My Experiences with Colon Cancer Surgery Charles M
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Intellectual, Creative and Social Engagement WINTER • 2 015 My Experiences with Colon Cancer Surgery Charles M. Williams, Professor Emeritus of Computer Information Systems, J. Mack Robinson College of Business aying attention to your body I am pleased to report the operation is one of the basic tenets of appears to have been a total success. P my “Wellness Stick-to-it-ivity” Five days after the operation, I philosophy, and it’s precisely what I walked out of the hospital unaided didn’t do. and returned home pain-free, where I In mid-March, at the age of 82, had no trouble with stairs or the steep Charles M. Williams I was feeling great but slowing down driveway down to the mailbox. I got and getting increasingly out of breath up the courage to try taking mile- Atlanta Track Club All-Comers track doing ever lower-intensity workouts, long walks on the hilly streets in my and field meets that began on May 6. when I got it through my thick skull neighborhood a few days later. I might be suffering from “tired Obesity blood.” Google informed me that Recovery During my eight-day stay at the meant I might have anemia and might, One week after surgery, I visited hospital, I became increasingly accordingly, consider visiting my my family doctor, thanked him for appalled by the amazingly high family doctor. getting me into the hospital and percentage of obese patients. It seems So I made an appointment with apologized for not following his advice to me that most of those folks were him, which resulted in my being to get a colonoscopy last fall. He was in the hospital and had undergone rushed to the hospital the next day astonished by my rapid recovery. surgery after not paying attention to get blood transfusions, which perked A week later, I paid a visit to my to anything remotely connected to me up a lot, and a colonoscopy, which surgeon, thanked him for his terrific fitness or wellness. indicated I had a cancerous growth in work, and told him I was walking I was delighted to observe, my colon that caused the hemorrhaging briskly but keeping my mouth shut however, that the hospital staff had that made me anemic. Had I been to avoid heavy breathing. He replied trimmed down a lot from what they more knowledgeable about wellness that I should open my mouth and were last fall when my wife had a matters, I might have detected the get moving. He was ecstatic about bladder infection. The doctor had intestinal hemorrhaging myself. my rapid recovery and attributed complimented her then on her physical I returned home from the hospital it to my physical fitness and low condition and lack of body fat. after staying three days and two body fat. My mission now is getting the nights, then went back the next day By late April I had progressed to the message out that using one’s own for a two-and-a-half-hour operation extent that I could race-walk a mile initiative to improve one’s health that removed the cancerous lobe of at a pace that was within striking actually works. We cannot buy good my colon, reattached the remaining distance of where I had been a year health, and it won’t magically appear. section to my lower intestine and ago. I participated in the weekly, 1500- removed nearby lymph nodes. meter race-walk competition at the 2 CHAIR’S 2 COMING 3 EMERITI COLUMN ATTRACTIONS ON THE GO Missy Cody Harvey Newman The Emeriti and a season shares a preview of an Association will of resolutions upcoming documentary unveil a new with Andrew Young event in March Preview of Coming Attractions: “Andrew Young and the Making of Modern Atlanta” Harvey Newman, Professor Emeritus of Public Management and Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies CHAIR’S hose of us who are old enough to retire recall that COLUMN T every movie we used to see in the theater began with MISSY CODY, the words “Preview of Coming Associate Professor Emerita, Attractions.” This is a preview of a Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing and movie that has been years in the Health Professions • [email protected] making, and is coming soon to a television station near you. For the past four years, I e are in the season have worked with former United of resolutions and Nations Ambassador Andrew Wpromises. Young, his daughter Andrea, a Harvey Newman, Andrew Young and Mike If you made resolutions for talented group of filmmakers Mescon speaking to a Policy Leadership class the new year and have kept them and a large cast of others to so far, good for you! If you made make a film. The title of the film community audiences in Washington, resolutions for the new year and is “Andrew Young and the Making of New Orleans, San Francisco, Indianapolis haven’t quite been on target, you Modern Atlanta.” In late January, Georgia and other cities. The response we received can start over for a good day, Public Broadcasting will air the first half made us feel the film would be a hit. good week or good month. That of the two-hour documentary we have Andrew Young and Monica little voice in your head telling you all worked so hard to make. Pearson provide the narration for the resolution is important is a The story of the making of the film the documentary. Both are seasoned good friend. is almost as interesting as the film professionals: Pearson is retired from a I know of no greater promise itself. Some years ago, Ambassador distinguished career as a local television than Valentine’s Day. Sharing love Young was asked to speak to a younger news anchor, while Young is an Emmy- with a significant other and with generation of leaders in Atlanta. He winning filmmaker. The film examines began telling the audience how the city the transition of Atlanta from a small emeriti colleagues makes for a of Atlanta we know today came into southern town at the end of World War great celebration. Plan to come being. The story spanned generations of II to a city of international importance and share the celebration. This is public leaders, starting with Mayor Bill after the 1996 Summer Olympics. For the university’s gift to emeriti, and Hartsfield, who formed a partnership the book, we interviewed 60 people, and it is always a special treat. with black leaders and white downtown the documentary crew returned to film My new resolution is to add businessmen to deal with important more than half that number. Leaders $1 to my donation to the Rialto issues facing the city. It is a story of in New Orleans and Birmingham also Theatre for every day I walk the remarkable continuity about how things provided comparisons with the “Atlanta 10,000 steps recommended by were done in Atlanta, but one that the way” of doing things. public health officials. That’s a younger audience had never heard. What was my role in all of this? I lot of steps for someone who This was the beginning of a project that was the script reader, fact checker and spends discretionary time reading, would also enable Young to share the occasional commentator on what was playing bridge and doing a variety story of the shaping of Atlanta with eager going on in making the policy decisions of needlework, but it will be good audiences of leaders from other cities. that shaped Atlanta. I have learned so for me and for our community. Soon the dean of the Andrew Young much about how city elections are won, It’s a resolution and a promise. School, Mary Beth Walker, and Andrea what representatives in Congress can do Young, the executive director of the for their constituents and how Atlanta’s Andrew J. Young Foundation, formed mayors have worked with others to shape a partnership to tell the story of the policies that have made Atlanta a special shaping of modern Atlanta. They asked place. I have seen the first cut of the film me to join the team that would make the and look forward to popping the popcorn film and write the book. With a few slides and settling down to watch the first hour and handouts, Ambassador Young, his on Georgia Public Broadcasting. The daughter and I began telling the Atlanta second hour is scheduled for later in story to a variety of university and the spring. Stay tuned. 2 Preview of Coming Attractions: NEW EVENT IN MARCH: “Andrew Young and the Making of Modern Atlanta” EMERITI ON THE GO Harvey Newman, Professor Emeritus of Public Management and Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Teryl Frey, Regents Professor Emeritus of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences ne of the most exciting aspects South) and a light lunch, three emeriti O of retirement is the freedom professors will present brief slide shows to undertake new activities and on recent trips: Anne Page Mosby adventures, and the Georgia State on her travels to Australia and New Emeriti excel in this regard. In March Zealand, Rankin Cooter on his trip to 2015, the Emeriti Association will southern Africa and Terry Frey on his unveil a new event at which members tour of Cuba. These presentations share their activities and adventures, will be exciting and informative, even this time emphasizing travel. This for those of us who are not able to event will take place in association travel, and similar events will be with the Georgia State Authors Series.