Booblog #2

Paperwork. Thank you all for your concern and all the energy, positive thoughts, and love sent my way. I am so grateful for it. Today was my first surgeons’ meet and greet, and it was interesting to get it all started, even though the road through the thicket is clearly still not clear.

The office where the Doc is has moved – today- so they were without phones, faxes, files, pictures, etc. Everything had that ‘We-just-moved-in’ look, you know-empty containers, people standing around wondering what to begin to do. I was their first patient, and I arrived ten minutes late, when you take filling in paperwork to account. LOTS of paperwork, with, they tell me, LOTS more to come when we talk more about the actual surgery.

If the lawyers were doctors, – oh never mind my random thoughts.

Turns out the Doc is quite acceptable, a lovely Tennessee girl with cowboy boots on, and both daughter Kelley and Lew took the time to accompany me with extra eyes and ears, and questions. It’s pretty easy to be overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information, which doesn’t get metered by how severe your diagnosis is. So, they are still waiting on two bits of information before setting a surgical date. One is the HER-2neu which is the test that determines whether they begin with surgery or chemo. Not in yet. The other was the result from the MRI, which I did yesterday, but hadn’t heard a report on as yet.
We met the nurse navigator, who I liked better in person than I did before now; we met the scheduler, we met the organizer, and the nurse practitioner – all open, friendly, and comforting. I also will need a couple of radiologists, perhaps a couple of therapists, and a nutritionist?
So, after we got back from stopping for a breakfast out, a treat, I received a note from the primary care doc, telling me that they want one more ultrasound, as they found a few more nodules than they anticipated, and they want to clarify what is what on both sides ( found one on the right as well as left ) This new request confused me totally, since the ultrasound is what they clarified with the MRI, and so now I am clarifying an ultrasound with another ultrasound. Doesn’t that seem odd? It does to me. However, I am scheduled for that on Friday. No fighting-just show up, boobs in figurative hands.
Peace is easier to find when things are in order, and having all of this up in the air requires its own surrender to confusion. Someone sent me a lovely quote today, and I’d like to share it with you, as my goal of the day, maybe more days, but I cannot copy it. Something about:

May the Lord make my New Year a Happy One…
Not by shielding me from sorrow and pain but by strengthening me to bear it if it comes,
Not by making my path easy, but by making me sturdy enough to tread any path.
Not by taking hardship from me, but by taking all cowardice and fear from my heart as I face hardships.
Not by making my life always pleasant, but by showing me where people and His cause need me the most and by making me zealous enough to be there and to help.
So I have an easy cancer, probably stage one, easy peasy, done sometime soon. All signs look good. The surgery is scheduled, maybe, sometime around the 17th, 18th of January. I can’t lift more than 5 lbs with my left arm, I am told, but, hehehe -I can pack a light suitcase and carry it on my right.
Thanks for being along with me on the road that goes somewhere.
Judy