I finished the first book, "I'd like to buy a bowel please" and it was a pretty good book. I definitely recommend it for anybody that finds themselves in the position of having their intestines removed.

The next book on my list is "It Takes More Than Guts" by Phillip Van Hooser. It's the personal story of Phil's battle with ulcerative colitis. I'm just beginning it, but so far I'd highly recommend it for anybody that has a loved one that is dealing with IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease). He talks very frankly about what he was going through and how he felt throughout his ordeal. I can certainly relate.

I'm finding the whole thing right now a little odd. I feel pretty good for the most part, although I am quite a bit more tired than usual. I'm sure the tiredness is from the extra stress and the feeling that things are a bit out of my control right now. Other than that though, I'm not feeling too bad. I had a good workout over the weekend and hope to get to the gym tomorrow morning for another workout as well.

So here's what I find odd. Throughout the day, I bump into people I know and they always ask "hey Jim, how's it going?" Most of these people don't know my current situation, and saying "I have cancer" seems like the wrong way to answer that, so I usually say "things are going good". I mean really, I feel pretty good other this cloud of doom sort of feeling over my head, but that's what I find odd. I have cancer and I'm telling people things are good. I'm feeling good and people know I'm healthy enough to workout and sooner or later they might find out I have, or with any luck HAD, cancer. I almost hear people saying "You worked out today? Don't you have cancer? Shouldn't you be in the hospital?" "Uh, no, I'm going to exercise and then I need to hurry up and get to work." That just gets me thinking, how many other people walking around me know THEY have cancer and are telling me they are fine? Probably, hopefully, none of them, but maybe there are people I know that I don't normally talk to that are in the same position as me.

Anyway, I just thought that was odd. It's strange to think that as good as I feel right now, I might be dead in 2 years if I do nothing. Two years ago I felt fine and was about 2 months from suddenly needing to have my gall bladder removed. But let's say that never happened. If I had cancer back then and the gall bladder thing didn't come up, I'd be dead about now... or at least so far along that traditional medicine would have been pretty much useless. It's somewhat unnerving to think you can feel so good and have things really going wrong. I guess that's why they say to get tested early and often. It comes out of nowhere and you can have no symptoms the whole time when you have the best chance of beating it.

-jk