Discovery

Once I heard those words “you have cancer” my mind went blank.  It was like “oh!…ok…let’s go home”.  A million thoughts ran through my mind, so fast that I couldn’t comprehend anything.

Thank God I have Jon.  He is my rock.

We quickly started to put a plan in motion after receiving advice [from a good friend who is a doctor] that the Mayo Clinic is where we needed to be.  I had my first appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN on Tuesday, June 16 [just 4 days after my original diagnosis].  I had a day of tests and was then sent home to wait for Mayo Clinic pathology to further test my biopsy specimen.  We returned to Mayo on Monday, June 22 for a full week of many tests and consultations. I began with a follow up with my GI doctor then moved on throughout the week to see a GI surgeon, the Radiology Oncologist and then finally the Medical Oncologist. I am so impressed with the efficiency, thoroughness, and caring nature of everyone I encountered at the Mayo Clinic.  It is definitely where we need to be.  

It was a week of good news and bad news.  One minute we were up and then the next we were down, but by late Friday we had a treatment plan.  Mayo was ready to start on Monday, but we asked to delay treatment for a week so we could go home and regroup.  We left for home on Saturday morning, June 27th.

The Mayo Building and Gonda Building (in the background), where most of my testing and consultations took place.