I'll be off the blogging for a bit. I leave Sunday for UCLA for reconstruction surgery. I'm excited, nervous, and sad to leave my husband and kids behind. I'll be glad to have it behind me. It's really the last big part of my treatment plan. I know surgery is never fun but I have hope to believe that I'll be extremely happy with the results.

Getting out of town has been a bit on the stressful side. I got a ton of email requests for paperwork, lab tests, etc. that I didn't know they needed. It would have been easy to comply with if given a few days, but seemed overwhelming in the short run when I'd already volunteered to be a bus chaperone for Cate's ballet performance. There was also a last minute request for a "deposit" in case insurance didn't cover everything -- a tidy sum of money that would be equal to a decent used car. Oh, and they wanted it within 24 hours. Yes, stressful. Thankfully, Greg was terribly helpful and talked them out of the deposit (with some unexpected help from the insurance company, who went above and beyond the call of service to actually call the doctor's office to tell them they didn't expect huge overages in terms of payment vs. charge). I've spent the day faxing records, picking up records from the doctor's office, and filling out paperwork. I'm pooped. But I'll have time to rest when I'm stuck in that hospital bed.

So, feel free to pray for us that all goes well -- clinically, logistically, and with just the sadness of being apart. I'll write more when I'm up to it post-surgery!