Another date in time I will always remember!

Today is another date I will remember forever! My husband and I arrive at the scheduled time for the appointment. The options are presented..... I didn't need a list of questions after all. Due to the type, invasive lobular carcinoma (no margins), location and size of the cancer, the choices are limited. Have a unilateral mastectomy, plus a group of lymph nodes removed (and biopsied), go through chemo, possibly radiation, and hormone therapy. Have various tests done prior to surgery and prior to chemo. From test results, determine if it has spread anywhere else.

Earlier in life I signed a donor card. I guess I should have read the fine print. I didn't realize that for some of us, the rules would be different and the parts would start being removed as we go along through life. Have already lost a few over the years. It started with the tonsils, then moved on to female reproductive stuff, appendix, a kidney (due to a birth defect found at the age of 48!) and now this. Damn it all, I was actually kind of attached to that breast! I guess the hair I will probably lose with the chemo just gets to be an added bonus, but at least that reproduces itself eventually.

I have already gone through a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts. So has my new husband of only five months. We just got married January 1st of this year! Not a first marriage for either of us, but we are so very happy and now this happens. What kind of guy is he? He is fantastic. He has already dug his heals in the ground and stated "We are in this together" "You don't have to worry, no matter what happens, I am with you all the way." "I will never leave your side." Yep, I did a good job this time of finding a good one. But damn, why did it have to become such a hard test?

There is another hitch in it all that makes it rough. My two children (daughter, 19 and son, 22) lost their father in early 2001 to cancer after a very hard three year battle. No, I was no longer married to him... had not been for a few years before he was even diagnosed, but that didn't make it any easier on any of us. Due to this, the word cancer around here has its own special meaning and set of emotions that comes with it. And here it is, once again, rearing its ugly head to them.

I can start my list of questions now. They weave up and down a lot of avenues though. They are most likely more than one doctor alone could or would be able to deal with.