The Next Step

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 Amy Staton, the PR and insurance person at Givens Estates, called tonight. Here is the next step. Tomorrow morning (Wednesday) at first light I call Dr. Jackson, my hematologist/oncologist here in Asheville, and ask him to send me for a second opinion. This could be to Duke or Chapel Hill. Or even Emory. But it will be a transplant center who does the donor transplant with reduced intensity chemotherapy. I'll take my file (there's so much paperwork now I'll probably need a U-Haul Truck) and myself to this second opinion. If the second opinion speaks agreement with Dr. Hurd at Wake Forest, then I'm almost certainly a go for transplant. If the second opinion says I need to wait, that's probably what will happen. So, we're in motion again. What a journey! If, when all this is over and I'm healthy again, I EVER complain about the normal, the daily round of stuff, please take my hand, write me on my web site, or call and say firmly, "Jane, let's take a moment and remember 2008." I will immediately return to a place of gratitude for normalcy, for summertime, all the time, mountains filled-with-friendship realities. Regular days filled with friends, good work, with a big black cat and my home. Normal. Regular. For tonight the edge of surreal feels slightly less sharp.