Gary

This is Gary (I hope the picture came through).  That's also me sporting my new Zambian haircut -- I think it makes me look pretty old, but I am assured that I look very 'smart' by the nurses around.  Gary has some kind of tumor of his left cheek.  We don't think it's a Burkitt's lymphoma, which is one of the pediatric tumors that we can cure here with chemotherapy.  We do chemo although it's a little bit scary without all of the capability of monitoring blood counts closely, etc.  We had hoped that Gary's tumor would respond to the Burkitt's regimen, but he had some unusual parts of the history for a real Burkitt's and it doesn't seem to be responding that much.  He came in because it was hurting so much; that being said he is doing better from the pain and really likes my yo-yo tricks.  So I try to make an effort to make it by his bed and walk the dog and around the world, etc. every day.  Hopefully he'll have some time before the pain comes back and it grows too big to keep him from breathing.  You just want to make the time that he has as good as you can; I'm glad the yo-yo can help with that.
JB Phillips translates one of the beautitudes as "Happy are they who bear their share of the world's pain: In the long run they will know more happiness than those who avoid it."  When I see Gary every day, I hope that that is true.