RIVER ROCKS

As the month of June drew to a close, the dreaded biopsy result phone call finally arrived after a two week wait. The doctor’s secretary said the results were inconclusive, that a second biopsy was being scheduled. Though I knew it was impossible, I smiled as I thought of my mom’s initial gall bladder diagnosis.

It was devastating news as it meant that my impending chemo regime would have to be delayed. A second phone call from the hospital arrived a day later relaying that August 15 would be the date for my next biopsy, a six week delay that would push my chemo regime into September. Any hopes for an immediate counter-attack on my cancer were dashed. It felt like I was being voted off the island.

My faith in the system was at an all-time low and that’s when some of my closest friends from Brebeuf College took over. At the risk of revealing their true identities, let me describe my four amigos simply as avuncular, muscular, jocular, and popular.  These are the guys I play cards with every Friday night at a local watering hole, the guys I golf with, the guys I cajole with, the guys who put a For Sale sign on our front lawn when we were in California and the guys who can call me a jerk to my face and can get away with it.

An article I read from the LA Times by Jonah Goldberg last November captures beautifully what I feel about my buddies. The journalist quotes his father as saying, “We need more rocks in the river.” Goldberg then continues, “Change comes too fast, in such a relentless storm, that we need people and things that stand up to it and offer respite from the current.”

With news of my cancer, my brew crew did what only good friends can do…they continued to treat me as they always did! Oh yes, they now appreciated that I needed a motorized golf cart instead of a pull cart, that I’d better stick to fizzy pops instead of the wobbly types, and that my penchant for changing the rules of a card game could be indulged more often than usual. (I like changing the rules when I’m losing). But they still treated me like the same old Mike 1.0.

Thank you Mario, Ermes, Rob and Tom (oops!) for being my rocks in the river.