6 letter word

I can think of lots of six letter words; donkey, vacuum, videos, cereal, orange, kitten...but last Thursday I discovered a really big 6 letter word: CANCER. That's a big word. It's only 6 little letters but it's huge. The big C word.

Last week we found out that my mom has thyroid cancer. Amazing what changes when that word enters your life. We've dealt with cancer in my family before. 2 years ago, my aunt had uterine cancer and had to have a hysterectomy. That was big too...I vividly remember finding out, crawling into bed with Ryan in St. Louis and crying. But now its here...in my house...in my mom.

Words are now in my vocabulary that I didn't even know before. Papillary thyroid cancer (the "best kind to get" if there is one) is now a term I know. Endochronologists are doctors that I will visit with my mom. Hypoparathyroidism is a complication. Radioactive-iodine treatment will be the next step in the even surgery doesn't remove it all....
So many words and terms have become part of me in the last 4 days.

I'm dealing with it better than I thought...of course when I first heard the word cancer in relation to my mom I lost it. But after about 15 minutes of sobbing at work I realized what's the point? Nothing we can do but get through this. It's shitty....really really shitty. But it could be worse...and we'll deal with that if it comes.

We have the first appointment with the surgeon today to find out how soon the thyroidectomy needs to be done. Auntie Di comes up this week to celebrate the big 25 with me. We'll go to Tony Sims. They'll see Farm Boys (a GREAT show at my theatre...come see it). And we'll try not to talk to much about the big 6 letter word.