Stella with her eyes on the prize.
I'd been wondering what this blog was gonna be about know that we've sold our trailer and settled down for the short term. Looks like it's gonna be about cancer for a while.

Cancer is the process of unregulated cell growth. Like suburban sprawl, a tumor represents unplanned expansion, and much to our surprise we recently found a fully formed subdivision in Tiffany's left breast. In the span of one week we went from saying "let's get this checked out" to talking about a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, multiple reconstruction surgeries, and 24-hour round the clock "three's company" reruns. Honestly, they haven't mentioned the reruns yet, but I figure it's the only form of torture left, so it's bound to come up eventually.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with doctoring but right now I'm thankful to have so many smart doctor-friends who are helping us understand what's going on and what to do about it. It's turned out to be an unexpected blessing to have friends that we can call and say "tell me about fake nipples..." This weekend we're working hard to learn all we can. We know the left boob is a goner now that it's turned against us. (this aggression will not stand, man) We're trying to learn about the value of doing a bilateral mastectomy, chemo, hormone therapy and all the weirdness of reconstructive boobage. It's overwhelming and confusing.

I want to state for the record that I'm married to the bravest person I've ever met. This no idle distinction when you're in the running against my friend Barry. Tiffany's first question about replacement was "can you get fake boobs that come with tassels?". The truth is, dark humor is serving us very well and I'm a little glad there hasn't been anyone around to witness the new heights in inappropriateness that we've achieved.
The support from our friends and family has been the most amazing thing that's happened to us in a long time and we really feel blessed to have the people in our lives that we do. Cheers to Brittany for letting us know that she was taking a shot of Jager for tiff's boob. Cheers to Ryan for painting his body pink only to find out that oil-based paint burns a little. Cheers to Barry for saying the right thing at the right time. Cheers to the Berkeley family for trying to fly here at a moments notice. Cheers to the friends who have cried with us a little and our sweet Oregon neighbors who have shown us so much love. We're definitely gonna be all-right.

A big question these days is "what is healthy?" Is it being cancer free? Is it chemotherapy? Is it having a plastic bag of silicon implanted in your chest? Is it radiation? It's hard to know right now.

We're lucky to have planned this next month for a long vacation back east with our friends and family. I don't know about chemo, but time and love are definitely key parts of the cure.


(looking back over this post, the pictures seem a little out of place with the topic. but they were all taken yesterday while we were out on an epic walk trying to sort some of this out. secondly, what's a good picture for talking cancer?)