Hello family and friends, thank you for visiting my Caring Bridge.
I had an unexpected chapter added to my life story in the last several weeks. After experiencing some vague abdominal symptoms, I decided to see a doctor. Since having a CT scan followed through an MRI, as well as seeing a specialist, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. My surgeon scheduled me for her first available time, which will be Friday, July 27th at 9:00am. I will be having abdominal surgery which will explore my entire abdomen and will include a full hysterectomy. At that time they will determine the next course of action and specifics about my disease stage.
Almost 10 months after Michael's death, it seems surreal that I am now on the other side of his experience. I am remembering what wisdom he had and what helped him living with his cancer. It seems crazy that I am now taking some of the same supplements that he was taking late in his illness. I wont know about what the next steps are until I've started recovering. I've been told chemo is still a slight possibility depending on the results of the biopsy during surgery. I am fully confident in my surgical team at UCSD Moore's Cancer Center. My surgery tomorrow is at UCSD Thornton Hospital. I expect to be in the hospital for 3-5 days, then discharged to the team of my daughters and incredible friends. In the evolution of these last few weeks, I have been completely overwhelmed by the expression of love, kindness, support, and abundance of prayers that have given me courage, hope, and affirmation that I WILL get through this.
Ironically this now casts me in the only role I have not had yet in my career - having been a daughter, caregiver, administrator and spouse. I trust that God has a plan for me to use this in my continuing professional role to help others deal with serious illness. I am so proud of how my daughters Maddie and Mary Grace have worked through this traumatic situation and are now side by side with me. We will have each other as we work through this together. Their friends have stepped up and are of great joy and support to me. I am grateful for all the many many prayers that have been coming my way, and hope they continue through my recovery as I firmly believe they make a tremendous difference in how I survive this. I feel as ready as I possibly could be for tomorrow and ask that you check in on and support my girls, and continue your prayerful support for our family. #fuckcancer
Thank you to everyone that came to the mass we held for mom on Friday. It was so wonderful to see everyone there - her former coworkers, our friends from high school, family and friends that made the trip from out of town - it meant so much to Mary Grace and I to see everyone there. We have lots of thank you notes to send but we want to thank the bereavement team at St Thomas More for helping us set the mass up, and the Klinge family for hosting the reception at their home. The funeral mass and burial will be taking place on July 16th in St Paul Minnesota. Mary and I will be there for about a week so we have time to see family and relax a little while we're there. Details are below.
Church of the Assumption, 10:00am
*will post update if there will be a visitation before the mass
Reception to follow at the Pool and Yacht Club (exact time TBD)
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