kidney disease

27. VULNERABLE

By |2021-03-22T03:15:39+00:00January 3rd, 2021|Lloyd Johnson|

EXPLODING MY COMFORT ZONE  I was snatched from my comfort zone early one morning in November 1993 by an excruciating pain in my left flank. At Connie’s urging, I immediately called my physician, Hector Collison, M.D.. When he returned my call shortly afterwards, the pain was gone, and I was preparing for a busy day in the office. However, when he suggested I see him. I did. Believing I had a kidney stone, he almost off-handedly ordered an ultrasound.   Hector called me later that afternoon and somberly  told me to see him “right away.” Scared, I asked the usual, “What’s up?” He replied with the usual, “We’ll talk when you get here.” Our too-brief exchange wasn’t encouraging at all. No wonder he wanted to see me. It wasn’t good. The ultrasound had detected “a suspicious mass of some complexity.” Likely kidney cancer.   I was scared to death. Everyone I had known to have cancer had died.  Dad had died within four months of his diagnosis. I truly believed that my time had come, that I'd been [...]

28. SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 

By |2021-03-21T22:29:11+00:00January 2nd, 2021|Lloyd Johnson|

My serendipitous Maryland playground meeting with Safi Ingram, the Savannah real estate agent, turned out to be a life-changing event for Connie and me. We’d already decided to explore Savannah as a possible retirement home, having been  somewhat smitten with its history and charm during our occasional day visits from our time-share in nearby Hilton Head, South Carolina.  As we began our “exploratory” trip, in early September 2005, I emphatically decreed to Connie that we were only going “to look it over; we’re not going to buy anything.”  Famous last words. I was wrong, very wrong. We met with Safi, warm and exuberant, and looked at several possible future homes. We never intended to buy on this exploratory trip, but – by the end of our second day -- we’d made an offer to purchase what became our new Savannah home.  It was a two-story, brick home on a quiet tree-lined street in a pastoral subdivision situated in west Chatham County. We looked at [...]