Hanukkah Day 6. Fire Photon Torpedoes

Again in the zone of peculiar gratitudes and ferocious Light, a  couple weeks ago Meeting for Worship featured two "please hold me in the Light" messages, one with an implicit request and one more explicit.

The more explicit request: a Friend was facing surgery for breast cancer. RantWoman found herself thinking of RantMom and a blind friend both of whom suffer miserably from neuropathy after their cancer treatment. RantWoman is terribly glad to have both still among us and terribly glad RantMom is finally admitting she finds neuropathy a giant nuisance in the kitchen. Blind Friend would quite like still to be able to read Braille and no longer can.:The words that did not make it out of RantWoman's mouth: "well, of course I must hold you in the Light...and we will still love you even if all the treatments give you neuropathy."

The implicit request to be held in the Light came from a Friend needing to monitor vision for signs of a detached retina. Friend REALLY likes to read and RantWoman has to assume the phrase "detached retina" sounds absolutely terrifying.  RantWoman GUESSES she gets to be grateful to have resisted slight nudgings toward "attack of the trauma all stars" comments. RantWoman definitely qualifies for opthalomology frequent flyer points and has plenty of opportunity to get in touch with joys of repeatedly being Exhibit A for newly minted opthamological technicians and having to remind them of long history.

RantWoman's history includes the term detached retina, twice, in 3 languages just to explain to key groupies. RantWoman's detached retinas did not qualify for simple laser beams tacking things back in place. RantWoman's option was MUCH more invasive including a band around each eye and a gas bubble inside for weeks. On the bus, one on one, RantWoman in other medical situations has found herself hearing some version of "been there. Done That.Got the T-shirt and a bunch of hardware and some more frequent flier miles besides. RantWoman has not felt called to spell things out in Meeting for worship for the whole community to hold either. Instead RantWoman gets to be grateful for Star Trek.
The one time RantWoman had to have something ophthalmological done with a laser beam,all RantWoman could think of was "Fire Photon torpedoes!" RantWoman does not want to speculate whether that comment would be helpful for the Friend who spoke. It certainly covered RantWoman's experience with a shock wave and a precise enough quantumof energy to remind RantWoman of some laser-themed mad scientist moments in summer science programs in high school.

Fire photon torpedoes indeed. Light up the blog screen.