What’s your sub?

Have you ever thought about what sub-cultures you belong too? What makes a group, a sub-culture? Do sociologists really study this? For me, a sub-culture is something that becomes ingrained into your life and defines you in some way. Some sub-cultures stick with you forever and others are just with you for a period of time. Either way, sub-cultures are not fads, they are part of you. They have a language that is unique to that culture and its members. They define you.

For example, there are things about being of Italian descent that follow you through your entire life – big Sunday Dinners, Christmas Eve celebrations, guilt that rivals your Jewish friends – buying the meatloaf TV dinners and avoiding the poor attempts at recreating Lasagna and other pasta dishes – having your grandmother Fedex escarole soup to you in college.

There are other sub-cultures that you live in only for a while, but they still become ingrained into your life.

College students remain a strong, brief, sub-culture for many people. We can all recall things we did than, that we would never do again. When I worked for a global freight forwarder, I traveled out of the country every month – Germany, Hong Kong, U.K., Australia. I would sit in the lounge and talk to others and eventually realized that I was a part of yet another sub-culture. We had our own language. We shared experiences that those who were not frequent international travelers could never understand. We stood differently in line at the airport. We went through security lines with ease, while giving dirty looks to others who didn’t take their lap-tops out until they got to the scanner. I may not travel as much anymore, but behavior I picked up during my time in that sub-culture stays with me today. It wasn’t just a group. It was a way of life.

Now Trish and I have become part of another sub-culture. It’s not a fun one. We do have a language of our own. It includes things like eclipses balls, saline and heparin flushes, PICC lines, ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Counts). There are many people who are part of this sub-culture, many more than you could imagine. Staying in the Rockwell House has been good for us. Sharing with others our common walk. Sharing stories of taking care of our loved ones. Being with people who have gone through the transplant process ahead of us and seeing them doing well. It helps. It doesn’t solve anything, it doesn’t take away the hurt or the fear. It doesn’t magically make me relax about our insurance situation. It just feels better to know you are not alone, alone in the struggles and pain. The old saying that – no matter how bad your situation is, there is always someone worse off is true. It’s all bad, It’s all different, but you are not alone and somehow that helps.

On the Trish front, today was a quiet day. Her counts were lower, whites and Neutrophils were halfed. Both the IPOP Attending and Dr. Griffiths were not alarmed by that - I was...but I calmed down after they told me too. We spent most of the day in IPOP, seemed slow today. Tomorrow we have to be in IPOP by 8:30 -- way too early for us, but it's just a walk across the street and then some. Trish is scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy on Thursday, but it looks likely that it will be scheduled for Tuesday. We should know early Monday. I wish I had filled out a Final Four bracket this year -- I had predicted Ohio State vs. Florida in the Finals -- but will get nothing for my prognostication. GO GATORS!