Please keep my friend Robert in your thoughts and prayers. Last week, as the result of a fairly routine colonoscopy, he received the tentative diagnosis of colon cancer. The test results so far have been quite optimistic, but he faces major surgery next week and potential further treatment after that.

The lesson here is: get your colonoscopy, even if you have no history of colon cancer in your family. Robert had no symptoms indicating this disease. I hope that it has been caught at an early stage and will be easily treatable. Many others in the U.S. are not that fortunate and wait too long to get tested.