Skip to main content

Going off the Rails on a Crazy Train

While getting an MRI recently, I selected to listen to a classic rock station. Actually I requested a station that played 70s or 80s music and the tech asked if I wanted pop or rock.

"Well, classic rock would probably be better since I have to hold still," I responded. "If I listened to pop, I'd want to be dancing."

And so I laid perfectly still while listening (or kind of listening since really in an MRI you never really drown out the loud bangs, whirs and booms). And it came to pass that the song "Crazy Train" started playing and I started to silently and stillfully laugh to myself. What a strangely perfect song for this moment in my life. Ozzy Osbourne was singing my song (has anyone ever really said that ever before???)! "I'm going off the rails on a crazy train," he sings/screams. (and a bunch of other lyrics I didn't understand because well, I was in an MRI and he was kind of screaming)

You see the reason was that the MRI was a breast MRI (a torturous procedure clearly created by someone without breasts because you lie on your stomach with your arms above your head for 45 minutes). It was ordered by my medical/surgical oncologist to further stage and explore the level of my breast cancer.

Yep, I've got breast cancer.

Triple negative, stage 2 or 3. The MRI was ordered to determine which stage I will play on. Yep, crazy train.

It is a cancer that responds best to chemo so that will be how I begin and I meet with an oncologist tomorrow to discuss specifics (like starting date and length of treatment) and I'm scheduled to get a port on Friday.

So it begins. This is just another hurdle I have to jump (that is a figure of speech but if I need comic relief, I think about my attempts when younger/able to leap a hurdle. it wasn't pretty but sure is funny in hindsight). Because the highlight of 2019, will be the July wedding of Michael Patrick Piggins. 

I also plan to conquer this with my good humor and while blogging, to keep everyone updated. 

Comments

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Friday Night Lights

Friday night lights were blazing last week - when for the first time in the history of our little town, the Saugatuck Indians clinched the district title! You can see the sheer joy on Matthew's face and the pride in his father's eyes in the picture above. Leading up to and during the game, there were several things that made the victory even more sweet. The first being that the sports writers in the area, to a person, all predicted the opponents, Climax-Scotts, to win. They'd had a perfect season - until Friday. The second was that we had to travel quite a distance (nearly 90 minutes) to get to the game. And the weather was frigid and snow was blowing - thankfully it was blowing towards the Climax-Scotts stands and was at our backs. And then our quarterback injured his shoulder and had to sit out for a good portion of the game. Thankfully, the replacement quarterback (a sophomore called up for the playoffs from the junior varsity team) did not let the stress effect his ...

Ten Year

When I was in junior high school, I staged a sit-in and learned about 'ten year'. This will come as a total surprise to most of you readers - I was not a perfectly well behaved child. I know, I know - you're shocked, amazed, in wonder how I could have turned out to be so well-behaved despite the oats sown in my youth.  And the sit-in is a perfect example of how I marched to the beat of my own drummer. Miss Brown was an English teacher - and not a very popular one. She would invoke the yardstick on wayward student's hands and scowl the moment we walked into the classroom. We weren't very kind to Miss Brown but then she wasn't very kind to us, either. Personally, the hardest part of having Miss Brown as an English teacher is that she nearly ruined my love of my favorite topic in school. It was the year we were to learn grammar (have I ever mentioned that as a writer I detest grammar?). I think some new way of teaching English was introduced and in all l...

The Glass may be half full - but the plate is overflowing!

I have written many blogs this week - but have posted none. Not one of them seemed to ring true to what I was thinking or feeling this past week - I have been too scattered, unable to focus and more than a little ADD. It's because my plate is overflowing! Matthew and the Saugatuck football team snagged a place on the field at Ford Field after a nail-biter today. All along, this was a team that wasn't predicted to go far this season; they were young and there weren't many of them. Each of the playoff games have been a gift - and for a couple days prior to these games it has been difficult for this new football fan to sleep. Stress!!! And then Delaney is in rehearsal for her first play at Holland High school - The Three Musketeers. She is in a different school and in many ways, especially during this playoff season, a different world! Her rehearsals are nightly, including Fridays and she has had to miss the playoff games.  I've had to arrange transportation for ou...