It Has Been One Week...Picture And Sound Track At Bottom

It has been a week...one week...one week...one incredible week..since we learned Sarah has cancer.

I went to the grocery store yesterday. Now, I have been to the grocery store hundreds...maybe even thousands of times..I know my way around a grocery store.

But, yesterday I found myself walking down the aisles, getting to the end and wondering if I needed anything from that aisle. I don't know how many times I backtracked. I had to close my eyes and reopen them to see the items on the shelves. I had to make myself focus. It just goes to show that something we have done successfully hundreds, and maybe even thousands of times, doesn't always come naturally.

So, today is Monday. It is the day we have been waiting for. Today is the day we hope to hear from Dr. Migliori, the plastic surgeon. He is the man we want to hear from. How things proceed depend on his call. He is the next step. He is the next step in our journey to our destination.

The destination............getting it gone...getting it out....being without it...it...it..it..the cancer.

It has been one week...one incredible week...

Here is how it happened..here is what led up to our one incredible week...I don't even know if that sentence makes any sense...keep reading...it might...

2/11 - routine mammogram

2/17 - call to come in and get a 2nd mammogram

2/18 - 2nd mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy

2/22 - diagnosed with breast cancer (the start of our one incredible week)

2/23 - breast MRI

2/25 - met with surgeon, had chest Xray and blood work done

3/1 - monday is finally here and we will be expecting to...
get a call from the plastic surgeon...Dr. Migliori

meet with Dr. Migliori

Dr. Migliori will consult with Dr. Bretzke...the surgeon

they will coordinate their schedules with the operating room availability at Abbott Northwestern Hospital....Sarah's total time in the operating room will be about four hours

Sarah will undergo a sentinel node biopsy to check for any nodes that are affected...a simple mastectomy (bilateral) and reconstruction surgery

prior to surgery Sarah will schedule a pre-op

Sarah will have surgery...time in the hospital will depend on the kind of reconstruction chosen as will the recovery time

Sarah will then have an appointment to meet with an oncologist

Further treatment will depend on what is learned in the surgery

It has been one week...yes...one incredible week and the journey hasn't even really begun yet..amazing......it is like we have just been looking at the map...the map of where we are going and deciding the route we will take...it has been one week!

But, yesterday Kara, Sarah, Dave, Davey, Derek and Jackson came over to the house. I had food. Yep..I had food. Buy food and they will come : )

And, before they went home Davey wanted us all to go up to the Thomas the Train room with the magic lights and be together. (Kara had already gone home by then)

We made a love pile on the bed. All of us, except Grandpa who had the camera, made a love pile.

We laughed and talked and laughed. Then we laughed some more. And, we were together. That is how we do things.

There were six in the bed and the little one said..."I want to jump on Gramma!"

(Sound track from our love pile last night)