Andie's Big Adventure, Interrupted

We got everything set up and arranged, and set our departure date for Newfoundland for August 27. Our "winter" clothes were sorted and ready to ship. Then, last Wednesday, August 10, our 21st wedding anniversary, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Well, shit.

I'm extraordinarily lucky in that it was caught early, it's non-invasive, and it's completely curable with surgery. But since I have a strong family history of breast cancer - my grandmother (mom's mother)

my Aunt Barbara (mom's sister)

and my own mother -

- and since I'm "only" 44, my surgeon and I decided it was safe to assume that my breasts are trying to kill me. Probably. I'll be having the bilateral mastectomy with the reconstructive surgery, please, waiter. Looks like around the end of August or beginning of September, depending on the schedules of the two surgeons involved.

I'll be perfectly fine, and won't have to ever have another mammogram. (Bonus!)

So this fall, we will be headed to New Hanover Regional Medical Center instead of Newfoundland. Canada will have to wait until next September. Poor Pootie has already got the wheels in motion to defer a year. At least we've already done the legwork, which means less time next year to line up hotels, boats and rental property.

I'll be right here cooking at Cafe 305, with a brief hiatus for surgery and recovery. This will NOT be turning into a cancer blog. No worries. This is the last you'll hear of it here. Tune back in for recipes and revelry.

And the occasional picture of Bigfoot.

Carry on, folks. I'll be back with you soon.