The Day

4:30am - We're up. We prayed for a good night's rest, not so much. Allison was up a couple of times and I saw 2am and 3am come and go. We don't really feel nervous but apparently our bodies think otherwise. It's raining...perfect weather for what's going on today, its like the Heavens are sad in a way. Allison is doing all she can to herself without putting on makeup and hairspray, its funny in a way...I do love her.

6:00am - Time to go...we pray together one last time, hand it over to God, kiss and head out.

7:00am - We go to the business office, check in and they send us off to radiation. In radiation, they give her a shot, she says the needle didn't hurt but the stuff going in her is burning and hurts really bad. I hate that she's having to go through this. Mr. Personality (he must be married to Mrs. Personality from Cross Creek) sends us down a hallway, "take the elevator to the 2nd floor and check in". We take the elevator as instructed...whoa, ghost town. Lights are off, no one at all is around...maybe they're closed, let's just come back another day! I finally find a nurse who takes us to where we really should have gone. "We've moved some things around", she tells me, "he (Mr. Personality) really should have known".

8:15am - 2201, that will be our room number. A few nurses later and she has an IV and that sexy paper gown on. We're told that they'll be there at 9:45 to pick her up for her 10:15 surgery appointment. As we wait, Allison's dad arrives (her mom is already with us), Pastor Scott, Jim Carey (the famous music minister, not the actor) and my parents arrive. Scott lifts the most special prayer to God's ear as we hold hands. The Lord is truly carrying us at this point.

10:30am - They finally arrive to take her to surgery (45 minutes late isn't too bad I don't guess). We share a special moment and I pray a silent prayer..."Father, you've got her now, take care of her for me."

We file into the waiting room and well...we wait. At noon I'm feeling a little anxious but the nurse comes out to tell me that everything is going well and that they're waiting for the pathology reports to come back. We know that if this report shows cancer in the lymph nodes she'll need chemo...please God, don't let this report be bad.

12:30pm - Dr. Blouin comes out. She's smiling. (Yes! she's smiling)...."Everything went great and we were able to test 3 sentinel lymph nodes, they're all negative, no cancer"! As bad as it was 6 weeks ago to hear the doctor tell us "I hate to tell you this but....", hearing this from Dr. Blouin were the sweetest, most anticipated words in a long time. Praise the Lord!

I'm texting, emailing and Facebooking as quickly as I can...reply after reply begins bouncing back...there's nothing like witnessing prayers being answered.

1:15pm - A nurse arrives to take me back to recovery where my bride is resting. The first time I see her she's asleep and she's blue. "Uhhhh, did you know she's blue?" "Oh yeah, that's the dye, just wait til she pees!" (oh boy, something to look forward to later)

The nurse rattles off a list of a hundred do's and don'ts that I'm supposed to remember. "Do you have any questions"? "Yeah, can you come home with us and take care of her for me"?

2:00pm - Time to go home! I awkwardly try to dress her and her limo (i.e. black leather wheelchair) arrives. She's very woozy but is able to get in and out of the car. She's not nauseated which is great and she's actually hungry so her mom picks up some chicken noodle soup for her.

4:41pm - I've given her half a Lortab (because a whole one sends her into a 2 day coma) and I'm typing the events of the day. It feels like this day started 3 days ago. It still ceases to amaze me at how God's children have gathered around us during this trial. And I'm thanking God as I type, asking him to continue to Show Off and hoping that someone out there reading this might just realize that there IS Hope in this crazy mixed-up world. Nothing is too big or too difficult for our Creator.

We now have a new road ahead of us. We're supposed to have another appointment with Dr. Blouin in 7-10 days. At that time I guess we'll find out what steps of treatment she'll need or at least find out when we are supposed to talk with the oncologists. There's still a chance chemo may be ordered, so our prayer now is that it won't be necessary. We know radiation and probably Tamoxifen is in our future, we just hope chemo is not. But Father, not our will but Your will be done.

Home now, safe, cancer free...I think I may take the other half of that Lortab and join my bride in Slumberville.