Wait!! I am not done yet!!

I am not always comfortable talking on the telephone, so I have a tendency to wait for people to call me first. Last night, however, I did call my brother Daniel. I needed to know how he was.

Daniel was diagnosed in 2016 (?) with olfactory neuroblastoma, a very rare type of cancer that lives in the sinus cavity and likes to attach itself to nerves and bones.

After the third operation to remove “spots,” his physicians brought up the possibility of radiation therapy because the cancer kept coming back, but radiation therapy in that area of the skull is not without significant consequences. At the top of the list:  loss of an eye, loss of teeth, brain damage, including the brain stem, from radiation scatter… so Daniel decided he wouldn’t do it.

Then the cancer came back again, and he needed a fourth operation, and that time a nerve that provides feeling to his cheek had to be removed.

Daniel decided he better have the radiation therapy after all. He thought he could live without an eye if it came to that.

It was a grueling schedule -- I think he had to go 5 days a week for 6 weeks. He finished the final treatment last week.

And God was merciful.

Yes, one of his eyes got a little irritated and sore, but the hospital gave him some stuff to put in it and it is getting better every day.

Yes, sores developed in his mouth from the x-rays bouncing off the crowns on his teeth, but the hospital gave him solution to swish in his mouth and the sores healed. So far his teeth seem okay.

Yes, he did have some “fuzzy thinking” problems, but that seems to be clearing up.

They gave him pills for nausea that developed, and he actually gained a couple of pounds. He has not had any sinus infections.

We had a really nice visit.

I had sent him some pictures of “sights” around our place...

 gray tree frogs showing their ability to camouflage to the environment
 

a green snake I found in the honeysuckle by the garage....

 a large Promethea moth (about 5 inches across)...

a woodland fishing spider that was living in our basement (this is a very big spider --the board it is next to is 4 inches wide)

a toad and with an ant crawling on it...

 and he thanked me for the pictures and asked me to send some more.

I thought it was time to wind the conversation down, so I threw back at him the phrase he always uses when he is having a party at his place and wants to bring it to end “Well, it’s been real nice havin’ ya’,” (see previous below), only he immediately said

Wait!! I am not done yet!!!!

It was hilarious. I laughed and laughed. He actually did have some business to tell me about. He is the executor of the family trust our parents set up, so we wound up the conversation with that.

I am so blessed to have this delightful man as my brother.

Please God, let him live long and prosper.

He needs to see this little guy grow up.