You aren't going to believe this

The good news is it's 98 percent curable.

The bad news is that Karl was told about two hours ago that he has an 85 percent chance of having kidney cancer. I know. Unbelievable.

He has apparently had a small spot on his kidney for two years. They've been keeping check of it since they first saw it in 2008. The Mayo nephrologist told Karl that if it stays smaller than 3 cm, they normally don't do anything. However, since it's grown quickly to 2 cm since the last time they checked it, they feel it's necessary to get rid of it. If it is indeed cancer, it is not a sarcoma. It's a completely different kind. They will talk with Karl tomorrow about what they'd like to do to erradicate the tumor. Have I mentioned lately how thankful we are that Karl's at Mayo?

Dr. Yaszemski came in tonight to talk with Karl. He told Karl everything went very smoothly with the surgery. They cut off part of a rod and shifted a muscle from his right rump to fill the void left by the decube. They also moved tissue around on his heel and he's in a soft cast. Dr. Y also alerted Karl to the kidney problem. He told him they found a spot on his kidney, but it was nothing to worry about. He also told him someone would come in to talk about it.

Now you might be saying to yourself, "What are the odds that one person can have 3 different kinds of cancer?" I don't know the answer to that. All that I can figure is that if cancer was the lottery, Karl would be very wealthy. Then I wonder why it couldn't be the lottery. How much can one guy take?

Karl called himself -- with a laugh -- "Cancer Boy" after he explained the situation to me. Then we talked and laughed about Karl's Kwips on the right-hand side of this blog and the whole "conceived in a nuclear waste dump" comment. Karl now thinks maybe it was ground zero in Hiroshima. Anyway, all I can say is, "Hey Cancer Boy, I'm thinking about getting you a cape and some tights because you are my superhero."

Blessings,

Kerry