Dad's Surgery

Good news so far! Dad's out of surgery and in recovery even as I type. The doctor said that there doesn't appear to be any nerve damage, and that they think the tumor is benign. Of course, they still have to send it to pathology, but from my experience the doctors are pretty good about that sort of thing. Now we are just waiting for him to get lucid enough to take home, or rather for Marla to take home. There is something I need your help with, especially those of you who know my father personally. Word on the street is that he is planning on going to work on Monday against medical advice. You know, everyone goes back to do physical labor 3 days after having a 4 hour surgery where a doctor hacks into your neck. I am encouraging anyone who knows him to give him a call or email and encourage him to take it easy. He loves barrages of people telling him what to do. Basically he's now my hostage. I will tell people to stop bugging him, as soon as he agrees to take it easy.


As for me, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. My doctor has said that he's never seen anyone do better after a autologous stem cell transplant than me. I am way ahead of the curve, almost ridiculously so. He said that I've been a trooper, especially considering all the high dose chemo I've gotten. It's difficult and near impossible to explain to a doctor that you are pretty sure that you have had nothing to do with it, and that divine intervention probably played a much bigger role.

The last couple of weeks have been particularly difficult for me emotionally. Even in the midst of getting better, I have been trying to mentally prepare myself for getting sick again. But, as a quasi-wise man told me, there is no preparing for it, so I might as well let it go. It's hard for even me to keep out all hope as the world around me seems to be basking in new life. All of our rain here in SoCal has turned everything green. Everything I encountered yesterday seemed to be encouraging me to be optimistic. My doctor was very optimistic. I received a little sign in the mail from my aunt that said, "Good things are going to happen." So, against my human nature and all the pessimistic bones in my body, I've decided to give up preparing for the worst. I'm going to live in today and enjoy all the good things that are in it. And if the worst happens....at least I had a couple of really happy months. But today is really good.