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What is up with the bell???
StarGirl
Member Posts: 135 ✭
Okay, so it took me four years to notice the damn thing, but now I can’t unsee the bell. And I wonder who on Earth thought that was a good idea??? Just putting it out there that I am irrationally annoyed by that stupid bell. Is it just me??
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I have to ask, though I may regret it
but what bell? 0 -
Hi @Nefertari, lol, apparently it’s a thing worldwide. I can only assume that at some point back in the day, some bright spark thought it would be super awesome if at the end of your ‘journey’ or ‘battle’ (or whatever trite analogy is de rigueur) you could stand up in the middle of your clinic like a total twat and ring a bell - an actual bell mounted to the wall or whatever - to proclaim your victory to all the people currently still undergoing treatment (or incurable and under indefinite treatment). Apparently this is a good thing to do. Maybe some of the staff nod off occasionally and need to be startled into action? Maybe it keeps birds off the window ledges? Maybe the vibrations have curative powers for those still under active treatment? It may be one of life’s great mysteries ????7
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There was no bell when I finished chemo and honestly I just wanted to get the F out of there quick smart lol.4
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Hi @StarGirl , "Maybe some of the staff nod off occasionally and need to be startled into action? Maybe it keeps birds off the window ledges? Maybe the vibrations have curative powers for those still under active treatment?" LOVE IT !
Also, "at the end of your ‘journey’ or ‘battle’ (or whatever trite analogy is de rigueur) you could stand up in the middle of your clinic like a total twat and ring a bell" - that word journey gives me the ..... !
Personally, I think it is quite silly and like @Brenda5 I'd just want to slide out quietly but guess some ladies feel they have made a statement.
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I found my chemo so gruesome I would have liked to have rung a bell to have just got through it. In fact even getting through the the AC was a bloody relief.
I certainly get if you have metastatic disease this would feel very different.
The bell is not a celebration of being disease free nor never requiring another treatment. It's just a celebration of completing that particular treatment.
There is a little poem that goes with it. It's also on radiation therapy areas at some hospitals.
Ring this bell / Three times well, / It’s toll to clearly say / My treatment’s done, / This course is run, / And I’m on my way.”
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Ha. They trotted the bell out the first time I finished chemo. And very quickly trotted it back in again. The second time, one of the newer onc nurses ( been there less than ten years, a rarity in our ward) started to bring it out and I thought the ward manager was going to put her in a head lock. The bell went back into the cupboard without comment. I loathe ceremony and festivity. Humbug.3
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Well blow me down if I didn’t just google it and discover that ringing the bell is a ‘joyous experience full of heart-warming fun’. I think I could be best friends with your ward manager @Zoffiel 🤣 Thanks for the poem @primek , I have not come across that before. I always thought it looked like a ship’s bell and I see (thanks again Google) that the guy who wrote the poem (Irve LeMoyne) was a retired navy seal. Apparently sailors ring a bell to mark when a job is done. Google also says that Irve went to the great big ship in the sky mere weeks after ringing said bell. So the bell is clearly the kiss of death. Are they trying to get rid of us?? 😱😱😱 Maybe it is a global conspiracy to save public health funds?
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@Zoffiel 🤣🤣 I never thought of that! That’s gold!! “Bring out your dead”. “But I’m not dead yet!” “Well, you’re very ill, you will be soon” 🤣🤣 That has made my day. Now I’ll see the bell next week for cycle 70 or whatever it is I’m up to after all these years and snigger. Of course now I REALLY want to march straight up and ring it and yell “bring out your dead”. I wonder how that would go down? 😱😬4
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Do it! We're a long time dead, and all...2
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*whispers* I quite liked ringing the bell...6
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@StarGirl be a rebel and ring that bell! Do it every time you go in for treatment
Below is a Christmas song, but you can adapt it and learn the bells if you like
https://youtu.be/Qbyy9CJ4t3s
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I wanted the bell but Port MAC doesn’t do it, so my treatment finished with a whimper instead of a “Yes! I’ve DONE IT!”1
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There was no bell when I was there (fairly new hospital). Doubt whether I would have rung it if it was, still had radiation to go so I didn't really see it as a finish line.
I saw one lady ring the bell on the way out a few weeks later and she scared the beejeesus out of everyone in the waiting room LOL.
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