It must take a very special kind of person to spend every day pumping chemotherapy into cancer patients. We appreciate them. What I notice is that most patients do everything they can to please the nurses: as though they are all-powerful figures who can help you if they like you (or ignore you - and perhaps hurt you - if they don't).

The nurses stay busy. They have the awesome responsibility of administering these poisons correctly, watching several patients' reactions during the day, and keeping painstaking records of it all. They earn their money.

After several sessions of chemotherapy, you get to know them all. And they know you when you walk in. Given the situation, the comfortable social interaction seems weird.