Lovely people!

I'm sad to have to be delivering this news, but I found out a week ago in Delhi that I have colon cancer. Dang it! How did that happen? After considering and deciding against having surgery in Delhi, I bought a ticket and flew home 12 hours later, leaving Wednesday morning. My angelic friend Whitney (we met 20 years ago next week!) picked me in San Francisco, and prior to my arrival had already managed, miraculously, to get an appointment with the chief gastro surgeon at UCSF Medical Center, a great teaching hospital. The surgeon seems great, and I'm going in for the operation tomorrow morning, Monday, July 13. Dang. Things are moving fast. The plan is to laparascopically remove about one foot of my large intestine. It's a 2 hour surgery, followed by 2-3 days in the hospital, then theoretically a relatively painless recovery. I won't know whether chemo is advised until after the surgery.

I'm feeling pretty relaxed about the whole thing, and I hope that you'll try to join me in that. We won't be safer or happier if we're stressed out about it; quite the opposite. I have so much to be grateful for: friends and family who love me, good health generally, money in the bank, health insurance. Generally I'm happy about how things are going.

My friend Lillie will be helping me at the hospital, and she and Whitney will be updating this web page about how the surgery went. When I'm able I'll update it myself. Find updates here:

In our culture we tend to equate caring with worry, but it's actually optional. Everything should be just fine, and even if it's not, then THAT will be just fine. All is well.

If you're interested in reading a little more about accepting what arises, read this post from January, 2014. Seems pretty dang relevant to me!

Love to you all,

Dave

This photo is California's Sonoma coast, taken when I came home in February to help out my brother Mike. Another story for another day...

(The End)

Posted by Dave Adair at Sunday, July 12, 2015