Full speed ahead

So between Monday 0700, sneaking into the hospital to have a biopsy because my surgeon was desperate to protect my privacy and Wednesday at 0800 I ricocheted between diagnosis and surgery. Within a week I knew that my cancer had a name ... invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and a stage (which is somewhat different from having a stage name). I had just donated my Stage 1 IDC breast tumor to the diagnostic community in California for further analysis. Didn't seem quite fair that I couldn't go with it, the cold weather of December having set in with a vengence in the Northeast. Now all that was left to do was "enjoy Christmas" and "try not to think about it". Ok ... what I try not to think about is the fact that I'm overweight. Don't think I'm gonna do so well with ignoring that big elephant in the room.

Some two weeks later I stooped to playing emotional blackmail with Carlos in the California lab to have the results of the recurrence rate faxed to my surgeon. After patiently waiting through a holiday weekend I awaited the promised results of the tumor analysis on Monday. Not so much. But certainly by tomorrow, said the doctor's receptionist. "We expect the results Tuesday." Tuesday afternoon again yielded no results. It was at that point that the patient and Carlos collided. After explaining my plight Carlos informed me that the results would be ready in the morning, which of course is the afternoon on my side of the country. As the results were to be released to an MD in NYS an MD in California had to review the results and confirm them before the lab could fax any paperwork.

Cue the music. "I'm not just a tumor out there in California Carlos. I'm a human being." God only knows where that line came from but it worked. Carlos accepted my pleading as his challenge and promised he would do all he could to facilitate the release of the analysis that afternoon. And he did. It was because of Carlos I now knew that I had an intermediate risk of recurrence and would require both chemotherapy and radiation.

Be careful what you ask for ....