The Chaos of Cancer

Going through cancer for the second time in three years, I have come to a conclusion.  The start of the cancer diagnosis is chaotic.  

From the instance you get the call from your doctor that you might have cancer to the starting of its treatment, there is a flurry of appointments, phone calls, and procedures that come at you with little time to plan for their happening.  

Don't get me wrong.  The initial pronouncement that you might have cancer until the verification that it is or is not cancer seems like forever.  But once that pronouncement is made, things take off in a hurry.  There's the scheduling of the pre-biopsy appointment, the Covid-19 testing, the biopsy itself, the post-biopsy appointment to remove sutures and take x-rays, and of course the appointment to discuss the course of treatment.  To add to the mix, all the above steps require phone calls from the various offices to get you pre-registered for the appointments, then there are the reminders about the upcoming appointments, not to mention the obvious going to the actual appointments.  

It seems to me though that once you get to the point of the actual treatments things settle down, and there is a rhythm to how things are going to be.  Treatments are every x days at x time for x amount of weeks/months.  You take x amount of medication at x time for x amount of days/weeks/months.  The doctor will see you after x amount of treatments to check how things are progressing.   All the x's are mapped out in advance allowing there to now be a sense of orderliness in what is a difficult process to go through physically and emotionally.