It’s been an eventful day:  I met my new (gynecologic oncology) doctor, and I have a date for my surgery.  First, what everyone wants to know:  surgery will be Monday, March 12, which happens to be the first day of my spring break (whoopee…).  😉  The good news about that is that it’s one less week that my colleagues will need to cover classes and lessons for me.

So, the doctor’s office.  First, I realized last night that I wished I had asked someone to come with me to help listen, ask questions, etc.  Good friend and colleague from the accounting department, Alisha Ortiz, to the rescue!  First, the receptionist greeted me more like a new friend than an unknown patient, and then I filled out beaucoup paperwork.  I really like Dr. Jacobs.  He started out by asking what I had been told, what I knew of what was going on, which allowed him to get a feel for who I was and how I thought – pretty brilliant communication tactic, I think.  Before long, we began to realize that he had a wonderful and somewhat twisted sense of humor (not unlike mine, or that of most of my family).  Alisha and I concurred that he would fit in on one of our group wine days.  Anyway, it was clear that he knew his stuff and was good at communicating that with his patients.  Nifty fact:  for 80% of women who have this condition, the hysterectomy takes care of the condition, with no chemo or radiation needed.  Pretty good odds!

The procedure will be performed laparoscopically, using the da Vinci robot technology.  Another flash of the doc’s humor:  he asked if I knew much about that, and when I replied that it was mainly from the hospital’s commercials, he snorted that that was just propaganda!  Anyway, if everything goes as expected, there should be no staples and few if any stitches (mainly glue, apparently), which should help with recovery.  They’ll keep me in the hospital overnight for observation and then send me home the next day.  I’m glad my first contact with the doctor went so well and that the date is set.  In a weird way, this is starting to feel a bit like an adventure.  It’s not one I would have chosen, but I’m learning so much about an area about which I knew next to nothing, and I’ve been reminded in so many ways of the friends from past and present who have stepped forward with encouragement, information, personal experience, and bad jokes (can’t ever stop laughing!).  As Clarence, the guardian angel in It’s a Wonderful Life, quotes Mark Twain to George Bailey, “No man is a failure who has friends.”  Peace, dear friends.