Summer Flower Blooming in the Winter....

Journal #2    The consult with the Medical Oncologist has happened....
The Dr. was amazingly wonderful!   She started the visit with "I want you to talk to me and tell me about yourself, what you are feeling, and ask every question you have."...  I was with her for an hour and a half!   She did not hurry me out and she did answer every question I could think of (along with all the ones I had written down). She was compassionate and understanding.
     The medical facts are The cancer material within the tumor was small enough that I will not need chemotherapy.  That was the Good News!!!
But.... she quoted some statistics about women taking the hormone inhibitor for 5 years, starting in a month.   The positive is estrogen will be denied to the cancer and all cells will die, most women are alive  several years after the "pill".    The negatives are nausea, osteoporosis, brittle bones, fractures, holes in the hones. aching muscles, bones and joints...  to very painful.   I haven't made any decisions one way or the other,  a real consideration is I am 70 years old, 71 in June.   I have to ask myself How long will I live?   80, 90?  I have already outlived everyone in my family.   I also have to ask, are the side effects and risks of taking the drug for what could be the last best years of my life worth the  few years I may or may not live after 5 years?    I don't have answers right now.  I don't know....   there is a lot to think about.   I have a trip planed for Alaska next September.   Will the side effects put an end to trecking through the tundra, photographing grizzly bears, caribou, salmon, and glaciers?     Will I be able to drive to Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, back to Pennsylvania next spring?  I don't know.   Will I be able to make the trip to France, Normandy, and down to Italy and Greece?
     I do know that these are my retirement years.   I have worked all my life to travel and do the things I didn't do in my younger years (as I saved for retirement)?  now  between 70 and 80 years of age?   I don't know......

Todays Blip:  My Gerber are flowering again.  Inspite of the cold,  this plant just keeps on giving color and delight.   It seems like nothing is going to stop this flower!!!