Round One Goes to Nicole

Well, the reconstructive surgery is now complete, and Dr. Cohen informed us that Nicole came through with flying colors.  Everything went as expected.  She is currently in recovery – a little groggy but doing just fine.  We will be able to see her in a couple of hours.

It struck me this morning how often we have spoken about this as a “fight” against cancer.  In many ways, that is exactly what it is.  Being the sports fan that I am, I am looking at this as a heavyweight fight; and today is Round One.

Everything Nicole has gone through leading up to today has been her training.  The tests, the research, the blogging, the prayers, the mental preparation have been her training for “The Big Fight.”

On all scorecards, Round One went to Nicole.  She took cancer’s best punches, but she kept punching back.  Of course, it helped that she had an amazing surgical and O.R. team in her corner.  For that, we are beyond grateful.

We are all aware that this is only the first round.  In the coming rounds, she will take more punches from the chemo, etc.  But we all know that she will eventually win this fight by a knockout.  And when she does, her prize will be more than some silly gold-plated belt.  It will be many decades of health, happiness and laughter.

How do I know she will kick cancer’s ass?  It’s like Harry Potter said at the end of “Order of the Phoenix” – I have simply replaced the name “Voldemort” with the word “cancer” (which is appropriate since this disease is a treacherous agent of darkness): “Even though we’ve got a fight ahead of us, we’ve got one thing that cancer doesn’t have … something worth fighting for.”