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WARNING: This challenge will have no real goals. It'll just be a lot of blathering. I'm not in a position for goals right now. On March 19, the radiologist thought that something didn't look quite right on my routine, screening mammogram. So, she called me back for another one as well as an ultrasound. One biopsy later, and I was diagnosed with IDC breast cancer. Over the last month, I've gone through 2 mammograms, an ultrasound, an ultrasound guided biopsy, a breast MRI, a CT scan, a lymph node biopsy, a bone scan, an upper arm MRI, an arm X-ray, a visit to the surgical oncologist, a visit to the plastic surgeon, a class at the hospital, and ultimately a bilateral mastectomy. So yeah. As Jayne would say, I took that stick. And, well, I took it. And I guess that's something. All of that being said, everything is considered to be 100% curable, so I don't want anyone worrying about me too much. It was caught relatively early, and it has the best combination of hormonal receptors that you can possibly have for breast cancer. Here I am 2 days before surgery And here I am after surgery. TMI warning.. Things are very tender, but I actually feel pretty good. I'm only using the oxycodone at night, and I'm fine with just tylenol and ibuprofen during the day. The big problem is that I'm currently a T-Rex, meaning I can't raise my arms or use them much. Rather than worrying that a T-Rex can't parkour (or do yoga, pull ups, silks, push ups, etc.), instead I'll focus on what a T-Rex can do. T-Rex can take walks, read books, do physical therapy exercises, paint miniatures, (eventually) play the piano, relax, and heal. So, that's what I will do. On Friday, I should get the pathology report, at which point I'll know if they need to go back in and harvest more lymph nodes. I'll also have a slightly better idea if I'll end up doing chemo. While I really hope they don't need to take more lymph nodes, since that would greatly increase my risk of lymphedema, I'll just deal with whatever happens. I'm feeling pretty positive about everything, have a ton of support, and I'm ready to tackle all of this head-on! I am a little weirded out that Rurik and I seem to be cosmically linked, but the universe works in weird ways.