My friend called me last night.
We always call each other. He's a bricklayer by trade. 64 years old. He can build the most beautiful fireplaces you've ever seen. He can build the most marvelous fieldstone structures ever photographed.
He's been battling cancer in his lymph nodes and cheek and tongue all winter. He was scheduled for a dissection of the cancerous affected areas this week. He has already been through the chemotherapy and radiation treatments to attack his cancer.
He told his doctor about the pain in his feet and surrounding his feeding tube at his recent doctor's visit. His doctor told my buddy that was the least of his worries. My friend had developed a couple of masses on both sides of his heart. My buddy was given options.
He could have the pending dissection. He would have an incision made from his ear to his chest. The post cancerous cells would be removed from his neck, jaw and cheek areas. Rehabilitation and possible paralysis could result. His prognosis for survival would be at the most, 2 years.
The other option was no dissection. The possible spreading of the cancer in his lymph nodes would kill him sooner because the cancer would then be inoperable. The masses surrounding his heart could kill him as well.
My friend chose the dissection. He said he wanted the best chance of survival he could have. Cancer research was his last hope and he wasn't going down without a fight. He was a great athlete in H.S. A born competitor.
He has 2 daughters. He hasn't told them of his entire situation as of yet. I believe he told me last night in order to see how to break the news to his closest of loved ones. He was practicing his speech on me. It was painful as we'd go from BS stories back to the reality that faced him and his family. It's sad.
The sermons at church hold more truths than ever before. I believe in a higher being. Whether he's named God, Buddha, Allah, Jehovah, Mother Nature or anything else, I don't know what I was doing before I was a person. I don't know what I'll be doing after I stop being the person I am today.
Today is the day the Lord has given us. Let us rejoice and be glad. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed to anyone.
My buddy may die, but he's gotten his money's worth out of life, so far. Pray for my friend. Pray for his comfort. Pray for his family. Pray for peacefulness in his final days.
He had his operation today. His last words to me last night were, "I want to live as long as I can.".