It's happened again and it started with a short text stating "We can't meet for lunch. I am in the hospital."
This short note was from a very good friend. He's having surgery tomorrow. To complicate matters he contracted CDIF while in the hospital, has been on intravenous antibiotic for a week hoping to avoid the surgery and while the doctors were running tests they informed him that he has an unusual form of lymphoma too.
What a crap week.
Another good friend just had one kidney removed because of a cancerous tumor. His surgery went very well and he's well on the road to recovery. Thankfully symptoms brought him to a hospital while the tumor was contained and he can live very nicely with one kidney.
I remember, years ago, going for my annual physical and talking to my doctor in Delaware about my chances for breast cancer. My mother had just had a mastectomy but I think she was in her 70's when she had the operation. My doctor's blunt assessment was, "You are a woman. You have breasts. If you live long enough you will have breast cancer. Your mother's surgery, since it happened when she was a senior citizen, does not increase your risk." Nice.
My friends say,"We are at that age…..the age when friends start experiencing really difficult physical challenges." I don't want to be at "that age". I don't want our friend to have to go through what he has to go through. To have to undergo surgery. And then start with chemo or radiation or whatever the doctors decide will address the lymphoma. Surgery first….then treatment for cancer. What a great winter season he will have.
But he is a strong man, with a loving wife and they have a strong marriage. They have their adult children around to offer love and support. They have a wide group of caring friends who will be there to provide shoulders to cry on and arms to encircle them. As his wife says, "We will get through this!"
But crap…..just crap.
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