Wake up call

My little bro had major surgery yesterday after going to the ER after several days of severe abdominal pain. Basically his immune system attacked his gastrointestinal tract, causing a huge sac of puss to inflame and the doctors told him if he had waited much longer and the puss leaked into his bloodstream, it could have poisoned his blood and he could have died. He was taken into surgery immediately and the doctors believe the most likely diagnosis is a chronic gastronintestinal disease that he will have to live with for the rest of his life and may reoccur at any time throughout his life. There are entire websites dedicated to people who live with this advising on remedies, changes in diet, coping mentally/emotionally, etc.

It also turns out my dad had the same exact diagnosis earlier this year and also had surgery for it. Apparently there is a strong genetic link but doctors haven't figured out exactly why or how. However...if a sibling is diagnosed with it, other siblings are 30 X more likely to be diagnosed with it than the average person. There's also a strong environmental factor, and smokers are 3 X as prone to get it as non-smokers. Doctors believe it's a combination of genetic disposition combined with environmental factors such as smoking. There is no cure.

My dad is fine now and although my brother is in a lot of pain, should be fine after rehabilitating from the surgery. However, the disease can't be "cured" per se, so it can reoccur anytime, even after surgery.

MAN. This was such a wakeup call. I mean the first thing that comes to mind of course is how precious life is and thank goodness he went to the hospital in time. But it also makes me realize how we take our health for granted. We live our lives as if we are invincible - smoking, drinking, partying too much, working too much, etc. But our bodies aren't as invincible as we think - all those things affect our health. 2009 has been a terrible year in terms of health for the males in my family (my grandfather also had serious health issues). And even though I know many factors contribute to any disease, I REALLY HOPE MY DAD AND BROTHER WILL STOP SMOKING. Especially given what seems to be a genetic predisposition to this disease, which is then more likely to be triggered by smoking.

I always thought my dad's side of the family had terrific genes, healthwise. My brother and I both still have perfect eyesight, we have no baldness in our family, no obesity (despite how much we like to eat), generally strong immune systems, etc. There is absolutely no history in recent generations of any terminal illness (at least not among our blood relatives - there has been cancer among relatives by marriage). But I guess you never know. Which is why even though the causation might only be miniscule at best, I really don't understand why my dad and brother (or anyone in the world for that matter) continue to inhale toxic carcinogenic substances.