Chuck had his six-month CT scan this past Monday at City of Hope. It’s been on the calendar, and we’ve been doing these follow-ups for a while. But in a pattern that has become familiar, in the week or two leading up to these appointments & tests both Chuck and I start to exhibit some, shall we say, symptoms of anxiety. We both studiously avoid talking about the upcoming appointment. Our sleep patterns get all screwed up.

This visit had a little extra dose of worry attached to it. Well, worry may not be quite the right word. In October, a work friend of Chuck’s from about 30 years ago was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. By mid-December he was dead. Earle and Chuck weren’t close friends: they were Christmas card friends who talked once a year and always promised that this would be the year where we’d all get together, but it never happened. And now it never will. We went to his memorial service two weekends ago and it was clear that Earle had embraced life and had lived every day to the fullest. But we also heard about his symptoms that sounded eerily close to Chuck’s and it gave us both pause: there but for the grace of God went Chuck. It still is stunning how random life is. I guess the lesson is that you should never take today and the people in it for granted.

So this past Monday Chuck went in for his CT scan. He was in and out in an hour, no drugs were needed. We settled in for the week-long wait for results. About 7pm his doctor called: she had seen the results and didn’t want him to have to wait a week to find out. The scans were clear: he is all good! We heaved mighty sighs of relief, and thanked the Powers That Be. Now life goes on for another six months. And then the worry cycle starts again.

But right now, it’s all good and that, we are discovering, is plenty good enough.