A good day at the hospital.

This picture was taken a month ago when Jo Ann had her mastectomies and we were in the waiting room with other friends. This is Jack Archibald, the best clown in the world. His wife is Tillie, so we call them Tillie and Silly because Jack is so crazy. He’s such a great sport, he was even willing to model my “breast cancer survivor cowgirl hat.” I forgot to take my camera today, but we were all there, again, as Jo Ann went back for surgery to get her lymph nodes. They didn’t take them in her original surgery because they thought her case was way more minor than it was. They expected that she had a stage 0 tumor which was in situ in her right breast. She opted to have the other one removed because she was so scared of ever having it come back in the other one. Her pathology report came back revealing that she did, INDEED, also have cancer in the left breast, which was in situ. In her right breast her tumor was a stage 1 and it was invasive, rather than in situ. (In situ means that it is contained; invasive means that it is spreading past the original tumor.) It was still very small and she had good margins (clear areas around the cancer cells they removed), but the oncologist said she could not feel good about her until she knew her lymph nodes were clear, so she went today to have those removed for pathology. She did GREAT, and is home, but it’ll be several days before the pathology report comes back to tell us if her nodes are clean or not. I’ll keep you posted.

You may be wondering why I’m telling you all about Jo Ann’s case. She’s close to me. I do this blog in hopes that my experience will help someone to be better braced if they face breast cancer themselves or with someone they love. I feel like Jo Ann’s experience may also help in the same way. Treatments are so different in different parts of the country. They are so different for different people and different kinds of cancer, too. Of course there are different schools of thought from doctor to doctor, etc. too. I recommend each person do lots of research and have a plan in mind whenever possible.

We are great, here. I didn’t have a chance to get a picture of me today, but I’m so pleased for you to meet Jack. He and Tillie play cards with us a lot and they are some of our best friends. Jack reminds us all of Jonathan Winters in looks and behavior. He keeps us in stitches. We thank God for great friends like Jack and Tillie, and we thank Him for Jo Ann’s great recovery.