We drove to San Francisco today to see a surgeon at University of California San Francisco in the GI section of the hospital. He talked rather fast, going over my medical history and my diagnosis. We talked about my family and whether my parents had smoked or if I had been around anyone where I work that smoked. He spoke about the fact that more middle aged white men are being diagnosed with esophageal cancer every day and they really don't know why. He said he would like to have a sample of my tumor when they take it out so they can study it to find a cure. I told him he could have the whole thing, just get it out of me.

The surgery will be a tough one. One of the most complcated surgerys to do. There will be two surgeons working on me. They will take turns completing the removal of the tumor and the re-routing of my stomach and esophagus. He also told me that I will have to meet with the anesthesiologist to get a baseline health condition so he can determine if there will be any problems keeping me under for eight hours. I haven't had a problem yet. They just start the flow in the IV and you go to sleep. Nothing to it. You wake up to hear the doctor saying over and over, "you probably won't remember this, so I will tell you again....".

So that's it, I will be going in for surgery in three weeks. They told me to eat, drink and be merry in the mean time. Exercise is OK, so I will be in the gym and on the bike. I will try to be in the best shape possible before going in for surgery. I have a PET scan next week, so I will post again after Wednesday.

Don't take a second for granted. Tell everyone that you love that you love them.

You may not get another chance.