Blessed

I ran 2 miles after work today (Friday) - in the rain.  Wow, this blog is really inspiring me!  I also walked a good half mile as a cool-down.

I'm home late and publishing this in the wee hours of Saturday morning because I've had a fabulous day with many connections to people who have been incredibly caring and supportive.  I'm certainly blessed with wonderful family, friends, and colleagues who have already been a great help and will carry me through this ordeal.  Thank you all!

I'm making quite a bit of progress in finding people to talk with about their experiences with breast cancer.  A friend at work gave me a couple of contacts that I'll try to contact soon.  Another friend has a nurse friend who has offered to connect with me.  I also have a nurse I met through Facebook's James Warriors group who has offered to meet me for lunch or after work sometime soon.

Between Michelle Z and my parents, I was connected to someone from my home state who chose a bilateral mastectomy.  It was great to talk with her and I was very impressed with her attitude and appreciated learning what I may have in store for this surgery.  She took care of it all at one time and now is done with it and that's exactly what she intended.  She was fortunate to not need radiation or chemo after the surgery and has been cancer free ever since. 

I also talked with my staff plus a few close colleagues today and they were great!  I'm so glad I had that discussion and that I did it with them as a group.  First I talked about the diagnosis and that it was caught early and is probably not life-threatening.  Then, true to Kelly form, I gave them a beautiful, color handout with the heading "What you can do."  I'll post that information on another blog, but essentially it was about asking me if they have questions, keeping me in the loop even when I'm out of the office, pitching in to help me and each other, keep things moving along and don't wait for me, etc.

While talking with my staff, I got even more resources for assistance.  One has a friend who recently had a double mastectomy.  Another sent me some links from an NPR show.  And several of them talked about the actress Christina Applegate who had a double mastectomy and has been very vocal about it. They thought I’d be able to find quite a bit on the web about her experience and decision-making process.

Lastly, I called some long-time friends (Jeff and Jen) who I don't see often enough and they invited me to dinner tonight.  We had a wonderful dinner, a few glasses of wine, and talked for hours, just like old times.  I had such a great time and it was cathartic to reconnect with them. Jeff got me a book (Susan Love, M.D., The Breast Book).  He's great about health research and knowledge - much, much better than I am, that's for sure!  He says it's a very well respected and best-seller reference book that has been through several editions.  Thank you, Jeff!  Jen also gave me some contact information for a nurse friend who has had a mastectomy and is willing to share her experience with me.