covert ops

I had an oophorectomy on Tuesday. My doctors tell me this is prophylactic on two fronts: it removes a likely attack site (my ovaries) for roving cancer cells, and stops me from producing estrogen and progesterone, which feed the cancer. I didn't tell my mother. She doesn't know I have breast cancer.

I have now had seven surgeries. My mother knows about two of them, the back surgeries, and only because I couldn't hide the fact that I was in the hospital for almost four weeks, and had to wear a back brace for six months. I told her part of the truth about what was wrong with my back--broken disks. I just didn't tell her that it was a metastatic tumor that caused the damage.

I feel great! I'm very tough, physically. It's the psychic pain that gives me trouble.