A colleague from school recently had his colon checked out for cancer. I guess he had no symptoms and is not of the age where doctors recommend you have this procedure, but they found a tumor, 1/16th of an inch, and removed it. Then, just before spring break, he had a follow-up procedure which kept him out six weeks.
He tells me that, if he had waited five years, when he would have been of the age that the exploratory procedure is commonly done, he would have been dead. Colon cancer is the number two killing cancer.
So, when we heard that he was coming back to school, UF and I headed up a welcome back gift drive in our department and bought him a ukulele, case, and song book. He is an accomplished guitarist and, whenever he comes to my classroom, he picks up one of my ukes and starts playing around on it. So, I figured he'd probably like it.
He is one of the reasons I keep two ukes at school. Often, whenever anyone walks into my classroom and finds me jamming, they ask if they can try it out. So, I give them the uke I am playing and grab the other uke to continue my jam. This teacher is one of the best offenders. He has actually shared some guitar stuff that translates to uke.
UF presented it to him yesterday (I was out). When I went to his classroom today, strumming my Oscar Schmidt, I found him walking around the classroom, cradling his new uke, jamming away while his students worked. He was truly touched by the gift.
He is not normally an emotional kind of guy, but he said that he was truly choked up when UF delivered his new uke.
Hey, another convert to the movement.
1 comment:
Ya really ought to go get a sigmoidoscopy ya know. Heck, I'm not even 50 and I had a polyp. Not that all polyps are cancerous but the longer they hang out in there, the better the chances of it turning bad.
Get tested, I don't want to have to buy you another uke because you didn't get tested and something was found.
btw, I'm glad your co-worker found it early and got rid of it.
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