by Bruce BethkeI've been trying and failing for days to find the right way to break this news. Sometimes the best thing to do is just to blurt it out and move on to what comes next.
About two and a half weeks ago, my wife, Karen, was diagnosed with breast cancer. We received the results of the biopsy and confirmation of the diagnosis on the day before we left for Dragon*Con. Karen was determined to go to Dragon*Con anyway and have a good time, and we did. Thank you, everyone. It was wonderful.
We returned home on Monday, and everything since has been a whirlwind of consultations, specialists, and deeper diagnostics. The good news is that her cancer was detected earlier rather than later, and as cancers go, it's a relatively slow-growing one. The bad news is that there are many types of breast cancer, and hers is one of the less-common types. The most common type is ductal, which can be detected very early and if detected early enough, can be treated relatively easily and with great success. Karen's cancer, unfortunately, is lobular, which is a type that doesn't shown up on mammograms until it's been growing for a while. So immediately, all of the "simple" treatment options are off the table. We are looking at major surgery sometime in the next two to three weeks, depending on when all the specialists can get their schedules in sync, to be followed by a long recovery.
What this means for the future of Stupefying Stories and Rampant Loon Press, I don't know. Suddenly "long term plans" have gone from being what we'll be doing next Spring to what we'll be doing in two weeks.
Those of you who know Karen: your thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, etc., are best directed to her Facebook page. Everyone else: we'll take your kind thoughts as given and move on.
Nil desperandum,
~brb
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