Wednesday, May 5, 2010

It Is What It Is

A couple of weeks ago, just as I was getting ready for bed, I suddenly started feeling sharp pains in my abdomen. As far as causes, none of the usual suspects seemed to make sense. I had pretty much the same food as the rest of the family; I didn't have a fever, nausea or diarrhea; everything seemed normal except for the pain. For me these days, any inexplicable pain in my midsection is a cause for concern. My serious Syrian gastroenterologist ordered a little blood work and kindly squeezed me in first thing the second morning. She figures that it was likely scar tissue causing a kink in my intestines creating a temporary blockage. I now recognized that the same thing had happened to me last August. Ultimately, I thank God in relief that that's all it was. Compared to the alternatives, I will gladly deal w/a little knot in my gut from time to time.

That scare was followed a few days later by another positive milestone on my path to continued surviving. I had my chemo port removed about 15 months after it was put in. I talked my doctor into pulling it a little bit before the one year anniversary of the end of my treatment. July will be a year, but my next scan isn't until the end of summer. Since I wouldn't likely know that anything is wrong till after that, we are taking a more optimistic approach. Having ditched the unsightly protuberance, I'm thinking that I'll be a lock for best body on the beach competition this summer.

And so it is that we take our little victories in life. Some could always argue that it could be better. Some might not recognize that it could always be worse. Life is full of milestones and messages. They are all good or bad or both. More than anything, they are all relative.