The "C" word

It's weird how one word can turn your world upside down. Dwight and I have deliberately not discussed cancer until we were forced to face the monster head on. Dwight's mom lost a long hard battle to cancer and those memories are best left in the past.
For months, I counted down the days for our vacation. It was supposed to be a relaxing trip to the most beautiful beach in the world, but a nasty Hurricane hit and we thought it foolish to drive into stormy weather. We decided to go northwest instead of southeast.  It made sense at the time. Repacked everything.  Made motel arrangements because tent camping was closed due to increased bear activity.   Game on. Pulling out of the driveway,  we got a call from the doctor.  Dwight has colon cancer.
I think I was in shock for the next couple of hours. The plan was to stop when I got sleepy, but too much to think about and I drove through the night. Dwight was up early so he got to drive. We went on like this for a while. Not really talking, just digesting the word cancer. We had an amazing trip. Dwight said the word cancer outloud and we decided on an aggressive form of treatment.
We got back and met with the doctor to schedule surgery as soon as possible.  Then immediately started setting up time off from work. Every thing just happened so fast. There was very little time to talk about what was happening or how scared I was or how worried he was. Lots of praying and running outside so he wouldn't see me lose my composure.  We both said a prayer that he wouldn't have the room in which his mom died.
Surgery was longer than expected.  Much longer. As I sat in the waiting room,  I could imagine the worst. He ended up taking two feet of colon, eleven or twelve inches of small intestine and his appendix.
So now we begin another waiting game. Waiting on biopsy results.  Waiting on the healing. Praying that the worst is over.
Sometimes you need to look for the good in bad situations.  Dwight and I have been reminded of how truly loved we are. So many people have reached out to us. He and I say the words "I Love you" pretty regularly,  but now we make sure that there's eye contact and lots of feeling. Nothing taken for granted.  Hugs last longer.