Ultrasound follow-up of mammogram this afternoon. Again with the crossing of everything, please! Lots of "it's nothing" energy, s'il vous plait!

Your "it's nothing-ma" worked a treat! A couple of fluid-filled cysts that we'll be keeping an eye on, but not the disease that shall not be named! Though perhaps I should have asked for a little bit of speed on that -ma; the ultrasound tech left "for just a minute" to discuss findings with the dr. Then left me alone for...I don't know how long, at least 20-30 minutes, long enough for me to have an "I can't do breast cancer on top of everything else!" meltdown and discover that the room had no tissues. Who the hell has a room where they - however often - break it to people that they have cancer but doesn't have tissues in it?!?! Madness!!

Tomorrow at 11:30, meeting with the oncologist to find out what we're going to do about the *probably* cancer recurrence. Again with the ~ma, if you please!

So, still not 100% definite, but my oncologist is pretty sure it's a recurrence of the cancer. They're going to do a biopsy to get to 100% sure, but the odds are in cancer's favor. My doctor is thinking oral chemo rather than infusion, which is good. And possibly a clinical trial that targets a particular gene that my cancer exhibits. I'll know more after the biopsy.

And after really pinning my dr down for info, I came away with the understanding that I'm not likely to ever "beat cancer", I'm going to have disease-free intervals, interspersed with recurrences where we'll beat it back for a while.

I'm still processing.

There will be a memorial for Jacqueline Anne Zahas Smay

on Saturday, May 18th, from Noon to 4pm

at The Lodge on the 3rd Floor of the Regency Ballroom, 1290 Sutter Street (Corner of Sutter and Van Ness) San Francisco.  

>[link]

Food and drink will be served.

In honor of Jacqueline, please come dressed in splendid colors with all your peacock finery, in your own inimitable style.

In remembrance of Jacqueline, you are invited (though certainly not required) to tell a brief story about her.  We are deprived of Jacqueline in our future but her past is a trove of stories, and I don't know them all!  And that is unacceptable. 

So share your tales of her as a child, in high school, at college, traipsing around Norwich, drinking in Greece, bawdy at the RenFaire, online, at work, or however you may have known her.

If you plan on attending, please RSVP me at Hecubot@gmail.com or whatever direct messaging (FB, Text) is our common communication.

I need this for the headcount for the caterer, so please include the number of guest(s) that will be attending, and whether you're deathly allergic to monkfish or actively trying to free your glutens.

Will update more fully later, but for now please send all your job~ma with a side of salary bump and/or relocation assistance towards Chapel Hill, NC. I crushed the interview process and think it’s a great fit all the way around. Hope to hear by Friday.