Friday, April 22, 2011

Dancing in the Minefields

It's been a while now since my friend emailed me and told me about a song. If you remember, my sister mentioned 'I Won't Let Go' by Rascal Flatts. Funny how so many songs describe the journey we are on. 'Dancing in the Minefields' by Andrew Peterson hit home. Hard. Aside from the beginning of the song, of course. If you change a few words like we were both 25 when we got engaged instead of 19 and 21, we didn't get our rings for $40 from a pawn shop, but spent much more at Shane Co., and we took the leap nearly five years ago instead of 15, then the song describes us perfectly. Okay, so the beginning of the song is a little different from our story, but the chorus rings loud and clear. We have been dancing in the minefields and sailing in the storms. Our journey has been harder than either of us could have ever imagined, but what it all comes down to is the promise we made nearly five years ago.

We went dancing in the minefields when our journey first began. We twisted as we found a doctor. We two-stepped while we waited for the biopsy results. We twirled as we anticipated operation day. We tangoed through recovery. We swayed after we learned the cause of the cancer, and every day we dance. We dance to the song that was written for us.

We shared with you the reason why we are on this journey. Since we learned of that information we have been dancing in the minefields a bit more. The possibility of me contracting or already having contracted HPV was devastating to Patrick. Albeit the chances of my body combatting the disease are high, the slight chance of me having cancer sent chills up our spines and mortified us. I by no means hold this against him as there was no way of knowing about the HPV, but it caused some worry.

Your body has a 70% chance of combatting the virus within the first year, and 90% within the second year. Patrick happened to fall in the unlucky 10% of people who develop cancer. While the odds were in our favor, we still wanted to cross our t's and dot our i's. I was tested for HPV and waited a week before I was given the good news. I am negative for any high risk HPV strains. Either I haven't contracted the virus, or my body has combatted it. If I were a betting woman, I'd bet on the latter. I also had an oral cancer screening done by my dentist recently, so we can rest a little easier now. Needless, to say we feel like we've been dancing in the minefields. Some steps have been more challenging than others.

Patrick had another follow-up with Dr.V. and was told that he was 'healing perfectly.' He has another follow-up appointment with Dr. D. next week where I'm sure we'll hear of when his first (CAT, MRI, PET) scan will be. As we dance in the minefields and wait for a scan and its results we continue to be thankful and hopeful that Patrick remains in full recovery.

1 comment:

  1. Keep Dancing Dear Friend!! Cling, Hang on Tight, and Keep Dancing. I know the song ~ Corey and I have been doing this stressful, exhausting dance for a few years. But we are still here and strong enough to keep dancing ~ you two will make it! Love and Hugs ~ Karen

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