And The Winner Is.....

A few weeks ago I did a contest on this here blog to see who could guess the outcome of my doctors appointment I had last Friday at Emory. It was a huge success since I had four people brave and bold enough to log in an entry. Well, I'm here to announce the winner.


And the winner is......ME! Well not really, my wife and Bethany pretty much tied, but since I'm the one who found out that I'm pretty much cancer free for now, that, by default, makes me the biggest winner of all. And if you want to get really technical, my wife pretty much nailed exactly what happened. But, since she does not drink coffee and is totally kicking ass on her new diet, I am going to hold another contest to see who gets the Starbucks gift card.

Actually, it is just me being lazy. I really like to blog, but I have been struggling with inspiration. I would love to write about something that you people of the blog-o-sphere would want to know or hear about. Ask me a question, request a favorite story, or just give an encouraging word and I'll pick the most thought provoking request as my winner. And maybe I'll throw in an additional gift card that will be a surprise to the winner, but don't worry, It'll be a good one. Thanks for hanging in there with me and helping me through a dry spell.

Don't Forget To Vote

There's only one week and counting until I go to the doctor. Only me and three other people have logged in a vote for my Starbucks gift card give away. Just tell me what you think the doctor will say and when my follow up visit will actually happen. This will be judged like The Price Is Right, the closest without going over will win. So far, I am in the lead, because it's my damn card. If you want to walk away with it though, tell me what you think will happen. I will accept guesses until 9:00 am on Friday, September 24th. Thanks for playing.

An Unscheduled Work Stoppage

In Sunday School the other day we were looking at the book of Hebrews. We've been going over it for several weeks now and were finally on the last chapter. We focused on the first three verses of chapter 13. The are as follows:

1. Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

I'm not going to go into a big long dissertation about all we talked about during our class but there are a few things that stuck out from the discussion. I was "bothered" by the part of entertaining strangers. I always have felt guilty for not doing enough things like stopping and helping stranded people on the side of the road or picking up hitchhikers. We talked about that and other thoughts people had regarding the topic. Then one of the guys in class said something that really stuck with me. He basically brought up the point that any time that we are gracious to strangers, are empathetic to others problems and plights, are willing to treat others with kindness in a public setting, or really perform any other act of decency, then we are "entertaining strangers" in the spirit of what the Hebrews writer was getting at. What a brilliant notion. I had never thought of it like that before. I couldn't wait to try that out. Little did I know that my opportunity would come just two days later.

Today on the way to a lunch meeting my boss got a call from a guy that used to work with us a few years ago and a few companies ago. He said that he wanted to come by our office and let my boss look over a list of things and a resume for a job he was applying for. That seems benign enough, except this guy can get you wrapped up in an hour conversation about a twenty second topic. My wife would say I'm guilty of that as well. Anyway, I digress. So all I could think about was how the productivity of my afternoon was completely shot and I was sure to get absolutely nothing done with him in the office. The guy showed up at our place at 1 o'clock and didn't leave until right at 5. And needless to say, I got NOTHING done. But I am so glad I didn't. When this guy came in he began to tell us what he had been doing since he lost his job in Florida a few months ago. For the next few hours my boss and I sat and listened to him tell us how he has been helping clean up his parents house three days a week at a time because his mother has pretty severe Alzheimer's disease. Her house is literally covered in piles of stuff that ranges from wedding china to old Subway wrappers all intermingled because she doesn't remember what is what or where it goes. My friend sat and got choked up as he told about how his mother had been taken from him and how she can't remember anything that has happened recently. At other times he sat and sobbed almost uncontrollably as he told us of his emotional roller coaster where there were times when his mom would do things so strange that he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Today he did both. Not only was this guy dealing with not having a job anymore, but now he was going back and forth to his parents house in Augusta, GA several times a week, sleeping on the floor in utter filth because he couldn't get to the furniture or the beds because of all the "projects" that his poor mother was working on. All I could do was try and walk him through his broken thoughts and stories as the emotions poured out from him and do my dead level best to "entertain" this burdened soul for a few hours. When the day had come to an end, I hadn't gotten any work done, but hopefully I had provided a little comfort and much needed companionship. And like verse 3 says, "I will remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners..." And I will remember my friend in my prayers as he continues to face his "prison" located somewhere in Augusta, GA that looks at lot like his childhood home.

