Autumn Days and Blue Tits

After two weeks of just Being and getting on with life, Chris and I set off again for Burnley General. We were optimistic, why wouldn't we be? Once again the professionals we met were honest and straight forward. The biopsy showed little Lumpy was a bit more sinister than at first thought. The little bugger was responsive to protein as well as oestrogen which apparently means I need to have chemotherapy. How ironic (or perhaps synchronicitous) then that I'd already signed up to do the 'Brave The Shave' for MacMillan.

Surgery was scheduled for 5th Sept- to liberate Lumpy and take a lymph node or two to check. I had already started to gather a small team of positive people around me, choosing very carefully who to include- Healers, Gongsters, grounded, kind, positive folks who I knew would make time for me. The kindness of ego-free folks who humbly and consistently work with energy is so appreciated and its fair to say I was floating on and drawing from a beautiful cloud of Reiki. 

More synchronicities started to fall into place and a bigger picture began to emerge. Once again I surprised myself as it came so naturally to look for the gift in this situation. People were so kind- supportive, strong, no hint of 'there, there' drama and with a big chunk of humour. No big drama, just tangible solidarity- and in that support I felt a rather lonely road was not quite such a solitary journey.

Wednesday 29th August was pre-op day at the Royal Blackburn which went easily and quickly on account of me being so healthy and not having taken any meds or seen a doctor since I left teaching. Mmm- there may be something to explore there!

Tuesday 4th September saw me back at
Blackburn for an interesting little
procedure in the Department of
Radioactive Medicine. My left nipple
was injected with a substance for the
Sentinel Node Test- so a blue dye could
be inserted during surgery to identify the lymph node(s) to be removed. Apparently this would give me a hint of Smurfness and cause me to have a very blue nipple for the foreseeable future. This procedure sounded far worse than it turned out to be. Chris had joked earlier that I'd just feel a little prick! To be honest I hardly felt anything and the lady who performed the procedure explained everything so thoroughly that I left reassured- if a tad radioactive.

Having never been in hospital before nor experienced surgery, this was a solemn time. But within it all there was a stillness that comes from positivity and the support and kindness of genuine friends. Facebook Memories reminded me of a friend who had returned to the UK from abroad for cancer treatment the year before. Latest posts showed her back in the sunshine, well and enjoying life. This led me to ponder what had enabled this. From meeting up in the early days of her treatment, I knew her to be incredibly positive and to have the support of some grounded, genuine and kind folks. Pretty much a perfect model to follow I'd say and one I nurtured as surgery approached.                                                                         
                                                                                                Liz x