Thank You!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Thank you from the bottom of my Big Girl Heart!

You all lifted me up on Friday. I was overwhelmed with kind words. I was overwhelmed, and I was humbled. I wanted to take this blog post as an opportunity to reassure you- your kind words and well wishes did not go unused.

As the only girl from a family of six, anyone will tell you that I am never alone. Also, in case you can't tell from the blog, I am slightly gregarious. Finally, I am Irish. I love telling or hearing a good story. There is no moment I love more than those fleeting moments when everyone is gathered around a table laughing together. Those are the moments when I can imagine that heaven really truly exists right here on earth.

So I rarely feel alone, is the point.

Except when I am in a sterile tunnel. In tunnels, be they MRI, CT, PET, whatever other acronym you want to name, it is cold. They have to keep the rooms cold so the machines run smoothly. Also, when they run those tests everyone clears out before the machine moves. That is when you know you're sick. You are left alone in the cold room and everyone else, everyone except the sickie, everyone healthy, gets the hell out of there.

I don't usually feel sorry for myself, trust me I don't, but this procedure marked my seventh major procedure in a year. I'm all set with sterile rooms.

So on Friday, as they wheeled me away from mom and wheeled me back into a sterile room, I could have felt alone. But I didn't feel alone at all. At that moment, I knew all of these people, some people I've never even met, were right there with me.

So, thank you.

The procedure is over, but it was a bit tough. The surgeon was very apologetic. Apparently, liver biopsies are not supposed to hurt, but it hurt like hell in my case. The spot was very near the surface, but was difficult to get to for some reason, so they had to keep striking the surface to reposition the needle. The surface of the liver is, according to the apologetic surgeon, a "pain center". That sounds very benign in doctor terms. In patient terms, I never want to have to do that ever again. I'm all set with that.

That said, the recovery was smooth as silk. The only real side effect was that I couldn't have wine with dinner. Instead, the Big Man and I helped ourselves to some sweets.

So thank you for making a difficult day bearable. Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts. No one wants to suffer alone. No one should ever suffer alone. I am lucky.

Now we wait. The doctors tell me I should have the results on Wednesday. And yet, I am amazingly calm.

I am calm because I am not alone. Thank you for helping me shoulder this enormous burden, sometimes carrying it all alone gets too hard.