The backstory!!

This is all the information that will fill in the gaps between, "hello we are happily living in Swatmo and raising our children" to "tom's sick!!!"

Tom's mom had colon cancer, it eventually took her life after a long hard brave struggle, so Tom's siblings have been pretty on top of general cancer screening. Tom has had 4 colonoscopies since he was 48 or something like that. 2 times ago they found and removed a small benign polyp.

In his routine screening on 11/11/08 (BTW he used the pills to prep for that instead of the nasty drink and recommends it highly for all of us similarly health conscious adults who will be getting these screenings regularly) much to both of our surprise, a tumor was found in his colon. They biopsied it immediately, but the results are still not back yet. We met with the surgeon that day and scheduled the surgery for today. Any tumor must be removed ASAP even if it is benign because they can morph. He has been asymptomatic and does not have a complete blockage. The doctor is confident that the tumor is located in such a way that he can easily maneuver, so the surgery will be less traumatic than some. If the tumor is benign or is completely contained, today will be the end of this adventure, well, except for the boring and tedious and painful recovery. It's as if he's having a C-section, except he gets no baby at the end. Given the price of college tuition these days that's probably a good thing (especially since a man already had a baby so we wouldn't get to sell the story to the Enquirer anyway).

He had a cat scan and bloodwork on the 12, and the rest is history.