Just Deal With It

   When you work in the healthcare field, especially areas where you work one on one with the patients and their families, you watch as many suffer through horrible diagnosis.  You find yourself walking out of a room & saying to yourself, "Why are they not dealing with this?? Don't they understand just how serious this is?"  We're removed from the situation - we are empathetic and we support our patients and their families but sometimes we just want to shake them and say "It's really not looking good. You all need to deal with 'it'."  What we fail to realize at that current moment is, they are dealing with 'it'.  Their way may not be the best way or how we would, but it's the only way they know how at that time.
   I'm finding it very difficult to deal with all the things that are being thrown my way.  Chloe has been my shadow for the last six years of her life.  I can't even shut a door for privacy unless I know she's in the room with me or else she'll claw at the door and bark until I open it for her.  When I'm not feeling good, upset, hurt, etc. I can always count on the fact that Chloe will be by my side making sure I'm ok.  And, that's exactly what I'll be doing for her through this horrible process.  It may not be the way you would "deal with it" and that's perfectly ok with me - because we all deal with things in different ways.  What works for you may not work for me and vice versa.

So what's next?
   Tuesday we have our first appointment with the vet post diagnosis.  They will be aspirating the lymph nodes that are closest to the site of the tumor.  This will be sent off for testing to find out if the cancer has spread.  I won't know results for a day or two but praying for good results.  In the meantime, we're going to go to the new dog park that just opened down the street from my apartment.  We may even do a little shopping at the outlets since they're pet friendly!