Latest News: The Good and the Bad

So, which do you want first?  Good news or bad news?  Well, I always like to concentrate on the good, so I will start with that.  I have been accepted into graduate school at the University of Buffalo.  Yaaay!  It has been something I have been working on for at least the last couple of years, and the effort finally paid off.  I am not starting this spring as planned, though.  I am pushing it back to the Fall due to my "bad news".

I have just been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Yes, breast cancer at the age of 42.  I have gotten over the shock of it all after three weeks or so of ruminating about it.  I count myself as VERY lucky.  They caught it on a routine mammogram with no symptoms and, although I won't know for sure until my lumpectomy, it is most probably Stage 0.  In other words, it looks as though it is still confined and not spreading anywhere.  They used to consider this a pre-cancerous tumor, but they have changed their approach and are now calling this cancer.  I will either need radiation or a mastectomy.  I am definitely feeling better about it all, thus I am now able to write about it.  I will be having surgery next week and will know more then.  I figured I needed to get this off my chest and explain to all my followers why I have been very absent lately.  I was on a roll with my writing too!  Oh well, sometimes life throws us curve balls and we just have to adapt and change accordingly.

I have a very important message to all of you out there.  If you are a woman, get your mammograms as soon as you are able because they need to find the cancer BEFORE symptoms appear.  That means every year after 40, or before 40 if you have cancer in your family.  To the men, if you have a lady in your life, urge her to keep up with her mammograms as well.  I am so thankful that I started mine at 39 and have been up on them every year.  They found it as soon as they could.  Please don't listen to the insurance companies' recommendations of starting after 50!  They have ulterior motives.  And, by the way, there is no breast cancer in my family, I am pretty darn healthy (never smoked and drink only occasionally), eat mostly organic and try to live as healthfully as possible.

So, now that I have that off my chest, I want you all to know that I am still here, working diligently on my diet and exercise routine, and plan to be a better person when all is said and done.  Sometimes it takes a scare to force a person out of complaisance, and I see my cancer as a warning.  I do know that what I have been doing with my blog is the right thing and I wish to continue in the future.  I am also excited about returning to school and continuing my research on Austen, Gaskell, and Forster and the relationship of their writing to the architecture and decor of the time.  If you don't see me much over the next few weeks, it's because I am busy with my health, but, count on it, I will return.