Stop Always Thinking It’s the Cancer

My sweet Bobby lived with all the issues that come with brain cancer for close to four years. And he really was a trouper. But in about year two, he took a downward spiral; he didn’t want to eat much at all, was semi-depressed, and also, for the first time, was sort of combative. He just wasn’t Bob. I pulled his kids and brother into a family meeting to try to get Bobby out of his funk. It was a mistake on my part, and it didn’t work. All our terrific cancer docs had no answers. Of course, all of us thought this behavior was a result of the many meds he was on, and we just had to get through it. I called Mary Beth Richmond, our fantastic internist, and she said, “Send him to me and let me check him out.” She did every test and they came out okay. Now what? Then, about nine days later, Mary Beth called and said to us, “Good news! Bobby, you are sick but it’s not the cancer! You have H. pylori (Heliobacter pylori), a bacteria that you likely contracted in the hospital that is making you miserable.” After a week of the meds for this latest diagnosis, my sweet Bobby was back to being Bob! Big lesson. Regardless of what illness someone has, DON’T ASSUME all the issues are related to it. START OVER. Assume it could be something else. Thank God for Mary Beth.