I will do my best to not let this be so long, but I feel overwhelmed today and feel like writing the book that I often threaten! The day started out so wonderfully with the birth of Summer Rayne. Thank you, Trish, for doing the blog entry this morning! Can you all believe this mom of SIX, takes time to make a blog entry when she delivered a baby at home (naturally, with a midwife) less than 12 hours before this entry??? Wow! My breath is taken, again. What a special year this has been to have two precious baby girls born into our family when we thought we were all done with new grandkids. God is so good and He sure knows how to bless abundantly! It all reminds me of the great support we have and how wrapped we are in abundance and love.

I know you all want to know the details of the findings with my tests today. We do, too, but there is still so much that we don’t know. That’s okay. We know some things:

1) I do NOT have inflammatory breast cancer.
2) The node under my arm tested positive for cancer.
3) The biopsy of the mass was worse than a nasty root canal, but it wasn’t anything like natural childbirth, so I survived it, and when we get the details of the analysis of the biopsy we will know specifically what kind of cancer I have and how to best treat it.
4) We are in the right place. I’ve never felt more welcome and comfortable in such a situation.
5) I am married to a saint. What wonderful support Don is.
6) I am so richly blessed to have my best friend from 7th grade here to absolutely hold my hand through this and all of you who are reading this to hold my hand in thought and prayers. Thank you for walking the walk with me.
7) I have scheduled a cat scan and a bone scan for Friday.
8) We don’t know when we’re going home; we’ll let you know as we learn.

Life is a journey and this cancer thing is just a side trip in the journey. We did the alternative experience to the best of our ability. I am throwing myself to the feet of mainstream medicine, now and I offer them the opportunity to throw everything they have at this cancer. I am strong. I have nothing wrong with me except this cancer. Many people my age have many health issues which would complicate healing. I am short and stubby, but that won’t hold me back a bit. I have the support and prayers of so many wonderful people and best of all I am in God’s hand. As the doctor told me today, this is only cancer; it is not my life. I should go ahead and live my life; this cancer can be treated.

I am overwhelmed and speechless at the thought of coming to this point in life and having Judy, a best friend from the age of 12, welcome me into her home, drive me to the clinic and sit with Don and I all day, and then take us out to dinner with her husband! Then I got online to check my email tonight and got an email and picture from the first boyfriend I ever had in life! (We went to kindergarten together and he brought a box of valentine candy to me at my house; can you believe we still keep in touch?) I know some people live in the same town where they lived all their lives and know people they’ve known all their lives, but I was a military kid and it took 14 schools to get me through 12 grades. It’s awesome to me to know anyone for my whole life and these people are such treasures to me. All of you who read this mean so much to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, love and prayers.

Hang tough with me. I’ll keep you informed as we go along this journey. Judy and I have taken pictures and we’ll get them on the blog soon. I thank God for YOU, for all our family and for the hope that we have for beating this cancer. To God be all the glory!