Abominable Abdominal Arms

I have to apologize up front for this post. I typically try to be upbeat, somewhat humourous, positive, and a little quirky. Today you get nothing of the sort. Today you get maladies of the human body.

A couple of months ago I had an appendicitis attack. On a pain scale of 1-10, I'd rank it an 8. Woke me up at 4 am and didn't back off. Couldn't move most of the day and finally went to the doc on day 2. He sent me to the ER where I had a somewhat incompetent phlebotomist (I think that's what the guy was anyway) who started an IV so that I could have the contrast injected prior to my CT scan. 2 months later my elbow is still sore where he put that dang needle in. Findings? Slightly enlarge appendix (not enough to definitively declare appendicitis, but enough that it couldn't be ruled out either) but no elevated white cell count or other accompanying symptoms. Few weeks of bracing myself every single time I drove over our neighborhood's speed bumps, the pain disappeared.

Around this same time my brother started having painful abdominal occurrences. These were the result of multiple causes: Krohn's Disease, epididimitis, kidney stone, pancreatitis, etc. He hasn't been a comfortable fellow. Luckily (?), this week his test results came back normal. Same diagnosis: We have no idea what is wrong with you...

One of my favorite nephews was snowboarding last week, and he broke both arms. That's right folks, BOTH ARMS! This boy has already broken one of those arms twice. This was the first time he'd gone snowboarding since he broke his arm last year while snowboarding at Sundance. That Sundance trip had been his first snowboarding trip since he'd broken his arm at a board park in Albuquerque. The boy travels!

The older brother of the arm-broken boy is another of my favorite nephews, Jeffrey. Jeff is 16, has osteosarcoma, and lost his arm to this black monster a few months ago. Yesterday we got news that he has another growth/tumor in his arm pit - the lymph node - as well as spots on his lungs and heart. Don't know whether the lung and heart spots are related at this point, but another attack regime is starting immediately.  My brother-in-law described the lymph node as a train station. I imagine it sending out locomotives of rot on tracks to various unsuspecting destinations.

Oh the questions I have and the words are not falling in line to allow me to ask them. Pathetically, I'm going to end on that note.