Decisions, decisions

Today was Hopkins consult day.

Long story short, it's the right place at the right time. I will be having a lumpectomy there bright and early on Monday, June 15th (report time 5:30 AM!? for a 9 AM surgery).

Everyone there was extremely informative and helpful, and of course the facility is huge and impressive. It was the detailed attention paid to ME and to my case that won the day. Amazingly, the pathology slides from my biopsy were shown and evaluated at the "daily departmental quality assurance conference" to the entire pathology staff! How's that for attention? They actually fine-tuned my diagnosis a bit from the path lab in NY.

Also, the delegate my sister works for in Annapolis has a daughter who is a pathologist at Hopkins. We've been trying to connect for a few days to see if she could help me in some way. Anyway, she saw my slides at the department meeting before she realized they belonged to her phone-tag buddy! She called me this afternoon as I was headed up the road, and she is most optimistic about my prognosis. She said, "If you have to have breast cancer, this is the kind to have."

So, that's the scoop. HOPKINS, here I come (after a lovely sidetrip to England and Scotland!).