Thought that I would add to the thread via a new post as to not get lost....

There was an interesting interview appearing in the Houston Chronicle
yeasterday. Chronicle Reporter Todd Ackerman was interviewing Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and Cardiologist Ward Casscells,
M.D., the nations top military doctor (appointed by President Bush in 2007).
Cassells enlisted in the Army Reserves at 52 (2005) with Advanced Prostate
Cancer.

Q: People in the Medical Center (Houston, Texas) know you have prostate
cancer, but I've never heard you talk about it. Can you? I'd heard it was
pretty advanced.

A: It was terrible. I was dying. I always had great medical care, but my
doctors made a mistake. Even though I was always a cancerphobe, often going
in for tests, by the time it was diagnosed, it had spread from head to toe,
to my skull and my liver. I was told I probably had three years to live. But
an M.D. Anderson doctor told me to disregard such prognoses and put me on
constantly changing combinations of drugs that have kept me in good health
for almost seven years now. I have chronic prostate cancer - I take 52 pills
a day - but I'm still here.

...

Q: So why did you do it (referring to enlisting in the Arny Reserves at 52
and going to war). You've got three kids and a potentially deadly disease.
Why take on so much?

A: As I've gotten older, I've gotten more adventuresome. I want to set an
example for the kids, and it keeps me from focusing on my own problems.

There is a lot of hope and wisdom in what Dr. Casscells has to say.

Gourd Dancer