The Human Touch

Once upon a time I was a newly-diagnosed Stage 3c melanoma patient who, like most of us recent check-ins at The Hotel Melanoma, didn’t know a soul in “real life” who’d battled ‘just skin cancer’. And I found it to be a very isolating experience. It’s not that I wasn’t the beneficiary of a great deal of support and kindness from family, friends and co-workers; I most surely was. But I lacked a support network of melahomies who truly "got it" like only those who’ve walked in those same shoes can. Consequently, before, during and in the first years after biochemotherapy treatments, I didn’t have a single melapal who’d previously undergone that ass-kicking regimen to talk to and, so to speak, compare notes. Was my inability to remember simple things like my debit card PIN a normal and temporary side effect of the treatment? Does every NED melanoma survivor climb the walls and yearn for pharmaceutical assistance when waiting to receive scan results? My cancer center wasn’t a resource for connecting with other patients to chat about such matters because I didn’t have a brand of cancer that was ‘popular’ enough to merit having its own patient support group. I was on my own and not much liking that state of affairs.

Consequently, as a co-founder of the Colorado Melanoma Foundation one of my hopes and goals for the organization is that it will find a way to facilitate the formation of a patient support network that is local enough to Colorado to enable folks who are battling the Black Beast to actually meet one another in person if they choose to. The social media-based melahomey networks are a valuable source of long distance support and friendship, but don’t we all sometimes need the human touch of a one-on-one conversation over our favorite choice of beverage?

By the way, if you’re looking to meet some Colorado melapals then come to the Foundation’s Mallets for Melanoma event on Sunday August 2nd. I’m sure there’ll be something cold and tasty in my cooler to share.

I’ll leave you with The Hotel Melanoma rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “Human Touch”…



You and me we are the defenders
C gives us all fits some days
In the end what you don't surrender
Well C world just strips away

Girl ain't ‘nuff kindness in the face of facebook
Ain't gonna find no miracles there
Well you can wait on your friendings my darlin'
But I got a deal for you right here

I ain't lookin' for prayers or pity
I ain't comin' 'round searchin' for a crutch
I just want someone to talk to
And a little of that Human Touch
Just a little of that Human Touch

Ain't no mercy on pink streets of this town
Ain't no NED from heavenly skies
Ain't nobody drawin' wine from this blood
It's just you and me to fight

Tell me in a world without pity
Do you think what I'm askin's too much?
I just want something to hold on to
And a little of that Human Touch
Just a little of that Human Touch

Yeah!
Yeah hey!
Yeah yeah!
Whoa hey yeah yeah!

Oh girl that feeling of safety you prize
Well it comes with a hard hard price
You can't shut off the risk and the pain
Without losin' the love that remains
We're all riders on this train

Yeah hey yeah!
Whoa!
Hey!
Whoa!
Yeah yeah!
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeahhh!
Whoaaa!

So you been broken and you been hurt
Show me somebody who ain't
Yeah I know I ain't nobody's bargain
But hell a little touchup and a little paint

You might need somethin' to hold on to
When all the answers they don't amount to much
Somebody that you could just to talk to
And a little of that Human Touch

Baby in a world without pity
Do you think what I'm askin's too much?
I just want to see you and your harms
And share a little of that Human Touch
Share a little of that Human Touch
Feel a little of that Human Touch in you
Feel a little of that Human Touch
Share a little of that Human Touch in you
Feel a little of that Human Touch
Give me a little of that Human Touch in you
Give me a little of that Human Touch

Heyyy now!
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah yeah!
(Share a little of that Human Touch)
(Feel a little of that Human Touch)
(Give me a little of that Human Touch)
Whoa!
Feel a little of that Human Touch
Give me a little of that Human Touch
(Give me a little of that Human Touch)
Whoooa whoooa
(Need a bud)
Ohhh yeahhh!
Ohhh yeah!
Whoooa
Whoooa whoooa
Whoooa
Whoa!