Cancer Fight Not Penetrating Life's Stumbling Blocks

It has been a little discouraging in our fight against cancer.  After my husband came through his surgery to remove a kidney that had a large tumor on it, he swore he was going to change his life and take better care of himself. 

At his last urologist appointment, we learned that he had high uric acid and as a result needs to lose 20 pounds to keep his one remaining kidney healthy. 

To his credit, he has cut back on meat a lot.  He also has been good about staying on top of his health in other regards.  Yesterday he had a routine colonoscopy.  There are some people who avoid doing this, but he has been good about it.  This was his second one that he was due for.  It had actually been scheduled last spring, before my husband had his kidney removed.  Now he has healed enough from that major surgery to have been able to go ahead with the colonoscopy.

Thankfully, no cancer discoveries but two polops removed.  They are sent to the lab to make sure they are not "pre-cancerous" (chemically prone to be at a higher risk to turn into cancer should he get such polops in the future).  We were disappointed that it hadn't been a procedure with no discoveries, but glad that no malignant tumors were found.

After one gets this procedure, there is a designated driver (in this case me) to take the patient home.  Well, as we were driving away, my husband got the message on his cell phone that his elderly father had fallen at the nursing home and was actually in the hospital emergency room across the street from where we were.  So we went right over.  I didn't like my husband who was weak from hunger (hadn't eaten in two days) and woozy from what he had just been through to be exposed to so much stress.  Then, on top of that, just as I parked the car in the lot of the emergency room we got another phone call.  Our teenage son was sick at school and needed to be picked up.

We just looked at each other, my husband and me.  What do you do when your elderly father needs you at the same time your child needs you and at the same time you yourself has just been through something that you're supposed to rest up from?

In that one moment in time, it was apparant at least in some small measure what had contributed to my husband's cancer.  The stress of too many people needing us at the same time, leaving no time to take care of ourselves.

My husband still needs to lose weight.  At least the fasting before the colonoscopy was helpful in this effort!  But he still needs to lose about 15 or so pounds.  I have had his gym bag out in front of his closet for the past few days to remind him of this need.  But everyday has brought a new monkey wrench in the attempt to go to the gym. 

The colonoscopy was yesterday. 

Today he is out of town on a business trip.