I wasn’t going to share this publicly but in the end, vulnerability and awareness beat out awkwardness and embarrassment:

If you’ve been reading my blog very long, then you may remember that last March, I went to the doctor about a small lump I discovered on my right breast. At that time, it was classified (via breast exam and ultrasound) as a cyst. It was then up to me about whether or not I got it removed. My doctor told me that as long as it wasn’t painful and wasn’t bothering me, there wasn’t much to worry about. So, I let it go for a while. Well, about 6 weeks ago, the cyst became somewhat painful and I noticed it had darkened in color just slightly.

So, immediately I decided to book an appointment about getting it removed.

Close to two weeks ago, I met with a general surgeon. It has been decided that the cyst needs to go ahead and be removed. So, I will be having a surgical biopsy (cystectomy) performed on Friday, October 30. The surgery is outpatient, but they will be putting me under IV sedation and removing the entire cyst. Scarring is said to be minimal. Given my family history, the specimen will be sent to a pathologist to definitely rule out cancer, etc. But my surgeon is optimistic that it will come back as benign.

I am quite blessed to get my surgeon of choice. Word on the street is that she is a highly-sought after surgeon for breast surgeries. I gotta tell you, she is the sweetest lady. And I am blessed to be able to get in to get it taken care of so quickly. Would be much worse if I had to worry about this for weeks and weeks. So, that’s all encouraging. I honestly believe everything was already orchestrated on my behalf. Thank you, Jesus.

If you’re interested, I will have a friend updating my twitter on my behalf on the morning of the surgery. I will also update it personally once I am coherent and drug-free.

How can you pray about all of this? First, I’ve never had an in-hospital surgery before. The closet thing I’ve ever experienced is when I was 15 and I had my wisdom teeth removed. But in that situation, I got to keep my clothes on—ha! Second, please pray that I have favor with my insurance company. The hospital/surgeon accepts my insurance company but that can mean a 100 different things. Whatever can be covered, please pray it is. Lastly, this obviously a common surgery, but please pray for my surgeon and her team. For steady hands and wise decisions. One can never know what they’re dealing with fully until they are in there, seeing it for themselves.

As this post title suggests, there will be no Halloween festivities for me this year as I will be on bed-rest all next weekend. But I will hopefully have some peace of mind and good news to share when this all said and done. Thank you for allowing me to share this and also for praying with me and for me.

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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This year it is hitting particularly close to home for me as I lost my friend Dianna to the disease in March, a woman in my mom’s lifegroup is battling this disease right now and as I deal with my own scare. But this message is about you: whether you’re a woman or a man, at some point in your life, breast cancer will affect your life. Take the necessary steps now to protect yourself and the ones you love. Go get your breasts checked by scheduling a mammogram or physician’s exam and encourage those in your influence to do the same.