About a year ago I wrote not once but twice about my journey with unexpected open-heart surgery and cancer. Since that time, I received four different cancer check scans that came back all clear. But over the course of the Fall, I began to experience increasing pain in one of my lungs. It had gotten so bad that seven weeks ago I went to the ER to get it looked at. The report from the doctor was that the lung was functionally dead due to complications from the heart surgery 13 months before. The doctor added that, oh by the way, your cancer is also back in your heart, and it is about the size of a bouncy ball. 

While the announcement of cancer returning shouldn’t have come as a surprise, it unfortunately did. With each clear cancer scan there was growing confidence that we would hit the target of 18 months clear. But with one sentence out of the ER doctor’s mouth, all that optimism was immediately erased. I called my wife and simply said “You need to come to the hospital now”. 

Fast-forward one painful week later, 11 days before Christmas, and I was being rolled in for surgery to remove the lung, remove the cancer and surrounding areas of the heart, and remove anything else necessary that was tied to either organ. The surgeon was clear about the risks of a second open-heart surgery with this level of aggressiveness. He estimated the odds of not surviving the surgery to be 10-20%. If I survived, he laid out a list of possible complications and was certain that the hospital recovery time afterwards would be 3-4 weeks.

As you can tell, I survived the surgery and am still here to tell about it. Not only that, but everything went so perfectly that not even one of the potential complications occurred. I spent just one week in the hospital recovering and then was home 3 days before Christmas. 

So much could be said about what I have learned and experienced personally through this second open-heart surgery. But here are just a few specific thoughts that I wanted to share.

A Few Things

-A Mixed Bag: Isn’t life always made up of a bunch of blessings and a bunch of difficulties all at the same time? Thinking back over the past couple of months, I can point to SO many answered prayers and SO many acts of kindness from friends, family, coworkers, and fellow church members. LOTS of blessing. At the exact same time, it’s been SO difficult. Dealing with pain, exhaustion, fear, sadness…the list of difficulties goes on and on. In a lot of ways, the difficulty is a prerequisite to a lot of the blessing. In everyday life the stressful job provides the money needed to pay the bills. The poor weather outside forces a family to spend more time together inside. Life is always a mixed bag. 

-The Impact of Excellence: I can’t imagine how difficult it is to work as a nurse in a hospital. But the experience that I had with three different surgery recovery nurses almost brings me to tears. All three of them were EXCELLENT, ELITE at their craft. A real low moment for me came a few nights after surgery. I wasn’t tired at all, and it was midnight. I turned on the movie Happy Gilmore on the tv and just sat there alone in the dark. The night nurse stuck his head in and asked if I needed anything and I told him I couldn’t sleep and was just up. He responded by saying that he’d pull up a chair and talk with me for a bit. For the next 45 minutes he did exactly that. We talked about God, church, Chick-fil-A, about his experience playing high school lacrosse and football, and much more. The emotional boost that this gave me was incalculable. This guy didn’t have to go out of his way to spend time with me, but he chose to. Beyond this, the care that he and the other two nurses provided was literally a 10 out of 10. It matters that people are excellent at their jobs. And it makes a true impact on others. 

-Having Perspective: When I zoom out and look at my current surgery recovery progress, it’s clear that I am WELL “ahead of schedule”. This brings encouragement and motivation to keep progressing. But when I zoom in and focus on lack of sleep or a bit of pain that day, things look really bleak. The situation is exactly the same, but the perspective completely changes the outlook on things. This is true for each of us every day of our lives. How we view people is how we will treat them. How we view things is how we will respond to them. The perspective is a filter that directly influences outputs.  

-Recognizing Worse Possibilities: Along the lines of perspective, it is always helpful to me to remind myself of ways in which my current situation could be much worse. While no one wants to deal with cancer or surgeries, I am encouraged by the fact that this is happening to me and not to one of my young children. I also take encouragement in the fact that my pain level has always been fairly manageable. So far I have not had to take part in any sort of chemo or radiation treatment. The list goes on and on. There are so many ways in which things could be much worse. This doesn’t minimize the reality of the difficulty. But it does push me to be grateful to God as I count my blessings.

-Being Candid: Over the past year a number of doctors have presented a positive, upbeat potential outlook on my health. On the flip side, my surgeon seemingly has been the only person willing to be honest about the reality of this situation. The former group inadvertently left me and my family with what I now view as an unrealistic picture of what we were actually dealing with. In contrast, this surgeon was not only clear with us but often brutally so. In his book The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle challenges readers to avoid being blunt and instead aim for “candid” communication. Candid is honest and transparent. But it lacks the teeth, the cutting edge, that bluntness brings. So much can be said for being honest with others. And doing so with candor allows everyone to experience both clarity AND kindness.   

-The Brewing Storm: If you are not currently experiencing significant hardship then you have most likely experienced it in the past. And you will certainly deal with hardship at some point in the future. The storm is coming. It’s guaranteed. The key is to be prepared BEFORE the storm arrives. Once the hurricane makes landfall, reinforcing the house is impossible. So, in my experience, how does one prepare for storms?

• Know God – This is one of the many reasons why faith in God is so important. He is the true solid rock that can be built upon. Have a relationship with Him through trust in His Son Jesus. Knowing Him has ultimate implications, both now in this life and in the life to come after death.
• Have Community – Maintaining a strong community made up of family and friends is also a must when the difficult times come roaring in. When you get knocked down there needs to be someone right there to help pick you up, and vice versa.
• Prepare Financially – It’s easy to live as if our current work output, the current economy, etc. will always stay the same or even improve. But these things are not guaranteed. This wise person is diligent when times are good, understanding that this preparation is necessary for when times turn bad.   
• Prepare Mentally – While I’m not sure that there’s any way to get ready for hardship emotionally, I am sure that it can be prepared for mentally. What does a person believe about hardship? Can it be avoided? Is it a bad thing? Is it necessary in the life of each person? Does God have power over it? Why does it happen? The way that someone thinks about and answers questions like these, BEFORE the storm hits, will have a significant impact on navigating difficult times.   

In Closing

I hope and pray to be able to stop writing posts about cancer and heart surgeries. But in the meantime, I hope that you find some encouragement here as you navigate your own journey of life in 2026! 

 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” -John 14:1