Surgery is scheduled

As a reminder, I'm one of the "lucky" ones who is early Stage I and will have an MIE with no pre-op chemo or radiation. My wife and I met with the surgeon last week and he said his Assistant would call me with the date for my surgery as soon as it is scheduled.

That was on Wednesday and I hadn't heard from her yet, so I called the Assistant yesterday morning. I first asked if I had been scheduled yet and she replied No, but don't worry - I'll call you when it is. In a very friendly way I told her I am anxious to have the procedure done so I would be calling every morning to remind her. I took Niki"s advice and decided I have the right to "bug" her until I have an answer. I don't know if it was my call that did it or not, but she called me back at lunchtime and said my pre-Op appointment will be on 16 Sept. and my MIE will be on Friday, 23 Sept. As most of you will know, I'm both relieved and scared, but I know it has to be done, the surgeon is confident I'll be cured by the procedure (pending node biopsy results, of course), so I want to get it over with and begin my recovery.

Isn't it weird to feel lucky that I "only" have early Stage I? I have CANCER, for God's sake - what's lucky about that? And what does "cured" mean, exactly? I don't think I'll ever be able to feel like I'm cured, since I know I have/had cancer. I called a friend last night who had Prostate cancer 6 years ago, had his prostate removed and has been clean ever since. He started thinking of himself as "cured" after 5 yers, but a couple of months ago his PSA started going way up and now they've confirmed a new "spot" somewhere and he has a long regimen of radiation to look forward to. He's kind of a joker in general and was trying to make light of it, but I could tell he's scared, and who can blame him.

Still, it gives me great comfort to follow everyone's posts on this board and I've learned a lot already from your various journeys. Someone posted the other day that Life isn't about staying out of the weather, it's about learning how to dance in the rain...or something like that. This EC is weather we can't stay out of - we have no choice but to learn to dance in it as well as we can and hope for the best, whatever that may mean for each of us.

So now I'm looking forward to the 16th, and then the 23rd, and that's all I can do, right? It's one day at a time from now on.

Bob