Prayer, Chocolate, Wine, Sleep

It's funny how a visit to the UNC Hospital can really take forever. My sister had to leave for the airport during my last appointment there in September! 

My mom and I stayed in a lovely hotel last night near the hospital specifically so that we could walk there (parking is a cluster!) but it was too cold to walk this morning. The hotel had a van so we hitched a ride to the hospital. I had an 11:30 MRI appointment and we got there early around 11:10. By the time I registered, found the MRI suite, had my IV started, had the MRI, and met back up with my mom it was 1:10! My aunt and uncle met us after the MRI and we went to my doctor's office. UNC Hospital is several hospitals (general, women's, children's, cancer, neuroscience) all joined together by a long walkway. It is quite impressive. We got to Dr Ewend's office for my 1:30 appointment early and waited and waited and waited to see him. We then had to get some copies of my MRI to take with me. My mom and I were driving away from the hospital at 4:30. What a loooong day.

My visit went well. I am not really sure what I was expecting going into today's visit but I am not surprised with how it turned out. There is about 2 x 2 x 2 cm of tumor left. I started with a tumor that was almost 4 x 4 x 4 cm. The tumor has been downgraded from "large" to "small to medium". Dr Ewend gave me my options: watch and wait, radiation, surgery. I am a candidate for all three options but he thinks that I will eventually have to do either radiation or surgery. I am personally more of a fan of surgery because I am young and it seems that I hopefully have a lot of years left and radiation has about 20 years of data--not long term data on patient outcomes. Each option has a list of pros and cons. Meanwhile, I have been feeling that my life is "on hold" waiting for today's appointment, and I don't want for my life to be "on hold" in anticipation of another major surgery--i.e. continuing to watch and wait sounds tedious. 

So I am going to pray, eat chocolate, drink wine, and sleep on it. There is no hurry to make a decision this time, which is fabulous but also makes the decision a little bit more challenging. 

I am eternally grateful today and every day for the support that y'all have given me. I am so very grateful for my family, my friends, my coworkers, and my UNC healthcare team--I could never feel as brave as I have without everyone's support!

Custom made trophy compliments of my cousin Johnny. Still sitting on my dining room table!