Cancer Journal - Sunday June 16th - Follow up and Telling the Kids


I have one appointment already scheduled with many more to come. On Tuesday, I am meeting with the medical oncologist recommended by the doctor who did(n’t do) my colonoscopy. I expect that he will schedule me for a cat scan as soon as possible so we can find out what I’m really up against.

We told the kids on Friday afternoon because I’m sure the kids would have picked up on our mood. I made a point of not using a lot of medical words whenever I could describe it more concretely to them. So, I didn't use the word "cancer" or "tumor" - not because I'm afraid of those words but because "a lump growing inside me where it shouldn't be growing" is more concrete to them. We also didn't speculate about the seriousness of this since there is a lot we don't know. And I specifically told them that we were sharing this with them because this was a surprise to us and it is not a good surprise and "we didn't want them trying to figure out why Mommy and I were acting strangely." Then we told them a little bit about the surgery that I will have and how that will be different from other surgeries in the past (I had a surgery for a hernia back in January.) and asked them if they had any questions.

Today was Father’s Day. Christine and the kids gave me cards and brought me breakfast in bed. Later, Dustin and Miranda came over with Oliver (who just turned one about a month ago) and Dustin’s mother, Ruth, who moved here from North Carolina about a year ago.


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