The Storm Before The Calm

"You've been waiting for this for ten years, you're ready."  This is what my husband keeps telling me in my moments of panic.  It's true, I've been waiting for this for ten years, but that doesn't mean I've been mentally preparing myself for ten years.  Thank goodness I have him by my side to reassure me every step of the way.  Here we are, we've finally made it to San Antonio after what has been a chaotic and long journey over the past few weeks.  In my case, it seems like there's been a storm before the calm instead of the calm before the storm.

A month ago, I began the process of packing of my classroom, slowly, so as not to worry my children nor cause too much disruption. I was meeting deadlines at work sooner than everyone else around me because I had to be that much further ahead and prepared for leaving my school two weeks prior to the end of the school year.  However, nothing prepared me for the actual last day when I said goodbye to them.  How strange to leave your students early, turning them over to a substitute who doesn't know their nicknames like Quynharoo, Fergalicious, Maya Papaya and Oraegano.  They gave me a book before I left, full of things they'll remember...I love it.

                                       

During this month, I was also dealing with the medical side of things, preparing everything I could before we left Singapore.  There were many last minute issues to deal with, such as requesting permission from the Singapore Health Authority to bring back my controlled drug prescriptions and getting blood tests and an EKG days before departing.  Thank goodness Singapore is incredibly efficient, as I had my license to import my medications within one working day and I had all my medical tests completed within 8 hrs of submitting my request.

In addition to all of this, because I can't seem to live life without a variety of things on my plate, I was packing my family for a month in the USA, preparing our Singapore home for company to enjoy while we were gone and making sure I had all the recovery items I'd need, or had been suggested, for after surgery.  I've said over and over how thankful I am that I've been so busy, because its allowed me to keep my mind occupied instead of worrying about things to come.

So here we are.  We traveled seven hours to Dubai, "enjoyed" an eight hour layover and then hunkered down for the fifteen hour flight to Houston.  Within 24 hrs, we had made our way to San Antonio and I met my doctor, Dr. Chrysopoulo, last night.  Everything is coming together after so many years of anticipation and recent months of planning.  I'm finding my peace with it all and looking forward to experiencing the calm that will come with knowing I've done as much as I can to prevent myself from experiencing breast cancer.