Back on December 14, my younger brother (Sean) called and I made a typically crude male joke about a recent “minor” procedure he just had to remove a sore on his tongue. He’d had a similar procedure about five years ago, so it didn’t seem like a big deal. His response shook me: “Yeah, about that. I’ve got cancer.”
Of course I didn’t believe him and thought he was trying to punk me with a riff off of my joke, but when I said, “Man, you’re just kiddin’.” He replied, “No, really. I just got off the phone with the doctor and they just got the biopsy back.”
I felt dizzy…
We spoke for a few moments. I told him how much I love him and how I’m here if he needs anything. He broke down crying and said he had to hang up now.
I waited about an hour and called back. We talked some more and he sounded better. He apologized for earlier and said he just had to get used to the news so he could move forward.
About a week later, I went to the doctor with him and his doctor said it was “good news, bad news”. The good news was the earlier operation appeared to be successful and they got it all off of his tongue. They took off a bit around it and there was no cancer there (more good news). But just to be safe (the bad news), my brother really should agree to another – more lengthy – exploratory procedure in his neck (his lymph glands) to see if the cancer has spread. The doctor was reassuring, saying it was probably only a 25% chance they’d find anything, but better safe than sorry. He wanted to get my brother’s agreement so he could arrange for the surgery in early January.
Well, to make a longer story shorter, tomorrow is the procedure. It’s supposed to take 6+ hours, so it’s not a trivial “nip-n-tuck”.
If you believe in God (and I do) or some ultimate force for good in the universe, please offer up a prayer for my little brother. (He’s bigger than I am, but he’s still my “little” brother.) If you don’t believe, just think a positive thought for him. To quote John Coltrane: “One thought can produce a million vibrations…”
I love you, Bro…