June 13th, 2005

Monday morning I woke feeling anxious. Not so anxious that I didn't have my morning coffee though. I emailed Susan the Doctor. Thirty seconds later, she called. Susan the Doctor isn't one for many flowery words. "It is cancer. Call the Breast Center."

Not full of comfort or anything, but blunt and direct. I like Susan the Doctor.

And so I am on the phone to the Breast Center and talk with Susan the Center Coordinator. She is encouraging, and indicates that Susan the Doctor likes the multi-disciplinary approach. This means that I will meet the whole team on the same day. I am scheduled for June 21st, an agonizing 9 days later.

When Lauren woke, it was time to tell her. What did we tell her? We hardly know anything yet. So I told her that I was sick, but I didn't know how sick. She sobbed in my arms. When the sobs began to subside it became clear that we needed to lightened the mood. So I said "in the true fashion of this family, we wait until you are flying high before cutting you off at the knees." At least we could start dealing with this with some humor.

At this point, I am wondering how many Susan's I can have as part of my life. Not only do I have Susan the Doctor, and Susan the Coordinator, but I also have Susan the Photographer. As a family, we all went to her studio to have photos taken. Some of them are wonderful! We don't have many family photos, so before Lauren goes to school and I cut off all 14" of my hair, this seemed like the perfect time. We had fun together!