The lottery

Leukemia, cancer and the Texas lottery are all reminders that we don’t know what may be just around the corner of life. Sometimes, these surprises can be good, and other times, not so good. I apparently have some of the “luckiest” people as my patients, as two of my patients actually won the lottery! That, of course, opens all kinds of possibilities for life. This also opened new insights for me as a physician, having never met lottery winners before. What I discovered was that having your health was more significant that having a lot of money. In fact, many times your health cannot be brought back with more money.

So, maybe I was “lucky” to have patients win the lottery, so that I could put things into better perspective. And maybe some patients of mine were “lucky,” not because they won the lottery, but because they had me as their physician.

If you have a healthy body, a strong mind and great relationships, I would propose that perhaps you have won the lottery of life. If you have some money and you know how to use it, that is an added bonus.

Value your friends. Value your health. Value your family.

Dr. Fred Hardwicke practices medical oncology at Childress Regional Medical Center, 901 U.S. Hwy 83.