Staging the cancer

Today I'm thankful for...
A great hospital staff caring for Lourdes
Such a pretty wife
Good natured kids that are very loving
Wonderful people around Lulu and I

I worked at the office today, and Lulu and her sister Doris visiting from Puerto Rico (she arrived Saturday night) went together to the CT scan/Bone scan appointment. Now that we knew that the mass in her breast was malignant the next test the doctor wanted her to have was the CT/Bane scan. These tests were to see if other organs could have cancer in them? I was glad that Lulu's sister was here to take her to this appointment, so I could stay busy working and not think about how the results of these tests would turn out. I have to say I had the most difficult day in the 15 years that I've practiced dentistry. (and I had some tough days when I could barely walk because of a ruptured L4-5 disc). I couldn't concentrate on the patients and found it difficult to be the compassionate, thorough, and fun loving guys that I usually am. All I could think about is "what if". What if the diagnosis was positive for cancer in other areas of Lulu's body? What if she could came back to the practice? What if she never returned to the woman I had grown to love more and more each day, month, year? I could only pray for her every time that I had a millisecond lapse in my schedule. I finished late (5:30) and ran off to St. Mary's to see and hear the news. (I didn't want to call her to find out the results).

I saw Doris first and she was giddy with excitement about the test results being negative for tumors in the liver, bones, brain, or the lungs. Oh, I can't tell you how wonderful that news was!!!! Finally something positive we could hang some hope on. I ask her where Lulu was because I wanted at that very moment to run to her; to tell her that all was going to be fine. Doris said that Lulu was in the NICU was Baby Lourdes, so I practically sprinted to her. We embraced for a long while, and said said something to the effect, "I'm so glad that your test day were good, see God is looking out for you"? Lourdes looked just a little bit better tonight and we rejoiced after leaving the hospital by going out to eat a special dinner (Sushi at Sushimoto one our favorite places to eat raw fish).

This was a glorious day, and I marked my Gratitude Journal with 5 stars (the highest rating) to complete my day. Unfortunately, there was more bad news on the way.