Ok, well here goes. I am almost afraid to start this thing there has been so much hype. I would like to say that there are many defining moments in life, none quite so resonating as being smacked straight up side the head with your own mortality. My defining moment started around noon on January 28, 2010. I got up, went to work in clinic and was generally very busy. I got a phone call at noon that my doctor wanted to speak with me right away. Not giving it much of a second thought, I phoned him. He told me that my routine chest xray had shown something and I needed to get a CT scan. First sucker punch to the gut! What did I do you say? Well, I checked in the next patient and scheduled someone else's test! Being the patient sort, I decided to have the doctor I work for (he should remain nameless to protect the innocent, lol) to tell me what level of panic I should be allowing myself. He did and told me to get the CT scheduled that afternoon.

Some of the major benefits in working in healthcare for 35 years are the people you meet and work with on a daily basis and the favors you can call in when needed. Within the hour I was having my CT scan. I got dressed and went back to relieve my work sister in clinic. I do so much better when I can focus on someone else's problems. In a couple of hours, Kay came over to tell me Dr. B (protecting his innocence, remember?) needed to speak with me in his office. Well let me tell you, one does not need to be a brain surgeon to know this is not going to be good! I will say that the sweetness and caring that he delivered the news with has been one of the most touching things to come out of this experience so far. I will always be greatful for the way you handled that Dr. B.

At this point, I did decide that maybe I should just let Kay go ahead and finish clinic. I thought, WTH, why not even allow yourself a good cry? Then I called Ronny. I have absolutely no idea what I told him except I knew he was on his way. As a matter of fact, I am not sure that I even remember what happened for the next few days. All I know is that it was like a whirlwind. First came the PET scan, then the pulomonary doctor then the bronchoscopy. All this was done by the next day, Friday. Then came the joy of waiting for the biopsy results. Second sucker punch to the gut, but who's counting right? Stage 4 lung cancer with nodes in the bone and liver. or something like that. I mean really wasn't the first part bad enough?

The next joyous step in this process was getting an IV port implanted. Now to date, this has got to rank #1 in my procedures to date. I think that had more to do with the Versed than anything else. That will have it's own individual blog devoted to it, I promise. Let's just liken it for now to giving someone that has not had a drink for 25 years a pitcher of margaritas. This gets us up to 2/11/10. That date marks my first chemo treatment, another whole story in itself.

I have a lot more, but I will need to start slowly! Award winning masterpieces cannot be expected to occur overnight anyway. Who knows, maybe I will be the next John Grogan (Marley and Me).