We have made a lot of great stops on this trip. A lot of them weren’t planned. They just came upon us, invited us, and we accepted the invitation. This particular stop was certainly unexpected and we tried like hell to not accept the invitation but it wasn’t one we could say ‘no’ to. Alas, the picture above is from my room at Wentworth Douglass Hospital https://www.wdhospital.org/wdh where I spent a night recovering from bilateral mastectomies due to a second round of breast cancer.
Damn! Who saw that one coming? Thanks to my fully functioning defense mechanisms, a lot of the experience seemed profoundly unreal. I recall being in pre-op when the 10th person (or so it seemed) asked me my name, date of birth and why I was there. The words, ‘bilateral mastectomies with right sentinel node resection’ came out of my mouth as if I were reading a story aloud – someone else’s story.
Luckily, I was surrounded by angels in human and spirit form. My trusty fellow traveller, Larry, was a rock star. Friends and family showered me with gifts and prayers. Reiki practitioners, internet based Christian prayer groups, Buddhists, and Atheists all chipped in and I felt like I was held in a nest of love. And, in fact, I was! The staff at Wentworth Douglass Hospital were unfailingly kind, respectful and capable. God love them all for showing up like that when I know how hard their work is.
Luckily, my recovery has been uncomplicated and I feel better than I have in a long while. I was profoundly shocked when I heard that I needed 6 weeks of radiation. How dare this interfere with our travel plans! I moaned about that for a good while and then got bored with the pity party. It’s good to get a good kick in the pants every once in a while about my illusions about control. Well, maybe ‘good’ isn’t the right word. Maybe ‘necessary’ is more accurate.
Well, I’d be lying if I said that I’ll miss this adventure when it is over. But, hard times sure do bring me close to the important things in life. I am ever so grateful for family and friends, for my surgeon and oncologists, for Mother Nature and for the love that holds us all.
By the time you get our next post, I hope to be telling you that our house has sold, my treatments are over and that we are on the road again in Shiny. Who knows??