Ordinary Time

Yule                                                                              Stock Show Moon

Amazing how ordinary a post-cancer operation visit can be. Of course, as long as the numbers stay good it will stay ordinary. That is the great gift of successful treatment, the opportunity to return to whatever life you had instead of checking out your will.

Anna Willis, a P.A., talks with ease about matters sexual, urinary. She’s a 30 something, maybe early 40’s, woman who dresses upscale and has a brusque, but not unpleasant professional manner. “Getting up 4 times at night? Oh, that’s too much. We’ll see if we can get that down.”

Mostly we focused on the .015 PSA. As good a number as possible, a royal flush of a lab result. The plan is to continue ultrasensitive tests every 3 months for 2 years, then every 6 months until year 5. “It’s about the same as breast cancer. the more time away from surgery with clean results, the better the odds. If you get past 5 years, the odds of recurrence are very, very low.”

Cancer season closed out as a time of high alertness in September with the first .015. The return to ordinary time will, I imagine, continue and become more solid if the tests keep sending me good news. Like having stood in the path of a fast moving train and having a good samaritan pull you out of the way just in time.