Aaron It Out wrote:I hate to be a downer during what's possibly a once in a lifetime run we're on here, but a post in another thread got me thinking about this.
Back in November one of my lifelong best friends was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer at age 31. He just got married and they have a daughter that's a little over a year old now. He lives in Texas so I haven't seen him since well before covid, but I've talked to him pretty much every day for as long as I can remember. The whole thing has been crazy. They guessed he had it for around a year before getting checked, and it had spread to his liver and lungs. So he's been going through a number of different chemo and radiation treatments. He seemed to be physically handling them well, but it keeps growing and the latest form of chemo treatment seems to be hitting him hard.
For the most part he's been pretty high-spirited, or he's at least putting on a good show. There have been times where I don't really know how to "be" with him though. I try not to bring it up unless he starts talking about it first. I can't imagine what it's like mentally so I'd hate to distract/remind him if he's otherwise having a good day or whatever. When he does talk about it I just try to make sure to register everything he says and ask all my questions I've been thinking of.
I lost my godmother way too early to cancer already, so I've kind of already "been through this" before (I say that with full awareness that I'm not the one fighting cancer here). The only reason I bring that up is because there were times during her battle and especially near the end where I felt regrettably absent. It's much different with it being a good friend that I talk to in a daily basis, so I'm less worried about that happening, but it's especially hard being like 1300 miles away. I don't really know what advice there is to give in this situation but maybe you'll keep him in mind the next time you tip one back or light one up.
And get yourself checked if you have poop problems.
I know man
I'm literally on the other side of the planet from half my family and I think about things like this every day.