“Let Me Explain. No, There Is Too Much. Let Me Sum Up.”

Lots going on here in LifeAfterDiagnosis-ville.  Nothing earth-shatteringly good or bad, just a whole big box full of busy.  Rather than posting several posts, let me Sum Up.

• I Woke Up Early, I Ran, I Conquered.  So I ran the Race for the Cure.  I was quite behind in my training in the last 3-4 weeks (or 34 years, whichever sounds less silly), but knew the excitement of the day would help me reach the finish line.  And it did.  I couldn’t run every step (in fact, I walked a good bit of the middle), and I couldn’t have done it without Tom running by my side, pushing, cajoling, teasing me to just run a little more.  The one disappointment of the day was that they’d run out of pink survivor tshirts before I got there, so I didn’t get one.  I got a pink Ford Warrior scarf (that replaces the Lilly Pulitzer scarves; dammit, just my luck) and thought that might signify my Survivor status, but they were giving them out to everyone.  I even saw a few dogs sporting them.  Hmph.  Still and all, when we got home and I half-jokingly said to Tom that I wanted to run another 5K next weekend, he didn’t say no…immediately.

• Meet My New Boyfriend, NED.  Have had a bunch of my Quarterly Check-ups, including the ever-delightful CT/CAT scan with non-flavored contrast, and it was in the checkup with the oncologist that he finally read to me the words that I’ve never quite heard so far:  “No Evidence of Disease.”  I see on breast cancer boards where survivors talk about being NED and I’ve been a bit jealous that I hadn’t gotten to hear that — well, jealous no more, ’cause NED is in my life at last.

• Staying Surgery-Free in 2006, But 2007 is Another Story.  The doctors (I also met with my gynecologic oncologist) are really pretty adamant about that remaining ovary of mine getting voted off the island ASAP–not due to anything they see in my CAT scans or CA-125 bloodwork, but because I’m BRCA1+.  I still haven’t decided between “just” a salpingo-oopherectomy or having a hysterectomy (one doc votes for one, the other votes for the other; I am the deciding vote), but I did manage to get them to say I could wait until the New Year.

I also wanted to chat a bit about the new quarterly magazine for breast cancer survivors, called something like Beyond, but the premiere issue is in the other room and I am too lazy to go get it.  I say it’s something like Beyond, but when I Google that title, it doesn’t come up. So, huh.  More on the magazine when I can quit being so crazy lazy.

p.s.  Anyone know what the title of this post comes from?