The Journey Begins...

“It’s a dangerous thing, Frodo, stepping outside your door. If you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might end up!” – Bilbo Baggins

Well. I feel as though I was literally tossed out of the door and have landed ass over head in the roadway. Why? If you’re one of my Fb crowd then you definitely know why…I found out I have cancer.

Since many people have asked, here is a rough timeline/what I know:

·         Friday May 4^th: Routine Check-up w/ Doctor; blood drawn. Some pain in abdomen when palpated, no fever. Follow up scheduled for two weeks.

·         Saturday May 5^th: Doctor calls; she ran blood overnight, wants me to get an Ultrasound asap on Monday or Tuesday,  “to rule some things out”.

·         Monday May 7^th:  Early AM ultrasound @ CDI in Mountlake Terrace (great folks). After ultrasound, they inform me they want me to get a ‘contrasted’ (barium milk-shake) CT scan on Tuesday.

·         Tuesday May 8^th: Contrasted Ultrasound. No news. Burb paint-water all day.

·         Wednesday May 9^th: Doctor calls and requests second ‘non-contrasted’ CT, again as soon as possible. They discovered “a mass” on my kidney. Depending on how it reacts, will determine course of action.

·         Thursday May 10^th: Waiting for insurance to approve another scan.

·         Friday May 11^th: Early morning, non-contrasted CT scan. Doctor calls in afternoon. Mass is 3.5cmx 4.5cm (we’re calling it acorn or golfball sized). Doctor asks to make an appointment with me to “sit down”. I tell her I’m on the phone with her now, and not knowing is NOT helping. I ask doctor what it is. “Is it a polyp or cyst?”  Dr. says “It’s important you know…THIS IS NOT A DEATH SENTENCE. It’s cancer.”

·         Friday May 11^th (wee earlies): In an attempt to wrap my head around essentially ‘the unthinkable”, I post “Well…shit. I have cancer.”

·         Monday May 14^th:  Dr. calls me early again. “We have finished going over the final report from the radiologist, and we can rule out, because of size and activity, [ACTIVITY?!?! WTF?!-cb] that it is benign.” I am ok with this. I don’t have a mini-freak until she tells me she is praying for me.

·         Tuesday May 15^th:  I wake up early, drink my coffee (am I still allowed?), wonder if blogging will be cliché, run it by the Fb crowd, and start writing….

·         LOOKING FORWARD:  Appointment tomorrow with urologist to discuss treatment. Follow up appointment with my Dr. on Friday.

·         Other random thoughts:

·         I went to the doctor for a routine check-up, because I haven’t been in a couple years.

·         My doctor is an N.D. (Naturopathic Doctor), and her clinic is about 60% oncological patients, in other words, they’re experts, so how luck am I?

·         I am sorry for freaking anyone out…it was never my intention. Just kind of hard to wrap my head around.

·         It is ok to make jokes about it with me. Humor is and always has been my best weapon against adversity. That said, it’s not like making cracks about it will give you canc… (Too soon?  Too soon.)

Anyway, my day off beckons.  Iken and I are going to go play some nerd games with Chris. WOOT!

Love to you all!

~Charlie