And darkness was on the face of the deep...........

Good evening all, and thank you for being so kind and patient. I'm back as you all can so plainly see. Tonight's posts setting was in July and August of Nineteen ninety nine. Life was challenging and I was struggling. Among other things I'd begun to have some health problems. Some of the problems included periodic times of an extremely high fever, pain in my abdominal area,
and blood where it wasn't supposed to be. I didn't get overly concerned for a while but then things only got worse. So...I went to the Doctor to try to find out what was going on. The Doctor did some lab work, etc. Then He and I talked. I told him that I figured that it was another kidney infection since I was prone to having them and had them on and off for a long time. He and I agreed to try antibiotics for a couple of weeks and see if that helped. For a short while it did seem to help, then things started all over and was worse. Back to the Doctor I went and this time He sent me to see a urologist. The next week I showed up for my appointment with the specialist and He started doing tests. One of the tests included a sonogram that was performed there at his office. After that test He came in and said to come back next week for an MRI, that He needed a more complete look at the abdominal area. So...Next week back I came and did the MRI. By this time it was the middle of August and I was wondering what all of the fuss was about. I was figuring also that something was wrong. A couple of days after the MRI I came back to the office accompanied by Crissy and Christopher. When we were called back to his office the three of us went in, sat down and talked among ourselves while waiting for Him to come in. When He came in He sat down and looked at us silently for a moment. Then came the words I had hoped not to hear. I had cancer. Yep...My right kidney had a tumor the size of a grapefruit in it and it was malignant. He wanted to set up a surgery for as quickly as we could, then said to wait for a week and let him get another doctor to look at things with him. They then decided that from the scans they had they couldn't tell if it had spread. At the moment I was told that I had cancer it seemed that time slowed down to a crawl. It was very surreal, like I as looking on as an observer. The surgery was set up for two weeks later and those two weeks were among the longest I can remember living through. It seemed that they wouldn't know if the cancer had spread until I was on the table and opened up. As I said, a very long two weeks. August 31st finally came, I was taken to the hospital at six a.m. that morning by Crissy and Christopher, went through the paperwork, put on the backward hospital gown, taken to the operating room, and the next thing I knew I was in the recovery room with what seemed like a mouthful of cotton and a huge pain in my stomach. I had lost my right kidney but was blest in that the cancer hadn't spread to any other organs. That experience is in my memory as an exceptionally difficult time, not the most difficult but definitely in the top five. I was blest also, to have someone to lean on and talk to. Someone that listened and understood. Someone that had been there and come through something similar with more courage than I thought possible. To that someone a special thank you. That's how I came to part company with my right kidney, may it rest in peace. ..........And so it went..............