Hi everyone, since this is the first update in our blog for 2024, Lauren and I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a great holiday.
So, there has been a good deal of time since the last 100% pure Chris post, so I thought I would take the reins of this one, giving Lauren a night off. First thing first, medical updates.
Two weeks ago, Lauren had her one-month post hysterectomy follow up appointment with Dr. Abaid. Nothing we didn’t expect already as the results came back negative for any kind of cancerous cells. Lauren’s BRCA2 gene puts her in the higher risk for ovarian cancer, so it only made sense to reduce her chances by the means of a full hysterectomy. Chemotherapy placed Lauren into menopause, so as odd as this may sound, her reproductive organs would have served us no purpose other than the risk of giving her cancer down the road, and we did not want to go down that road again, ever.
Lauren has done absolutely well post hysterectomy, her scars have practically healed, and her “second” bellybutton from the feeding tube, used as an entry way for the surgical procedure has also healed to a mere cat-scratch like scar; if you know our cat Zoey, you will understand.
Dr. Abaid has cleared Lauren for flying, which is great because we plan on traveling soon to Coeur d’Alene for Lauren’s first visit to our second home. I’m more than ecstatic because there is a boat load of snow up there and our driveway and entry way need to be shoveled out. Going to put Lauren’s newfound strength to work, not to mention we have furniture to assemble.
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| If this really happens, I will show photographic evidence. |
Life is getting back to “normal”, or the “new normal” of forever constantly seeing doctors, scans, blood work, etc. but we are okay with it, as long as the news is good, and it has been. The ebbs and flow of work, family, and everything else, seem to almost be like it was pre-covid craziness, and you know, I am okay with it. This all leads me to the next section of this posting that has put our life into perspective.
In one of the many posts of our blog, I think we mentioned that 1/8 women will develop breast cancer, and as staggering as that statistic may be, it’s worse in Orange County, 1/7 women. We are both starting to see some articles being written that the 1/8 number might even be a bit low and it might be somewhere between 1/6 to 1/7 women and overall cancer rates in young adults is rising. What in the hell is going on? With all the technological advancements in medicine that have been available to the masses for many years, our medical providers, major insurance carriers, and bureaucrats in DC and at the state level all seem to be fixated on the magical age of 40. Cancer does not care what age you are and it sure as hell doesn’t develop or metastasize at 40. Gene testing or cancer screening is a drop in the bucket for insurance carriers vs. having to pay out for treatment when the diagnosis has already been assumed. I can say that if we knew that Lauren was going to develop breast cancer years ago, we could have taken the necessary steps to get ahead of it versus Lauren having to be her own advocate and fight to get the scans, tests and the treatment needed, plus not to mention the $1.5 million dollars billed to insurance. Truly asinine.
Last week, Lauren wrote an amazing email to more than 30 people including CEOs of major insurance carriers, the California State department of Health and Human Services, local government representatives and federal government representatives with a handful of email bounce backs. Of all the people we emailed, only one person responded to Lauren, and that person wasn’t even on the original email chain. Again, truly asinine. We will post the outgoing email in a few days and the response from the individual with their information redacted for privacy reasons.
The last part of this email is about a colleague of Lauren who has recently been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. For the sake of keeping her identity private, I will refer to this person as Jane. Lauren and Jane have been in contact with each other since the initial diagnosis being that Jane’s cancer is similar to Lauren’s, however the difference being the cancer receptors of Jane’s cancer is slightly different than Lauren’s. As shitty as it is for Jane, and we 100% know every single feeling and emotion Jane and her husband are going through, it is one of the strangest feelings hearing her go through every single step of the diagnosis and treatment process as it still lives vividly in my mind, each step, day by day. I am so grateful that Lauren can be there for Jane if needed, and it’s great that Jane has reached out to Lauren with some questions since it’s still so fresh for us.
Jane, if you read this, know that we are here for you whenever you need us, and for anyone who has questions.
More to come, and here’s to 2024!
Chris
