Price-less

Gas to and from Hospital: $145.50
Seven-night stay in Hospital: $4,263.00
2 Cystocopies, 2 transurethral resections, 1 urostomy: $54,000.00
Larry home, cancer-free: PRICELESS !

The Story of the Big "C"

Do you realize that no single letter of the alphabet conjures up more gloom and dread than the Big "C" ? Not the small letter, but capitalized. It even comes with its own adjective, big, as though it has a first name. Its impact is that of a twenty kiloton bomb, leaving a mile-wide crater shattering your very soul. It's the stuff of movies, books, and TV, but somehow not your own life. It doesn't happen to you but to other people. One day all is fine, and then the next night you are lying in bed next to a loved one that has it. The "it" being cancer.
The. Big. "C".
Spoken with a hard "k" sound rather than the soft "s". Hard probably because it hits you that way. Today is the day we begin readying for surgery: packing a bag, fasting all day, boarding Max, our dog with our son. We'll be working on small unfinished duties, like setting out the garbage, putting the last of the gutter-guards on, moving the tropical plants inside because when the hospital stay is over, there is no lifting, only recuperation. I say "we" because Larry and I have always been one identity. Not a you, nor an I, but always we and us. I guess forty years of marriage does that to a couple. The surgery, hopefully, excises all cancerous cells and obliterates them to oblivion. In its wake will be new plumbing for Larry and some piece of mind. It's also the beginning of a "new normal" for us. A new routine to be learned, a new lifestyle to embrace whether we want to or not. The Big "C" has decided it to be so. The Story of the Big "C" doesn't ever have an ending. The cancer looms large in the psychic, always in the back of your mind, always making you wonder, "Is is really gone?" I guess in the scheme of things, on a world-wide spectrum, Larry's cancer doesn't have equal bearing to the conflict in the Middle East, to the homeless, to those families in far more pain than us, but it doesn't make it any easier to live with... Our familiy and friends have been our support on this roller coaster ride. The phone calls, the emails, the cards, and prayers are sustaining us. When our lives took a 180 turn, these things enabled us to get through the days. In the ensuing days and weeks to come, I'm sure we will make it, Larry and I. We did in the past and we will in the future. That's because we have each other.

Vette-ing !

Well, it's nine days until hubby's surgery: removal of his bladder and prostrate. We're apprehensive, of course, but accepting of the situation. After all, everyone says surgery is the better option than not having it! This weekend a perk came his way: a brand-new, spanking red Corvette. Wow, that made his day!

Scott's best friend, Ron, was its owner. How kind he was to give Larry some instant gratification! He sent Larry orders to run it wild, and, of course, he did. I never did ask him how hard he pushed the pedal, but I'm sure it was in the three-digit range! Driving a sports car with lots of engine power will get anyone's adrenaline pumping! Needless to say, the Corvette took him back to his youth and his GTO days.