Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A Good Ten Thousandth Day

My mother had an important appointment yesterday with the oncologist. She's been battling cancer for almost a year and a half, which at one point dangerously spread to her brain. They "knocked it back pretty good" (whatever that means) with radiation to her head. Lately she had been experiencing some headaches again, similar to the headaches she had been having before we received the news that the cancer had spread to her brain.

So we went to the oncologist yesterday. Recently the cancer specialist had ordered an MRI & a Pet Scan, and made the appointment yesterday to give us the results. And we got the good news that the cancer is currently on the run. She can't be fully classified as "in remission," but the doctor says she's doing well & is going to take her off of chemotherapy for at least two months. What a relief!

Also, I had a great day with an old buddy from Harding, Lloyd. His blog link on the left panel says "Floydius." He drove over from Pensacola to play golf just because it was my ten thousandth day. Not really -- that was just serendipitous. And our score is none of your business. The amount of strokes we accrued... these things are not important. ;)

We had a fun day. We got paired up with these two Canadians who were down here on vacation to play golf. On the first tee we explained that we're both Christians & trained ministers. That fascinated them, who had grown up Catholic in Italian families, and they asked us questions about God & the Bible all day long.

One of the guys, especially, was very interested. He mentioned that he was at an age where he was just beginning to wonder about the meaning of it all. He wanted to read the Bible, but he didn't know where to start. Lloyd suggest the Gospel of John. He wanted answers to his questions, but he didn't know who to ask. I suggested Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life" for starters for the big kinds of contemporary life questions/issues about which he was asking & wondering. I gave him my E-mail address, and I haven't heard back from him yet, but I expect to soon. It was really fun to encounter someone who was so thirsty for the truth.

Lloyd & I topped off the afternoon with a trip to the new Buffalo Wild Wings here on Panama City Beach. He's actually gone vegetarian for the last 30 days (gay), so he didn't get wings. But I got wings. And Matthew, because Lloyd is especially an aficionado of the Old Testament, I explained to him how we always called the little basket for our wing bones an ossuary. A bone box, for the rest of you. ;)

Anyway, it was a spectacular day by any measure. God is good.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had a fantastic time as well, Phillip. We'll have to do it again soon (hopefully before my 10000th day arrives, 297 days from now). Yeah I hope Frank sends you an e-mail, he did seem very interested in the "big questions".

Trust me, when i come off my vegetarian kick I'll give you a run for your money on the wings.

I'm so glad to hear that your Mom's cancer situation is improving; i'll be keeping her in my prayers.

Oh, and thank goodness for people clad in green.

Anonymous said...

this was a fun read! i'm glad 10,000 didn't disappoint. speaking of bw3's (that's what we call buffalo wild wings in tallahassee), you should try red brick pizza some time. that's my father-in-law's place. he and rob's brother and sister-in-law are there all the time. we were in pcb this weekend visiting in fact. anyway, the food's great and so are the guys who run the place!
steph