The Beginning

A year ago, maybe a little longer, I read the writer's reference book "The Hero's Journey". It's a great book which any of you want-to-be writers should read. The bottom line, every story has a set series of transitions the hero must follow.

It goes something like this: the hero hears the call to adventure, and tries to ignore it. Once the call is accepted the hero begins a journey where he leaves all which is familiar and moves into an alternate world, the unknown. He will meet mentors, jokers, those who will try to block his path and cause him to fail on his quest. He must obtain the "elixir", understand the elixir, bring it home and live with the lessons he's learned (more or less).

On Tuesday I learned I had a breast cancer. As much as I would like to deny this particular call, I can't. I have to follow the path ahead, one which at the moment is somewhat obscured by the mists of the unknown.

Everyone I've shared this with has used a handful of adjectives to describe me -- strong, persistent, determined... If I was writing this book those are characteristics I would want for my hero. I've decided to call my blog the "The Hero's Journey" for these reasons.

I'll use it to try to write down my thoughts and feelings as I go through the coming months, as well as provide updates on my treatment. My friends should be able to post...although I'm still learning how to use the site (have patience, if I don't get the settings right -- I don't want the spammers posting on it).

So let the story begin...

In November 2007, I had a mammogram which documented a cyst in my left breast. Last summer the cyst grew and by Christmas I was ready to take action and pursue removal. I went to my previous doctor who reacted poorly to the situation. A long story short, follow-up should have been done and wasn't. I didn't care for the doctor's attitude and changed physicians.

I met with my new doctor on February 3. A week later I was having a follow-up mammogram and a biopsy. The lump was a new growth and not the previously diagnosed cyst. And, there was a second lump, one I had just discovered, under my arm.

Two weeks later I am sitting in the surgeon's office and she is telling me I have cancer. The biopsies are positive.

My ears are buzzing, my heart is racing, I can't breathe. "Shit" is my thought.

Rob is with me, thank God. He's shaken. I'm shaken.

"Okay, now we know; what next?"

This is my verbal response to the news. Dr. Ginny stares at me, as though weighing my reaction. She turns her chair so she is facing me, touches my knees with her hands and starts laying out what will happen.

I will have chemo. I will have surgery. I will have radiation.

I am young, I have no past history of cancer in my family. I have just become a statistic; one in eight women will get breast cancer.

On Tuesday I go to the Cancer Clinic in Halifax.