Well, I think this is some of my best work

My surgeon was off during my month of tests. I usually see him after my mammogram, but didn't because he was off. Yesterday at 4 pm I had my appointment. I hadn't run into my breast surgeon in the hospital in awhile, so of course the day of my appointment I am behind him at the cashier in the cafeteria. When he sees me come in he says "Oh, hello again, not to worry we will make this quick".

The medical assistant takes my blood pressure, temperature, oxygen stats and heart rate. She looks at me and states "Well, that is the definition of normal." I told her I try. I'm beginning to wonder if I am the youngest patient they have had all day by about 40 years.

The medical assistant gives me a johnny to have open in the front and she logs into my account. I tell her about the large error that was in the system with the transition to the electronic medical record "Brain Surgery-Partial Mastectomy" that the endoscopy folks fixed. She gets a good chuckle out of this and tells the surgeon while I get my johnny on.

He strides in and says "So it's my brain cancer patient". I laugh and say "No, it was breast cancer just that you did the partial mastectomy in my brain". He just shakes his head. "How could that have even been an option?"

We get down to my actual appointment. He asks me about any pain. I tell him that if I haven't run or been working out for >1 week than I get some pain and that shoveling in the winter didn't feel great, but other wise I have zero pain. He is very pleased by this. I know from discussions with some of the nurse's who are also survivors that I am very fortunate to not have any pain. I had a discussion with one the other day about how she had to battle with her health insurance to go see the special lymphadema physical therapist because she has had pain and swelling in her arm as a side effect. She said it took a month to get approved, but now she finally doesn't have pain daily. She is only 10 years older than I am. A year of daily pain. I am grateful that for her it is starting to resolve.

My surgeon does his physical exam. He is super impressed with my scar. "Well, look at how minimal this is. There is only the littlest indentation. Well, I think this is some of my best work." Obviously, he is clearly disappointed with his results 2.5 years later. He looks at me and says some of my most favorite words "I'll see you in a year." Yay!

Then on his way out the door. "Keep running.". I would agree with him that my level of physical activity has likely helped me from having significant pain. It's also a great motivator to keep myself moving. And, occupational hazard, but I think my excellent nutrition has likely helped my great healing from day one. Cookies and all.

Speaking of cookies as I already celebrated with a run and some weight lifting, I think I'll do a little baking. Or maybe a lot of baking. And some more running.