Chapter 2 Part II

When I went back to work the next day, I had to let my Department manager and the store manager in on my condition. My boss Jenny knew I had, had an important test but I had not told her the details. They were both very concerned for me and quite sympathetic. I told them I would surly need surgery but did not know where it would go from there. That same day I received a call from the imaging center telling me that the results of my biopsy would be delayed for a day or two due to the storm. This put me at the 23^rd or 24th (Christmas Eve) before I could expect a definitive diagnosis. As you can immagine, I was a nervous wreck! I found myself crying at the drop of a hat and I’m sure people at work realized something was up.

My doctor called the store on the 23rd with the results but since I was on break, someone else answered the phone and didn’t bother to take a message or even tell me anyone had called. When I clocked out at the end the day, I found a couple of messages from Dr. Mino on my cell phone. The first said that he had called work and couldn’t reach me so I should call him at the office ASAP. The second was much later in the day, he said he was leaving the office for the day and wouldn’t return until after Christmas, but to call the answering service and tell them to call him and he would call me with the results. I called the service from work but they refused to

call Dr. Mino even though I told them he had specifically told me to have them call him personally. They said they would have the on-call Doctor call me. Well, he never called although I called back twice to try to contact someone and so I went through Christmas Eve and Christmas day with out finding out the results.

On the day after Christmas I was home, so I waited impatiently For 8:30am (when the Doctors office would open) so I could call Dr. Mino. Although I already knew it was cancer I wanted to know what exactly, I was dealing with. I got through to the office and the Doctor came on the line in short order. He broke the news to me as gently as possible. “Well my dear,” he said, “it’s bad news, but it’s the best possible secenario for the bad news.” He told me it was a “stage one ductal carcinoma in situ”. Which means the cancer was localized in the milk duct and there was no evedence of any cancer cells in the Lymph nodes. He also told me that this form of cancer is one of the slowest growing cancers as well as one of the most sucessfuly treated. He had done his homework and had phone numbers for me of a surgon and an oncolegest who were accepted by my insurance as well as very well respected in our area. He also gave me the phone number of a support group. He told me to feel free to call him with any questions and to try to keep the worry to a minimum since the prognosis for this early stage cancer was very good. I immediately called the Oncologests office and made an appointment for their first available opening, which wasn’t until January 8^th.

call Dr. Mino even though I told them he had specifically told me to have them call him personally. They said they would have the on-call Doctor call me. Well, he never called although I called back twice to try to contact someone and so I went through Christmas Eve and Christmas day with out finding out the results.

On the day after Christmas I was home, so I waited impatiently For 8:30am (when the Doctors office would open) so I could call Dr. Mino. Although I already knew it was cancer I wanted to know what exactly, I was dealing with. I got through to the office and the Doctor came on the line in short order. He broke the news to me as gently as possible. “Well my dear,” he said, “it’s bad news, but it’s the best possible secenario for the bad news.” He told me it was a “stage one ductal carcinoma in situ”. Which means the cancer was localized in the milk duct and there was no evedence of any cancer cells in the Lymph nodes. He also told me that this form of cancer is one of the slowest growing cancers as well as one of the most sucessfuly treated. He had done his homework and had phone numbers for me of a surgon and an oncolegest who were accepted by my insurance as well as very well respected in our area. He also gave me the phone number of a support group. He told me to feel free to call him with any questions and to try to keep the worry to a minimum since the prognosis for this early stage cancer was very good. I immediately called the Oncologests office and made an appointment for their first available opening, which wasn’t until January 8^th.

Chapter 2: Part I

Chapter 2
The Storm Begins
　
　

The next night we had the biggest snowfall in recorded history for a 24-hour period in the City of Longmont. 24 inches fell in less than 24hours. Streets were impassable, businesses and schools were closed, and few people went to work that next day. As the biopsy was considered minor surgery, I was on lifting restrictions for 2 weeks. I was not supposed to lift anything over 15#. As you can imagine this made it difficult to shovel two feet of snow. My mother had spent the night in Boulder with one of her clients because of the storm. Jes and I were at home with Jacob and Ashlee. We went out and started to dig out.                                                                                                                                                              

I was able to push a shovel full of snow but was unable to to lift it with just my right hand. Consequently, Jes ended up doing most of the work. Once we got the driveway cleared and Jesses SUV unburried, we decided to use it and worry about my car later. We left Jacob at home with Ashlee and headed out to check on the beauty salon. Jes called to cancel any clients who had not already called to cancel. We headed across to the other side of town and she dropped me off at the grocery store, where I worked as a cake decorator.

I arrived at work about 2 hours later than usual, as soon as I walked in my coworkers told me I had better get my staples as the store was already running low on Milk, Bread and eggs. Since we did not know when the next truck would get to Longmont from Denver I decided to pick up what we needed as well as some extra things for the neighbors and a family friend who was unable to get out on her own. We all pitched in together at work to make up for the people who were unable to get to work. The entire store was running with about half our usual staff. Boy were people grumpy! Whenever there is a storm people usually flock to the store. The people who were able to get out were like “locust” they were buying every thing they could get their hands on. When we run out of something people, have a fit. Some people seem to think that there are trees growing in the back of the store and we just go out and pick cartons of milk and loaves of bread off as needed. They do not seem to understand that we depend on trucks arriving several times daily to bring items into the store, when that does not happen we run out fast!

After work, Jes picked me up and we stopped by our friend Bobbies with some of the grocerys I had picked up. When I got home I found that Jes, Ashlee and some of her friends had finished shoveling the drive and dug out my car as well as Ashlees. Mom arrived from Boulder shortly after and we all sat down to dinner.

The “farmers Almanac” had accurately predicted the storm and they were predicting seven more storms over the next 7weeks.

All of the storms came to pass but fortunately, not all of them were as dramatic as the first.

Lets try again.

Last time I tried to get this up and running my computer crashed. So with hope for a better out come this time I'll be starting again. Found this on Facebook and wanted to share. Please re-read the first post and then I'll be adding to the story regularly, with some resourses and insperational stories and quotes.