A Serious Request for Prayers, Good Karma, Whatever ...

Have you ever been sailing along smoothly in a poker tournament -- catching cards, hitting your draws, winning with your bluffs -- and then suddenly things change: no more good cards, you get rivered, your opponent hits a two-outer? That is how I feel right now.

Life suddenly became more challenging for my family at the end of last week when we found out that my 15 year old son was diagnosed with what appears to be an extremely rare form of cancer. There is a slight possibility that it could not be cancer, but we will probably not find that out until after the mass has been removed.

The good news (good is a relative term of course) is that this type of cancer tends to not be as aggressive as other forms. If treated promptly and properly, the prognosis should be very good. We are taking my son to be treated by an expert in this type of cancer at the Mayo Clinic.

We are thankful that my son came to us about his bump and that we immediately sought medical help. He had a biopsy at the local clinic, and then a second one was requested. Slides of both tissue samples were sent to Mayo. I started to have a bad feeling about this, so at least the surprise was lessoned. Still, this has been quite a shock to the family. The initial shock has been wearing off, so at least we're beginning to work through this.

If all goes well, the mass will be totally removed, we will find out that the cancer has not spread, and there will not be any damage to a surrounding nerve. That is a likely scenario , but as we all know, nothing in life is guaranteed. We are hopeful that this will just be a small setback in what we hope will be a long, healthy life for my son.

So, as the title of this post suggests, we are asking for your prayers, good karma, healing vibes ... whatever seems to work for you -- we'll take it! We're shooting every angle we can on this orbit.