But, do you, or others who you know, deliver happy distraction then, via deploying there earbuds (for the younger set) or headphones (for older and audiophiles)? Have you heard about folks who ignore dental work by using that chair-time to hear music, an informational podcast, or the radio, rather than that fast-spinning, scary spindrillthingy?
Your cancer patient experiences the equivalent of frequent dental surgery. Rather than fillings, root canals, or crowns, he or she must endure imaging (and “scanxiety,” awaiting the diagnostic results), often chemotherapy, often radiation, and sometimes surgery or other therapies. Can this dental-distraction strategy be redeployed to their delight?
Yes, surely. Well-managed radiological offices offer boomboxes, a library of music CDs, and BYO-music CD policies to help patients while away the time while they are imaged in the quiet machines. (Too bad about the fast-clanging machines that preclude music.)
And you can “bring the music” too.
Why not add some spring to the step of your cancer patient, via music, rather than by cool springy shoes, as sported by this floor nurse
Modern music technology make it easy to give “the gift of cool tunes.” New Internet business models adopted by a portion of the music industry now facilitate your facilitating your loved one’s well-being.
The message in the tune “/Stick To It/” (or, perhaps "/Move On/") as recorded by long-time New Orleans based, native-Swede star recording artist Theresa Andersson gets this writer through hard times: “/Make A Plan And/Stick To It/Come On,/You Know/You Can do it;/Every Time Your/Body Gets Weak/Take A Deep Breath/And Move On/”
How best to get about this?
First, “ask a teenager!” This decades-old advice by management guru Tom Peters still holds. Teens are tech-clueful and usually happy to help hapless oldsters. Maybe you’ll even get lucky and get a “hand-me-up.” That’s a piece of consumer electronics that’s obsoleted by new products. It’s still functional, but about to be discarded, per no longer meeting the features, fashion, or other parameters of the demanding teen digital technology consumer.
Second, “play deejay!” Choose a mood. Determine which type of energy or emotion that you want to deliver to your patient-buddy. Is it energization? Light-heartedness? Heavy-hitting strength?
Third, consider trying to include humor, riddles, puns, and other fun via smartly-selected songs’ lyrics. Your music-fan friends and contacts can help you select the best set-list; so challenge their creativity in a group email, appealing for the addition of supplemental songs. For example, for older folk, especially those with radiation therapy or skeletal challenges, mightn’t they remember “/The Hipbone’s Connected To The Kneebone/”? For recipients with a sassy spirit or the r’n’b, blues, or soul music fan, what about “/It Ain’t The Meat, It’s The Motion/”?
Fourth, “work the Web.” You can remember old and identify new songs by key words in song titles using www.allmusic.com and presumably other Web sites.
Fifth, buy or borrow a podplayer, to record, store, and deliver music in MP3 file format. They’re available at under USD $100 at all consumer electronics outlets. Also, many modern cellphones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) offer such features.
Finally, link up with legitimate music-source resources. Everybody knows Apple’s iTunes business “home run.” And there are other Web site and physical kiosk copyright-compliant custom-CD and single-song outlets. Always affirmatively assure that your music compiling and copying is authorized by the music owners. Don’t fall for the nouveau teen belief or “gimme culture” credo that “if it’s on the Web, it must, or at least should be free” or “I’m too busy to worry about ethical niceties.”
So go and spin some songs in the heart of your cancer-patient loved one. And it’s OK to sing or dance while you do it, too.
Get your patient-buddy ready for cancer treatment with good-spirited music. We’ll spin the goldy-oldy 1969 hit "/Get Ready/" before my loved one gets all bones zapped with a mega-dose of samarium-153, a rare earth radioactive element only discovered in recent decades in a few spots on the planet, in a new clinical trial.
(Photo of Theresa Andersson by Miranda Penn Turin.)
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