Amy and I like to think of ourselves as travelers. With visits to Cancun, Cozuemel, Jamaica and a couple of visits to Disneyworld we thought we were hitting some of the places most folks dream of. Since we have never been to Hawaii, we decided that would be our next jaunt with the kiddies. As we were waiting for our brochure to arrive in the mail, we were sidetracked by a lump my wife felt on the upper part of her right breast. After a visit to her OBGYN, then a trip to MD Anderson, we received oneway tickets to Cancerland...Hawaii will have to wait.
After following several other cancer blogs, I realized that our induction into the Pink Ribbon Club wasn't any easier for any of them than it was for us. You are not handled with kid gloves. A serious disease, with serious treatment, and no lollipops handed out as you leave the myriad of offices we now call home. Even the fact that my wife was only 36 is not so unusual, with women and men afflicted with this disease in growing numbers at a much younger age than meets the requirement for a mammogram.
What is unique is that this was my wife. The mother of my children. A woman that has never had one surgical procedure, never been hospitalized once. We are now frequent travelers - only to a place we only knew in passing. Amy was diagnosed with Stage IIA Invasive Ductal Carcinoma; breast cancer to us non cancer speaking folk. These are our accounts as we make our way through Cancerland, with the full intentions of turning our one way tickets into round trip and out of this place.