it begins...

We saw Dr. Shende this afternoon and we are now scheduled for rib surgery on Wednesday -first thing. whew... the ball is rolling now and this is just the beginning. This is a huge answer to prayer since it will give me three full weeks to recover from this surgery (which she again reiterated will be painful. It is a little daunting when the surgeon tells you that it will hurt because they are notorious for downplaying the outcome... yikes!). I'm so thankful that I also do not have to sit around and w...a...i...t yet again for something else to happen. We really liked Dr. Shende (do you see a pattern here?). She spoke of our other docs by first name (Darin had to clarify... "by Shannon, you mean Dr. Puhalla??") and said that they work together often so she would be in touch with them to keep them updated.

This surgery will also be at Magee (the hospital where I had both Parker & Neely). I had thought earlier that it would be at Presby but I think that would only have been the case had it been a biopsy. I was remarking to Darin today that maybe I should soon get a reserved parking space since we've been there so often lately , and he brought me back to reality in saying that there are likely people who have been there MUCH more often than I, with far more serious conditions. Reality check taken... I have much to be thankful for! We did the pre-op stuff today (but found out that there are actually some other requirements for the breast surgery so I will have to return at some point to get those things done prior to July 15th...) - EKG, bloodwork (I had an awesome stick today... I should've asked for her name and working hours...) and details for surgery. They will give us a call on Tuesday (as in TOMORROW... wow...) to let us know exactly where to go and when but it is looking like we will need to be there by about 6:30am even though I are the second case of the day. She said that it should be about an hour and a half surgery and she promised to be there both when I go under and when I wake up. It is looking like I will be in the hospital until Friday but I guess that it is possible that I will come home sometime on Thursday. However, as soon as she heard that we had small children at home, she started hinting heavily that I should probably stay in for two nights... :)

For this surgery, they will take at least 2 inches of the 10th rib and potentially more to be sure that they are taking everything. Dr. Shende apologized for the linear scar of about the same length that will result, but, as Darin so aptly pointed out, she should see what Dr. Ahrendt and Dr. Gimbel are about to do! She did tell me that it will likely be obvious if it is bad, but it is possible that she will not be able to tell anything when they get in there and the post-surgical labs will likely take at least 4 working days. She again told us that this could be "anything" but didn't give any real viable options for what that anything could be... To her trained eye she termed the CT to be "negative" even though the radiologists at Passavant read it as consistent with the bone scan... It is so interesting to get everyone's different points of view on things. However, she concurred completely with our oncologist that this could have a huge impact on my future care so we need to know what it is. And, in saying so, she mentioned that if it is found to be "nothing" (i.e. not cancer... nothing else really counts!), then we should be celebrating and not regretting "unnecessary" surgery (which she doesn't have to worry about with us!).

It is hard to believe that in about 24 hours we are going to finally get this great big ball rolling... we are excited to finally be doing something about this cancer but I can't say that I am not apprehensive about all that is coming. Yet... there have been so many blessings and so many answers to prayer that it would be impossible to think that God isn't walking right through this with us, carrying us when we aren't able to walk anymore.