02/12/2016
It has been a rather emotional week for me. I was able to celebrate the 40th birthday of my friend and co-founder of T4C, Russell Freeman, last Friday. Saturday, I was able to go help two friends work on their farm (ok, work on the farm for me was pretty easy as a city boy). Then, Sunday night, I attended a party at friends' beautiful farmhouse for the Super Bowl where my fellow 1994 freshman Volunteer won his second Super Bowl in his illustrious career. It was a great weekend. Monday, my ride of the positive wave came crashing down to reality. My sweet 13 year-old dog (Pene) wasn't doing well over the weekend while I was out. I made it back to Knoxville early Monday morning to find her with labored breathing and a weird cough/gagging sound that made me fear the trip to the vet in the morning. When we arrived at the vet, my first shock was her weight. She has been on a diet and has maintained the lower 80s the last four years. Monday morning she weighed almost 99 pounds. When Dr. Jeter saw her, he immediately said that she had pulmonary edema. I left her with them and they performed thoracentesis (removal of fluid around the lung) and tested the fluid. It turns out that she has cancerous cells in fluid, probably from lymphoma. He prescribed her lasix and I had to bring her back today. She still has large amounts of edema. Together, Dr. Jeter and I decided the best route for her at this time is to continue the lasix and bring her home until I feel she gets too uncomfortable. Having dogs all of my life, there is always this time in which you have to see you furry loved ones deteriorate until the only choice is to make them comfortable, but it hurts like hell. While I did not have to make that decision today, I know it is coming. I guess you could say that Pene is on palliative care until she's ready to visit all of the other canine angels. I knew she was not ready the last few days as she is still playing ball with her brothers, greeting me with a smile at the door, running in to the kitchen to get her breakfast & dinner, and playing in the back yard. I will not let her suffer at all; she's been too good of a companion for me to do that to her. I'll know when its time.
Yesterday, mom sent me an email about my high school offensive line/linebacker coach, John Humphreys. Coach Hump has been battling cancer the last year or so and has been in remission. The email yesterday was a post to his caring bridge site stating that his lung cancer has returned. Please say a prayer for Coach and his wife Donna. He needs all of the support that he can get.
Now, as I sit here and wrap up a Thursday night, I followed a link on twitter to find a heart-breaking story of a little girl outside of Washington who has brain cancer, Avery Huffman. I read the latest posting that was linked from twitter and I found myself with tears streaming down my face while reading Avery's story on my computer. Cancer SUCKS!!!! There is no other way to put it. Look at her sweet face before her diagnosis and then look at what cancer does to even the sweetest, angelic face of a child that you would ever see. I will never, ever give up the fight to finding a cure and I will always give to charities who are devoted to finding a cure for cancer so that people like my Aunt Joanne, Bob Loudermilk, Chad Welch, Paulette Abbott, John Meeks, Trey Erwin, Cody Hatt, Bonnie Lattimore, John Humphreys, and Avery Huffman will not suffer as well as dogs like Pene. May God guide those who are seeking a cure and those who donate to make it possible to fund research for a cure. May God also grace Avery, Coach Hump, and Pene and their families with comfort and healing.
