Well, I think Real Wife is through the scariest part – the part of the journey where the immediate future is unknown. She underwent surgery Friday to remove the lump in her breast, as well as a so-called sentinal lymph node. The procedure as I understand it that they inject a dye into the tissue adjacent the tumor, and then remove the first lymph node that shows an uptake of the dye – the idea being that if the cancer has spread, that would be the first location. The tests came back last night that the margins of tissue around the tumor were clean (they got the whole thing), and the lymph node was negative for cancer. She is now scheduled for a consultation with doctors for both chemo and radiation therapy. While not an insignificant set of procedures, she feels that they are tribulations minor in comparison to waiting for the surgery and subsequent pathology reports.

Everyone in her family is hypersensitive to anesthesia, and she is no exception in terms of nausea and slowness to become alert. An interesting twist was that she exhibited a rare side effect of the dye injection in which her complexion turned green. Really green. She was later shocked to learn that her urine was bright blue – think Windex. Everything is normal now, and it did provide needed comic relief in what was a very long and stressful day.

It is now a matter of continued vigilance, but we are thankful to the excellent medical staff and all those who sent their kind prayers and support, not the least of whom were friends and readers at The Daily Brief.