How does one live with knowing you’re going to die?

To be told that in less than 6 months you will die; what goes though a man's head when told that?  How does one live day after day knowing that?

This has happen to a very close family member of mine from North Carolina.  He is my cousin's husband, Tommy, who is only 53 years old. 

He just spent a week up here doing some remodeling.  My wife and I took him to the sites in D.C.; he hadn’t seen them before.  Tommy said he learned two things from the site-seeing.  He loves his mountains back in North Carolina, but he did not like tall buildings.  The other was that now he knows now why I have search-and-rescue dogs, "so you can find your way back home into Nanjemoy". 

On November first he saw a doctor because his side was bothering him.  The doctor took a chest x-ray and discovered Tommy had lung cancer.  It was unreal to see the x-ray; it looked like the left lung had never been in his chest.  It didn't even show up.

We drove him to the hospital that Friday to have his left lung drained of fluid, over a gallon.  They did a CAT scan and found seven cancer spots on his liver.  Yesterday, they did a brain scan.  It was ok; but, the bottom line is he will die.  Nothing can be done to stop that fact that he only has six months to live.  It is just so hard to deal with.

November is Lung Cancer Month.  So please, STOP Smoking.  Tommy was a two-pack-a-day smoker.  Smoking can and will kill you.

Johnnie DeGiorgi
Nanjemoy

2010 Candidate for Charles County Commissioner
www.votedegiorgi.com

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