If I Had to Choose Only One Gadget

The first thing my husband, Scott, did after I was diagnosed with cancer was to take me to the AT&T store. That might sound a little odd - but it was really very smart. I had a Palm Treo it was red and really cute. It had a great qwerty keyboard and a touch screen. Allegedly, I could receive and send email, get phone calls, make phone calls and surf the web among other things. In reality, I could make phone calls. This phone wouldn't always ring when I got a call. If I missed a call, the phone kept that top secret information to itself. According to the voice mail screen, I always had one voice mail...no matter what...all the time. I was sick with cancer and my phone was even more sick. Scott thought I needed a dependable phone. We went and looked at the options. Okay, we looked at the options just for appearance sake. We both knew I was getting an iPhone. I got the phone, threw the Palm in a drawer and my iPhone and I became inseparable.

When I started chemo, I prepared my accessories. The treatments were hours long and I would need to occupy my time. I packed my backpack with my laptop, Kindle, iPod and of course my iPhone. I settled into the chemo chair, pulled out my laptop and discovered that there was NO WiFi ! I was locked down. I had no access to the world. What would I do? No news, no Hulu, no Amazon Unbox, no NefFlix movies online, no facebook...OH NO!!

I told myself I would be okay. I could survive this. I remembered my wonderful new iPhone. I pulled it out of my backpack and looked at it in a whole new way. My iPhone didn't need WiFi. I could read and send email on it. I could read the news, surf the web, watch movies, listen to books, I found a way out! I could listen to Pandora Radio if I wanted to. I had a facebook app, a twitter app, and games to play. If I needed a new app, it was no big deal to just go to the App Store and get whatever I needed. I could even try out a bunch of free apps as long as I was just sitting and passing time while the chemo drugs were getting pumped into my body.

The crisis passed. I became calm. I had Comm Central in my hand. I spent a lot of time on my iPhone during the many, many hours I spent in the chemo chair. I'll be honest, my iPhone wasn't the only thing I used during that time, but I stopped bringing my laptop because my iPhone became my computer/phone/entertainment device.

If I had to choose one gadget to take to chemo, I would choose my iPhone. It can do all the things that each of my other gadgets do. My Kindle is very cool - I love it. But, I have a book reader app on my iPhone that allows me to read books. My iPod holds many audio books, podcasts, movies, and music but, my iPhone can hold audio books and music. I can watch YouTube and Hulu. My iPhone is a great gadget. Oh, did I mention that I can actually make and receive phone calls?