Continuing to move

Since my biopsy I've run approximately 29 miles.  Some have been hard miles and some have been easy but as always they've helped me deal with the stress of what is going on.  My favorite miles are long slow runs and trail runs.  The trails here are gorgeous, even in the early spring (yes, it is still early spring here) when very little has bloomed and the woods are mostly brown.  It's quiet . . . I mostly have the trails to myself.  Yesterday, I saw three "white flags"--the telltale signs of spooking deer.  And, nothing beats the zen of running on rocky, rooty, hilly trails and having all thoughts focused on staying on your feet and off your butt!

I met with the surgeon today who explained that based on the results of my biopsy they aren't really worried about breast cancer (which is what I thought was the concern) but instead there is a concern that I might have chronic lymphocytic leukemia as the abnormalities are consistent with that disease.  I keep getting reassurances that it is very unlikely that anything is actually wrong with me, but just in case they need to find out.  My "google" research shows that if it is cll, it is uncurable but that I could go decades before ever needing treatment.  I'm still hopeful that this is just another blip in the chain of all of my weird medical test results that mean nothing (I have a lot of them).

So May 3 is the magic date.  I will be having a minor surgery--but I'll only be getting a local, not being put under anesthesia which makes me happy and the cut will be small per the surgeon.  He plans to remove exactly one lymph node and stitch me back up.  He said I should be back to work the next day and my question of when I could run again was answered in a way that provided me some humor:  "If it was me I would probably run later that day, but since you're the patient and I'm the doctor I should probably tell you to wait until the next day before running."  Yes, I definitely picked the right surgeon.  He is, after all, the founder of the Marquette 50mile/50k and runs faster, further and likely more often then me.  I had expressed my time goal for my upcoming 1/2 Marathon and before the consultation ended he was giving me training advice.  That's the first time in weeks that I've come out of a doctor appointment feeling better than I went in, even with the possibility of having cll.

To end the day, I do what I often do . . . I went and ran with my 10 year old lab.  It seems to be helping as I actually feel calm and peaceful this evening and ready to take on the next round of testing.