Chasing Kris

This little cancer boob nugget of mine has caused me quite enough grief lately.  In deciding what to do about the diagnosis, the prevailing thought was that the first step was to carve it out.  I'm someone who asks a lot of questions and doesn't always go with the conventional wisdom, but all roads seemed to turn to the chop shop on this one. I scheduled my lumpectomy for the end of April.  Despite the fact that it is full on surgery, complete with the tube-down-the-throat complete suite of anesthesia, this did seem like a pretty routine procedure.  Certainly, my doctor seemed well qualified to perform the task and I had no doubt all would be well. I reported for surgery at 7am.  In the paperwork process, they want to know things like whether you have a healthcare directive or a living will.  Let me just say, this is not the most comforting thing to bring up when someone is presenting themselves for what they believe is to be a routine procedure! Afte...

I'm about six weeks into my cancer journey now.  On one hand, this has been such an unexpected path to pop up in my life suddenly, and on the other it sounds like a long time ago.  Six weeks to accept the diagnosis, six weeks to choose the attitude I intend to go forward with in the face of this beast.  Six weeks to really understand that I have cancer. Cancer is such a broad name for this disease, because it can mean so many things.  There are important additives to that word.  The stage of cancer, the location of cancer, the size, the intensity of its growth are all add ons that clarify and quantify the threat to life.  In my case, I have the luxury of saying mine is stage 1, it's breast cancer and it's not near my chest wall, it's small and I appear to have had it detected before it starts to take over.  These are great things; and yet, it is still cancer.  There is still the potential threat to my life.  Certainly, it has already affec...