MORE BAD NEWS

The news from China is not any better. Doctors have found Xiao Li's cancer has spread to at least two other locations. The initial diagnosis came from the cancer hospital in Tianjin.

He wanted a second opinion, so he found someone with some good guanxi who could get him into some sort of military hospital in Beijing that's supposed to be tops in the field. But today the doctors there confirmed the diagnosis.

Everyone is depressed and scared to death that he'll never survive the surgery. Understandable. I can hardly think of a more frightening sentence than "You need surgery in a Chinese hospital."

But there may be no alternative. No one is even talking about chemo or radiation. It's like they don't exist there. Maybe they don't. It would come as no great surprise.

Maybe all that's left is prayer.

THE BIG C

My Chinese brother in-law--only brother in-law I have, actually--has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Beyond that I don't know too much. Whether it's small cell or non-small cell and whether it's spread beyond the lung--I don't have a clue. All I know is they found a spot in a chest X-ray, checked it again with a CT scan and told him it was lung cancer. I don't know if they've even done a biopsy, which you'd think would have been an immediate thing, but this is China, not the USA.

Lung cancer is sure not something you'd ever want to have, but if you had to have it, you'd sure rather have it just about anywhere other than China. I've seen their medical care up close and personal and it still sends shivers down my spine to think about it.

Fortunately for Xiao Li, his sister--my wife--knows a lot of Chinese doctors in the US and she contacted one who is a cancer expert--oncologist, I assume--and as luck would have it, he's just gone back to China. So this doctor is going to take a look at Li on Wednesday, June 22, at a hospital in Tianjin, which is about 250 km from Qinhuangdao. There's also a cancer hospital in Tianjin that is supposedly the #1 facility in China. At least that's what they claim.

I got my first look at Chinese medicine in 1988. One of these days I'll write about that experience, which changed my life forever.

In the meantime if you would, please say a prayer for my brother in-law. He's a righteous guy and the kind of person I'd want as a brother if only I had one.