Going on the record

I have a doctors appointment at Emory on September 24th. Why? you ask. It's because I had my six month scan and check up with my endocrinologist a few weeks ago. At the check up they did blood work, a body scan and an ultrasound of my lymph nodes. When I met with the endocrinologist to get all the results she said that my blood work looked good. There was no trace of the enzyme that is present when thyroid cancer cells are active. That is very good. My body scan was okay. The two places that showed up on my first scan in the area of my lymph nodes did not show up this time. That is good. But, there was a greater concentration of radioactive iodine in the thyroid bed than before. That could be from regular thyroid tissue that was left behind, or it could be from regenerating cancer cells, or it could be scar tissue. But seeing something there is no great shock to anyone. At least my lungs aren't glowing or some other random place. Finally, my ultrasound came back weird. A new lymph node that was not showing up before is now visible on the right side of my neck. What does that mean? Not sure. The endocrinologist said that it could be cancer or it could just be the lymph node doing what a lymph node does. But because she wasn't sure she wanted me to go back to Emory and have them look at everything again. So here comes the prediction. I predict that I will show up for my appointment with the ENT surgeon on the 24th and will be told that he has looked over my results from the endocrinologist and he thinks things look pretty good. But because his people didn't do any of the tests (mainly the ultrasound) he will want Emory to do their own ultrasound to compare to the "baseline" ultrasound that they did during the summer. So, he will have his people get with the radiology department some time and they will be in touch with me to schedule a time for me to come in for another ultrasound to be accompanied by a fine needle biopsy to see what they really have on their hands. Now, this is where you people that are reading this come in. There are a scant few registered followers and a few more blog stalkers lurking out there. I want to do a little contest. The prize is a Starbucks gift card that I have been carrying around in my wallet for months. I want you to comment on two things: 1 - What do you think the doctor will say to me on the 24th; and 2 - what date do you think I will have a follow up appointment with the radiology department. Ive already told you what I think will happen. I would love to know what you think and have a little fun with all of this crap. And don't worry, you don't have to be follower to be eligible to win the gift card. Can't wait to see what you all think.

Did you hear that?

Did you just hear that? Wait, listen again. What you are hearing is a long, deliberate, restrained sigh that is coming from me right now. My wife knows what this means. And that's pretty much all I can muster to write about for now.

Getting Ready for Tuesday

I have a doctors appointment tomorrow. Tomorrow at 11:15 am. And that appointment may be a very pivotal one in my life. But honestly, I'm kinda to the point that I just don't give a damn. I am so ready to just get back to something normal. So what is normal? I don't know. Being completely healthy is normal I guess. Be really "sick" may be normal. I just hope that tomorrow will be one or the other. I'm pretty fed up with the whole, "I'm not really sure what to do with you" crap that I keep getting from my doctors. I'm tired of the, "let's do some more tests and wait around and see what turns up" nonsense. And another thing, I'm pretty freakin' tired of getting lumped into an office full of old, grumpy, wheezy diabetics at the doctors office where I have to be tossed around like I'm one of the other dumb-masses (or dumb asses, take your pick) that needs hang out with the nurses for a few hours and drop off a few vials of blood, just because my day didn't have enough drama in it. I just want to jump up on top of the check in desk, kick that perpetually closed window in and scream, "Hey! How about a little service here, I've got cancer to deal with! I don't want to wait another two weeks to hear what the hell is wrong with me. And I sure as hell don't want to take one of your business cards to the pharmacy and have them fax back over a request for more of my medicine that I've run out of that has me teetering on the edge of sanity, just because you are too busy with all of the other nimrods that can't control their eating or blood sugar and can't seem to do anything to actually help me! You just want to do what is the easiest thing possible to get me to sit down or go away. But guess what, I'm standing right here, Do something productive for once!" I hate incompetence. And to think, I told my wife I really didn't have anything to blog about tonight. I guess I had a little more to get off my chest than I first thought. I think I feel better. Now, if I could just get my back to quit hurting.

Random Thoughts

Okay, I'll admit it. I've been a total loser when it comes to blogging. Honestly, I just haven't felt it lately. I guess since I've been in total limbo about the whole cancer lately, Ive been pretty uninspired. But, I have decided that instead of waiting on some major event in my life to write about, I would just start trying to write a little something each day about whatever was on my mind, cancer or not. So today I'm writing about church.

Today was Homecoming at church. Our church celebrated 55 years of existence. There were several people that had come "home" for the day. We had a combined service with everyone in one room today and it was Family Sunday. These last two facts are important for my story. First Family Sunday means that after Sunday School any kids that are older than Kindergarten get picked up and sent to sit with their parents during the service. Let's just say that getting Britton to sit still for an entire service without much of an outburst is quite a challenge. But today the new Children's Minister gave out coloring packets and crayons in Sunday School to keep the kids occupied. That was brilliant. My respect for her increased today.

Now on to the combined service. When we have a combined service both the Contemporary Service (or the Happy Clappy Service as it has been called) meets in the sanctuary with the Traditional Service (or the Old People Service). This is always interesting to put these two groups together. Whenever they are combined the worship music is either handled by the praise band from the Contemporary Service or its some strange conglomeration of both old and new music styles and sounds. But the interesting thing in all of this is to sit and watch the faces of the blue hairs as the band takes the stage with guitars and (insert the sound of gasping and fainting) drums. I'm convinced that before the service that someone hands out turd sandwiches for the old people to eat before the service. This is evident by the look on their faces during the worship music. For some reason if the feeble adult choir isn't singing "The Old Rugged Cross" then there's no way in heck that anything the praise band plays and sings could possibly stir any emotion or connection with Christ and his love and sacrifice for us. And actually, the more I think about it, it really pisses me off that those people cant get over themselves long enough to actually appreciate that there are some young people that are worshiping and loving the Lord and are excited about being in church. Wow, you are totally right, that is really something to look down upon. Not to mention, people actually leave the church after Sunday School if they know that we are having a combined worship service or if the youth are leading the worship because of all the rock and roll music. I can't think of a better way to be the hands and feet of Jesus. (Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?) I'm gonna stop now. I'll come up with something else to rant about tomorrow.