Saturday, April 21, 2012

Short-lived good news

As it turns out, preliminary results don't mean a whole lot . . .  Less than 48 hours after receiving the good news I received a call that the additional testing showed abnormalities in 4% of the cells taken from my lymph nodes.  Apparently the professionals can't tell if the abnormalities are cancerous (breast, lymphoma or something else), something else entirely or nothing.  Tuesday I meet with a surgeon to schedule a "minor" surgery to have one or more lymph nodes removed.  That is the only way to determine whether the abnormalities are cancerous or not.  I haven't been able to determine how long surgery is going to keep me from work, running and getting on with a normal life.  (Am I really talking about "normal life" when there's a possibility I may have cancer?)  In my grand optimism, I'm hoping it will be less than a week.  I'm also trying to figure out how to tell the surgeon that I can't have the surgery until the first week of June so that I can run the Bayshore 1/2 Marathon Memorial Day weekend.  Considering that he is the founder of a local 50mile/50k trail race somehow I think I might be able to convince him that waiting a few extra weeks won't make a difference in the long run.

So what did I do a mere 2 hours after getting the news?  I ran of course.  What else was I supposed to do?  I was at a point where I thought I could run.  I was at least 48 hours out from the biopsy.  And to be honest, I really need to burn some stress and growing despair that something might be seriously wrong with me.  I've logged almost 20 miles in the 48 hours since getting the news and am currently feeling a bit more at peace with this whole situation.

I'm not sure what the future brings, but at least for now I live to run another day.

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