In praise of euphemisms

Back to the ol' chemo routine today. But it felt better since now I know the stuff has been working.

The Gemstar flowed into my veins for the first time in about a month. I had one of my favorite nurses, Amy, who told me that my color and eyes looked better. Maybe, of course, that's because I haven't had a treatment in so long, but maybe I'm just getting better.

The Yankee and Red Sox pods in the room have pretty much broken up in the chemo room, since the Sox fans have nothing to root for and the Yank fans are so confident of victory that they're less boisterous. Of course there always is 2004 to consider...

But back to cancer. I did notice today that the place is called the "infusion room,'' which sounds less dire than "chemotherapy,'' just as "oncology'' sounds better than "cancer treatment'' and "mass'' or "lesion'' sound better than "tumor.''

I'm generally opposed to language being anything less than direct. But it is easier to say I went to the oncology center today to get an infusion to treat the mass on my pancreas rather than to the cancer office for chemo to treat my tumor.