It’s happened thrice this week.  A friend, usually more of an acquaintance-friend than a I know-everything-about-her-friend, has asked me, “How are you handling it?” And what she means is, “How do you walk around in those shoes?  You know, the shoes that have impending-threat-of-terminal-cancer* diagnosis.” *It’s true that this...

Me: “Maren, what do you want to be for Halloween this year?” Maren:  “Hmmm.  Somefing with animals I fink.” Me:  “Like an actual animal?  Or a veterinarian?  Or a cowgirl?” Maren:  “Yes!  A veterinarian.” The next morning, Maren burst into tears.  “Mom!   What if all my friends are in pretty dresses and I’m...

It’s official.  My lung surgery is scheduled for 7:30am on November 7th. After I spoke with Dr. Wonderful (oncologist) and Dr. Wizard (pulmonary surgeon) about the plan for surgery after the biopsy result, or non-result, as it happened to be, I felt a deep sense of peace. This doesn’t actually make a lot of sense since I’m having major surgery to determine whether...

Today I met the newest member of my ever-expanding medical team. The first thing you need to know about Dr. Wizard is that he wears the same style glasses as Harry Potter.  How cool is that? Dr. Wizard is a surgical specialist and today he talked to me about the video thoroscopic surgery he’s got planned for me.  He plans to cut three holes in my right side...

Today I knew that I was either going to find out: #1 You have terminal cancer.  (Stage IV (metastasized breast cancer) is considered terminal as it is not curable.) #2 We don’t know yet; you might have: a. Breast cancer that has metastasized to the lung, and the biopsy needle missed it.  (“Missing it” happens in 10% of these biopsies). b. An...