Day Two: Overwhelmed by Love, Tests, and Tortilla Chips

Yesterday the word got out, and I am completely, utterly overwhelmed, but in the very best way possible. The love and support pouring in from so many different pockets of my life has left me speechless. The gratitude I feel right now is the kind that makes your chest ache. My children are doing the best they can, having only just processed this news the day before yesterday, and I am so proud of them.

I keep coming back to my joy from this weekend, Johnny's incredibly inspiring marathon performance. The official race photos came out and oh my gosh, they are just unbelievably powerful. The grit, the determination, the pain you can see written across his face in some of these shots, I just keep shaking my head. What an inspiration. Watch his finish line push: https://youtu.be/-QnQ-fysdCo?si=A-8BC_2sKUruT2v3

So much has happened so fast, and it's a real nod to the relationships I've built in my community. Talk about gratitude, I cannot get over how quickly people have moved mountains to get me the best care possible.

**The liver biopsy.** I had to fast this morning to prepare. The procedure itself went quite well, but it has caused a lot more pressure in my abdomen, which is already where my biggest source of discomfort has been.

**Boston, PET scan, same day.** I made it back from Boston in time for my appointment. I'll confess: I slipped and had one of those delicious Biscoff biscuit cookies on the American Airlines flight. I made it within the fasting window and successfully executed the test, but I was honest with the team about the cookie mishap, just in case anything strange lit up. I learned that a PET scan tracks metabolic activity, and since cancer is attracted to sugar, fasting really matters. We didn't use PET scans much during my mom's 18-month journey, so I'm less familiar with how the radioactive tracer moves through your body looking for cancerous activity. The tracer did pick up on some other things, but until I talk to the doctor, I'm not going to spiral about it. My endocrinologist, Dr. Alavi, already called me after seeing the results, he's ordering an ultrasound on my thyroid just to make sure it's nothing more than the Hashimoto's autoimmune disease I already know I have.

**The food.** I am already overwhelmed by people bringing me meals, and I want to eat all of it. My dear, dear, dear friend Victoria Brant dropped a care package at our sports facility while I was at the hospital. Leslie, my right arm, my angel, my true true friend (much more about her later), brought it to the house. I couldn't help but tear into what Vickie had prepared, even though my husband and I had already stopped at a Mexican restaurant on the way home where I pretty much ate everything in sight after fasting all day.

Vickie made her signature chicken artichoke soup, a beautifully fresh beet salad with all the accoutrements, feta, pistachios, and of course her famous Cain and Abel cookies. I was first introduced to those cookies in 2019 when I was seriously under the weather with pneumonia and she showed up with the exact same care package. I even kept the note from back then. She jokes that the cookies are so good they're biblical, that you'd kill your brother for another one tomorrow.

**What's next.** I'll be heading in to see the local oncology team today, even though Dr. Sidani is out of town. We'll review all the results that came in this week and what we anticipate for kickoff, likely next Friday, May 1. We successfully ordered the port, but it won't be "installed" in my body until next Wednesday, so another trip to interventional radiology is on the calendar for next week.

One day at a time. One meal at a time. One marathon photo at a time.

**University of Chicago.** Another huge highlight from yesterday was a call with the University of Chicago, where I built such strong relationships when my mom was under their care and where I followed up with all of my genetic testing after she passed in 2024. My case is now being reviewed by one of the top oncologists in that department. And I can't leave out the beautiful connections I have through family, my sister-in-law, Alyssa Rapp, is personal friends with one of the top doctors in the entire system.

I am not afraid to leverage the incredible connections I have and the network I've built over a lifetime. I consider that one of my superpowers, and I will not hold back in asking for several opinions before I go under any kind of knife or commit to any comprehensive treatment plan.

**Hospital couture, a fashion sidenote.** I cannot let today end without poking fun at my hospital wardrobe, those dreadful grippy slipper-socks paired with a non-matching gown. I should have been strutting around the Las Vegas Google Cloud Next conference in my famous Sneex. So naturally, I asked Gemini's Nano Banana 2 image model to mock up a luxury sneaker inspired by my hospital socks. Behold: the Hospital Grip Sock × Luxe Sneaker collab. Coming soon to a runway near no one. 😂