The DU Lounge

Though not in your shoes, I'll briefly tell you about two friends of mine.

One was successful businessman in Paris--smart, personable, riding on top of the world. He had recently re-taken up smoking at age 59. I said what in the world for? He said it was just a temporary thing. He usually took Wednesdays off, but one Thursday morning, he didn't show up at the office either. He had suffered a fatal heart attack at home, and was gone by the time his worried employees had the cops break into his home to see if he needed help. They were a day too late.

The other is still with us, but barely, and wishes he weren't. He is German, and we have known him for 50 years. He was a doctor with his own practice, smart wife, two children. Suddenly, his wife ran off with a doctor from Switzerland, told him it was over, and left him high and dry. He found another woman, got re-married, but shortly after that, had a massive stroke, is an invalid who could barely get around on a walker, and developed Parkinson's disease to boot. His son deveöoped a glioblastoma and died, and his daughter now wants no contact with him. About tow or three of his old friends (incliding my wife and myself) keep up any kind of contact with him, and he is looking toward a slow decline into nothing, which he, as a doctor, can diagnose only too well. Now THERE is misery.

You, on the other hand, want to fight your ailments and come out on top, and are looking for the lgiht at the other end of the tunnel. As long as you have that perspective, the fight is worth fighting, and you just might look back at this period and say, man am I glad THAT episode is over and done with! There is no magic pill to take and make what ails you disappear. but if you persist, you might wake up one morning and think to yourself, hey, that's more like it!

And we'll be rooting for you every step of the way.