So here we are

[thereabouts]

For many years I've referred to my wife as the best thing about me. The best thing about me has breast cancer. Seven days ago she had a bilateral mastectomy.

Five or six months ago she started complaining about shortness of breath and back pain. When I attempted to rub her back where she said the pain was it scared the bejeezuz out of me. I suspected it was in her lungs and the shortness of breath was tied to the back pain.

Late July we were out doing our evening walk and she wanted to know what we would do if there was something bad wrong with her. I suggested we empty the bank accounts and take care of the bucket list.

Late August we were in the mountains of Arizona dry camping. Dry camping is when you are off grid with no utilities like running water, cable, telephone, or electricity. It is something we really enjoy doing. We have a fifth wheel travel trailer and know Heaven has to be a place like the mountains of Northern Arizona, 7,000' elevation with evenings in the high forties and days in the low eighties during August.

She mentioned one morning that there was a pain in her right breast and when she felt for it she felt a lump. I felt of it and immediately thought of a Mary Jane candy, those peanut butter candies that are white with the black stripes, miniature domino in size and shape. That was around the 25th of August.

September 10th she had a doctor's appointment and he scheduled a mammogram. That confirmed a problem and they went further with a sonogram etc. The next day they did a biopsy. It was a Wednesday. The following Monday we got the call, cancer. The pathology report on the biopsy gave it an eight out of nine grade, progesterone positive, Her2 positive, 3cm Ductal invasive carcinoma.

A month later the oncologist said it was 6.5cm 11B because of the size and there was no evidence of lymph node involvement. The next day she had the bilateral mastectomy and the first thing the surgeon said after saying it all went well was the two sentinel lymph nodes tested positive so she pulled a couple of more with an incision under her armpit. We haven't got the pathology report yet.