Well last week I told you how my mom was diagnosed with a severe case of cancer in my first post on my mom’s situation. Then I updated the situation that she’d have to go in for a mastectomy in the updated entry on her situation. Anyhow, she completed the mastectomy today to remove the breast cancer and breasts completely. What irony that her surgery crosses over to breast cancer awareness month! The doctor said that the surgery went fine. Upon quick inspection of the lymph nodes, he thinks it should be fine, although they won’t definitively know for sure until the lab comes back with the true results, and the results of the specimens that they sent to another hospital for a 2nd opinion. However, he thinks that there won’t be the need for chemotherapy in that it seems fine and even though the cancer spread, it was localized to the breasts. Yay! This is wonderful news!

My mother is in the hospital until Thursday, and I plan on going back home on Friday to check up on her. She was really drugged up from the painkillers that they gave her, so she was pretty much incoherent for the most part. However, she was able to tell me about a few dreams that she had during the time she was passed out. Some of this stuff is quite frightening. One of the scenarios of the dreams that was most disturbing was she climbed over a wall and on the other side, there was wooden stairs that lead up through the clouds. She got really scared, and that’s when she woke up. Dang… that’s scary stuff!

I would like to thank everyone that’s been supportive of me during this whole time:
- Caroline, my girlfriend, who was extremely helpful in calming me down and explaining things to me… I love you!
- Jill Kletzko @ Sloan-Kettering for offering her services/contacts
- My boss, Gary Secrest, who gave me time off so that I could accompany my mom for the day before and after surgery
- Maria Ramos, my coworker, who’s been checking up on me during work to make sure I’m ok
- Shazia Malik, my coworker, who’s been talking to me and IM’ing me to make sure I’m ok
- The whole Information Security department at work, who’s been quite supportive during this time
- Johnson & Johnson, for having their personal-time-off policy (in my opinion the best company to work for!)
- Carol Chu, who’s helped out bigtime by relaying out information on my familys status
- David Kim (MD), for offering to help my family
- All the Remnant House Church folks for praying and their emails
- All the Remnant Christian Fellowship people @ NYU for their prayers and support
- Sarah, Sinthia, Pat, Molly, Elaine, Rupert, and all my other friends who’ve been checking up on me

I know I have to be forgetting someone, but I can add it when I remember… It’s amazing how all your friends rally together when you’re in need. Thank you everyone!

-Eddie