Tuesday, January 19 at 9:55pm - Jim

90% of the time, I don't talk much on flights. 20 years of frequent flying for business makes it very inglorious. You get tired of all the waiting, announcements, safety lecture long ago memorized... It's like riding a bus to work, you just want to get there, and either read a paper or book, or quasi-sleep.

But on my second flight today, I happenned to sit next to a guy from India. We greeted and I found out he as a doctor and very knowledgeable on cancers! I told him of dad's onset of numbness beginning 2 weeks ago and then acute systems in the last week. I held a lot back initially, to see if he really knew what he was talking about. I walked him through from the beginning, to see what he would have taken as the next step (tests, etc), what he was thinking as possible diagnoses, and what he was trying to rule out or in, etc.

After over 90 minutes, we both concluded that the medical team at Lexington was doing all the right treatments (so far for anti-inflamatory steroids, back pain, leg clot prevention massage, physical therapy, etc), and ordering all the right tests (MRI [blurred], x-ray [fractures & vertebrae alignments], mylagram [fluid down spine], CT scan, mass biopsy, bone marrow biopsy, blood and urine, etc), and he gave me his probable diagnoses along the way. He also stressed that mass biopsy results and bone marrow biopsy results will be key. He said if it is just cord pressure, and not excessive CSF (cerebral spinal fluid pressure) which causes vomiting (dad is not), and the spinal cord nerves are not cut/damaged/dead, then the recovery can easily be 100% (bladder & bowel control, walking, etc).

I really ran the doctor through some paces, politely getting his opinions, before telling him more, and he arrived at the same place we are and gave his probabilities. We discussed Sloan-Kettering - some of the best docs in cancer. Finally, at the end of the flight he said, "God Bless your father, and I wish him a speedy recovery. Peace be with you."

I told dad of this encounter on the phone. So tell me this is a coincidence. I could have pressed hard and cancelled this trip, and I changed my seat assignment last night. I believe God puts us in places where we need to be.