Early Unexpectedness - Erich

When one undertakes a journey of two years to eleven different countries, I suppose one of the things to learn is how to deal with the unexpected. And I'm sure I am not well prepared for it. But I do expect some unexpected things to occur along the way. And since I expect them, I guess that makes them not completely unexpected, more like partially unexpected.

But then the unexpected kicks you in the, well, in this case, top of the femur. Because I don't think any of us were expecting the unexpected just yet. And that's when it most wants to strike!

Last week we learned that Alrica has a "mass" at the top of her right femur that is constricting blood flow in her veins. She was admitted to the hospital. She had scans. She had a biopsy. And while no one seems to know what it is yet, the good side of it was that the tissue collected in the biopsy is not malignant. A huge relief, yes?

Of course, we weren't expecting any of this. Still, we thought the unexpectedness was plateauing. But today we were knocked back into the full unexpectedness. The osteopathic surgeon believes that the biopsy missed the mass in Alrica. He felt that the results were inconsistent with what else we know. So tonight Alrica went in for an MRI and it seems likely that the surgeon is correct. What does this mean? Well, not only does it probably indicate another biopsy for Alrica, it also means we don't know if the "mass" is malignant or benign. Because what was tested probably didn't come from the mass.

So, how do we deal with the unexpected? Just plod on. Day by day, I guess. We aren't changing our plans to travel at this point. We are just moving on with it and going to the doctors and getting the tests and doing our best to not let our dreams get shuttered away.

Besides, I am completely certain that Alrica will be fine. I call it an unabashedly positive attitude and thorough optimism. I suppose a psychologist might call it denial, but I like my spin better. Alrica is going to be fine. We are going to travel the world. And we are going to get better and better at dealing with the unexpected.