Okay, maybe I am thinking too much here. I hope your Mom is doing well.
holy crap!! if any of my nurses had said "wow, great!" to my having ovarian cancer i would have punched the b**** out!!
great comeback though...i'm still in shock that the nurse was *that* clueless as to what she was saying...
Im speechless....
and that's not an easy thing to do
I'm quite floored by that idiot nurse... I have the urge to slap her. But flaming will do. Did you happen to get her email address? :-)
Maybe she got caught up in all the patient hipe, or maybe she's just an idiot! At least you were there with your mom!
How nice-- Patient Appreciation Day! It seems that everyone faces up to the hard situation positively.
One of those people that are too 'nice' for their own good - nice is to them more important than sincerity. Anyone that phony needs a little dose of reality. She probably doesn't even realize how ridiculous (and inconsiderate) her comment was.
I imagine with a job being around sick people all the time, being perky can become auto-pilot. I'd rather have a happy nurse than a pissed off one, myself.
omg--i bet she thought about that later and hopefully had some regret. the again--she may have had one too many tall mochas herself.
great classy comment on your behalf.
hugs nad well wishes to busy grandma.
so...what did they put in her special lung cancer bag?
Dear God. What an idiot.
OMG!
What an ass! That is the worst thing I have heard in a long long time. Sorry.
Inoperable brain tumor? TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME!
I wonder if the nurse even realized how that comment sounded? There's nothing "wow, great" about lung cancer. Hope your mom is doing well. Best of luck to her.