November 16-22, 2008

For those of you who may be new to this little epistle, let me just say that I am keeping a journal of my passage through precautionary radiation and chemotherapy, the consequence of the removal of a brain tumor. Lest those two words make you think I am in excruciating pain, let me say that the only effect I've experienced from the radiation is a slight decrease in energy. And the chemotherapy, by pill, has produced no side effects whatsoever. (So you wonder why I'm writing this letter, right?)

My neighbor, Johnny Burke, took this same radiation four years ago, and he reports the only side effects were some pretty serious fatigue the last few days of the treatment.

But, as I reported last week, I am getting an inside look at the lives of some other people for whom cancer is something to be feared. I did not get to talk to Billie Douglass this week. She is no longer coming to our waiting room, I guess because she has started chemotherapy along with her radiation. I hope I will see her on the third floor next week, as I have a couple of appointments up there. I did see William Miller this week, and he is doing well. We had some long talks this week. He has a very talented family--a boy going into architecture in Chicago and a daughter studying Chinese in Beijing being at the top of the list.

Lester Platt was brought this week, once more, by his wife Helen. (His brother Howard brought him last week.) They also have some talented children, including a dentist in Mount Airy and a daughter in Hawaii who does special events for a very ritzy hotel. And they have a bunch of well-loved dogs, some of whom I saw in a photo album this week.

Oh! I almost forgot! I got a buzz cut this week! I couldn't bear to ask them to shave it completely, but they did the next best thing. My hair was beginning to get a little loose in some places, so I took the plunge. With it as short as it is, it doesn't seem to be falling out just yet, but I'm sure that could change.

My doctor told me this week I will be back to work in February. He had been talking January. You know how these guys are. I'm just picking, because he's on the list for this e-mail. If he makes any serious mistakes, I'll just take him off the list. He really is an amazing friend, by the way.

Speaking of amazing, who would have thought that I'd wind up in Winston-Salem with this doctor, the world's leading authority on the kind of tumor I've got? Or next door to a neighbor who had the same kind of tumor, and whom I referred to my doctor? Little co-incidences? Not likely!

Let me just tell you about the conclusion to my week. With some folks from my church, I drove to Troy this morning, an hour south of Greensboro, to help deliver Thanksgiving hams to residents in the Troy Housing Authority. Libby Dawkins, a good friend, is the director of the housing authority, and she put me onto this project about a month ago. Seven of us went down, and on the way back, we stopped at the Dawkin's house to see Libby's husband, Robert. I have been knowing Robert since 1990, and since 1996 he has had a rare blood disease called vasculitis. He's been in emergency rooms 65 times since then, and financially they've simply been strapped--the same physically. He sits in a wheel chair with an oxygen tube, taking 400 milligrams of morphine a day to dull the pain, but spiritually he is as alive as anyone I have ever met.

He told us his story today of how he came to know Jesus. He was a drug dealer and a pimp, and he had a convenience store to front for his operations. One day a young man walked into that store, when Robert was in the middle of a drug deal, and asked Robert "Do you know Jesus?" Robert cursed him first, then jumped across the counter and started to pull a pistol out of his back pocket. Just before leaving the store, the young man stopped and said, "I don't mean do you know about him--I mean, do you know him.?" That started a long chain of events, and a couple months later, Robert was a Christian.

And eventually he became a prison chaplain, which is where I met him, working for and spreading love to everyone, regardless of their faith. And what a blessing he has been in my life, not to mention hundreds of others. Our visit to him really was a fitting conclusion to the week.

So there you have it. So long till next time!

--Chuck E.