an extra prayer for Gregory. I think I now know your thoughts and fears. God bless.

Not my intention to bore anyone. This may be a tad long, but also might be worth the read.

Along about last Christmas I started feeling not so good. Had some discomfort in my left chest area that radiated around to my shoulder blade. It got a little worse around Feb. and Mar. I’m not one to run to a doctor or pop a pill for every little problem, but felt this was something more.

I finally made an appointment to see my primary care doctor at the VA hospital in Reno around mid May. During the course of our conversation, my life long, sometimes, rapid heart beat came into play. He ordered all the tests. Monitor, treadmill, nuclear med heart pics. Long story short......the heart is in great shape.

One night in early June I woke up coughing up blood. That was enough to get me to call the emergency room and tell them to expect me there in about two hours. (Chester to Reno is a two hour drive.) I had a chest Xray and a CAT scan. And of course, the blood suckers got their four course meal. Xrays showed a quite large mass of something in the upper 1/4 left lobe of my lung. This was a Sat. and the on call doc was not a lung specialist. Next Tues. appointment with a pulmonary specialist who said it looks like it can be cancer. (The Big C) There was no signs of this a year ago. ( Don't delay getting your check - ups. )

He wanted to do a Bronchoscopy, ( don’t every voluntarily volunteer for this procedure ) ( Google it if you’re not quite sure what it is. ) the results of which took about 10 days to get back.

During that 10 days, I thought about the very real possibility of dying and how some things that never seemed very important were now at the top of the list as stuff that needed to be said and things that need to be done. Here’s a couple:

I planted some radish seeds. Will I be here long enough to taste them ?

How many more beautiful Chester sunrises have I got coming ?

Will I be here to make it to the convention ?

Will somebody mow the lawn the way I like it done ?

Will Ralph refund my life membership retroactive ? I still have 14 years, 11 months and 30 days until I break even.

Back to the Bronchoscopy results. The doctor called yesterday afternoon and said that all of his tests and those of an outside second opinion showed that all tissue samples taken ( I call it a core sample ) are BENIGN. You think I was a happy camper ????

Seems the general consensus is an abnormal mass. ( Still unknown. Will need another Bronchoscopy. Holy crap !! ) Some collapsed lung and “active inflamation”, but not The Big C. Still not out of the woods, but lookin’ better.

If my luck holds out, I might even win the poker tourny.

I was a smoker for a number of years. I quit a while back and i’m thinkin' I quit just in time.

To Trimble........Shaffer.........Spragg, et al. Put ‘um down NOW. Before YOU get the scare of a lifetime. It ain’t no fun.

Later.......Still planning on making the convention, Rick