Oh, No!

Oh, yes. Tomorrow is… well…oh, I don’t want to mention it. It’s going to be… uh… my, you know, that dreaded day that comes around once a year. But this dreaded day is even more dreadful, because… hmmm, I hate to think about it. Oh, well. Tomorrow is - here it goes – my 50th birthday. Ahhhhhh!!!

Well, let’s see what damage has been done. I’m down to one kidney (which may not be so bad because I tell folks that you only have one nose, one pancreas, one heart, one liver, and so forth). But in watching for any signs of cancer reoccurrence, my numerous CT scans have shown a slow deterioration of my spine. Nothing major yet, but probably an indication that the back problems common to my mother’s side of the family will plague me as I, uh, age.

My eyes. I was born with strabismus (‘cross-eyed’ for you less technical people) and legally blind in my right eye. But no concern, because my left eye functioned just fine, until last year. That’s when I began to see colorful halos around lights. Rather nice around Christmas time, but annoying the rest of the year. My optometrist diagnosed me with Fuchs Dystrophy – a slow deterioration of my epithelial cells in my cornea, a problem that may someday eventually lead to legal blindness in my left eye unless I have a procedure that replaces my epithelial cells with someone else’s (any donors out there?).

Then there’s my prostrate. Yes, I’m one of the 50% of men over the age of 50 (as of tomorrow) that is developing a “going” problem. Oh, how embarrassing. Let’s not talk about that. Neither will I talk about my hairline, or what’s left of it. Enough has been said to show that my ol’ body ain’t what it used to be. But I hang on to that encouraging verse in 2 Corinthians 4, “Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” That’s good news.

Reminder: Hannibal Books will soon be out with their published version of An Uncommon Faith at a retail price of nearly $15. If you still want one of my home-made versions (I have about 60 left), please order within the next couple of weeks (http://janmoses.atspace.com). Once the published version is out, I will have to stop selling my home-made version.

Ouch! I think I need to go rest my back and enjoy the halo around my ceiling light.