From "Sharpie Sniffer" to "Pioneer"

Isn't it funny how so much can result from a tiny joke?  Sometimes it is good...sometimes bad.  It's really good when that tiny joke may just become the catalyst to pioneering a new idea for an industry.  I think that I might have stumbled upon just that kind of joke.  It all began with the mark of a Sharpie...

I go in for radiation every day, Monday through Friday.  Three of those days each week, the therapists take an X-ray to make sure everything is still lined up exactly the way it needs to be.  Then, if there are adjustments to be made, a therapist will come in, with Sharpie in hand, and put little marks on my mask. 

Well, the first time they performed one of the X-rays on me, they ended up putting a mark directly under my nostrils.  Please hear me out...I do NOT like to sniff Sharpies, but I do like joke around.  So, as the therapists were walking out, I mumbled through my mask, "Mmmm...this Sharpie smells good" (think Brian Regan voice...I don't sound like him, but it adds so much to the story).  They laughed.  Success.

However, that has now become the recurring joke with the therapists.  I started to think that "Sharpie Sniffer" might not be the legacy I want to leave.  That is when I started to tell them that I am going to give them all scented markers (sans Black Licorice...that's just gross).

Last night, I was telling a friend of mine this story.  He is currently going through clinicals to become a radiation therapist.  Do you know what I found out?  Not only do they use Sharpies at every place he has been to, a Sharpie is on the list of school supplies every student is required to have.  He told me that I just might be on track to "revamping the radiation therapy industry after your 1st treatment!"  Today, I told my therapists that I want credit when this happens, and that they now need to call me, "Pioneer."

(Disclaimer:  This is merely taking a tiny joke and making it bigger.  I, in no way, expect for the future generation to see my name in the history books of radiation therapy technology.  But, I still do not think it is a bad idea...at least for head-and-neck treatments,)