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What is up with the bell???

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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Comments

  • Nefertari
    Nefertari Member Posts: 288
    I have to ask, though I may regret it :p but what bell?
  • Brenda5
    Brenda5 Member Posts: 2,423
    There was no bell when I finished chemo and honestly I just wanted to get the F out of there quick smart lol.
  • BlackWidow
    BlackWidow Member Posts: 268
    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.

  • primek
    primek Member Posts: 5,392
    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.”


  • Zoffiel
    Zoffiel Member Posts: 3,372
    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.
  • StarGirl
    StarGirl Member Posts: 135
    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? 
  • StarGirl
    StarGirl Member Posts: 135
    @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? 😱😬
  • Zoffiel
    Zoffiel Member Posts: 3,372
    Do it! We're a long time dead, and all...
  • StarGirl
    StarGirl Member Posts: 135
    @kmakm, I think I might now too 😬 @Zoffiel has inspired me. 😱
  • Keeping_positive1
    Keeping_positive1 Member Posts: 555
    edited February 2020
    @StarGirl be a rebel and ring that bell!  Do it every time you go in for treatment :D

    Below is a Christmas song, but you can adapt it and learn the bells if you like :o

    https://youtu.be/Qbyy9CJ4t3s


  • arpie
    arpie Member Posts: 7,524
    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!”  
  • kezmusc
    kezmusc Member Posts: 1,544
    edited February 2020
    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.