The love in my life

When I first announced that I had been diagnosed with bladder cancer I expected the usual flurry of "get wells" and "best wishes" all the usual Hallmark greeting card expressions that I'll admit I've often relied on over the years. After all, what do we say to someone who is contemplating a possibly imminent death sentence? "Well, good luck with that."? The response in my case was something I found quite surprising. Over and over, I've heard: "I love you."  

At first I thought it was just some sort of Texas/Southern acculturated response. Like the way we say "God Bless him" when we mean something quite different. Then one of my good friends and clients Pete Carlsen sent me a message and demonstrated once again his knack for summing things up in a cogent way. Pete pointed out that I had given out so much love over the years that I could expect it to be returned to me. Ok, I knew that. :-)

I can't begin to tell all of you how much it has meant to feel the outpouring of kindness, good will, compassion and love that I've received over the past couple of weeks. The Beatles had it right.

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. 

Update: tomorrow morning I'll try to connect with my Austin Doctor: John Williamson. He isn't inclined to wait two weeks to get a second opinion from MD Anderson. Wants to do the resection as soon as possible. The fear in me agrees. Another part of me senses that surgeons tend to privilege what they are good at. That if the only tool one has is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Still, I won't wait long to give the green light. Probably this week.