The difficult days

 I should have written long before now. So much happened so quickly. I won’t say it started with my health issues, but that’s definitely a good starting point. And one doctor visit, which was a routine visit, I ended up with an ultrasound of my kidneys, which led to a urologist and a CT scan of my kidneys. Also, I mentioned I get off balance a lot and my watch notified me that I am unsteady – that landed me trying to have an MRI. I say try because I completely freaked out and haven’t managed to complete that yet. 

In the meantime, my sister found a painful lump in her breast. That led to a mammogram and ultrasound and a biopsy. Four spots were biopsied actually. The day she should have received her results, hurricane Helene hit, canceling that appointment. We had no power or water for three days, showered at friends’ and families’ homes. We thought we knew what was going on based off of information on her patient portal. The following week she and my mom went to the rescheduled appointment only to discover less than half the information was posted on her patient portal. Things were not nearly as “good“ as we had thought. Tuesday will be the meeting with the oncologist and surgeon to learn the treatment plan.

To say we’ve had a wee bit of stress is an understatement, but I feel like the worst is yet to come. My niece is constantly asking all of us, “are you OK?” She is obviously worried. Losing her dad at 6-years-old makes her very anxious about anything medical. Yes- we are ok but we are all very stressed and worried. 

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Update: we did see the oncologist and surgeon and while we received difficult news, we also received good news. The cancer is aggressive and invasive but also cure able.  The plan is 6 chemo treatments and then a mastectomy. Not what we wanted to hear but we’ll do what we have to do. I say we - I know this is on my sister’s shoulders but we all go together.