I am so humbled and uplifted by the many heartfelt responses to my cancer news from the mix of beautiful people that make up all my many communities. You people seriously give me faith in humanity.

I realized though from some of those lovely responses that perhaps I was being too vague in my original post yesterday, so in my usual spirit of full disclosure (and at the risk of oversharing) please let me clarify a couple of things:

1) What I'm dealing with here is "garden variety" breast cancer (specifically, invasive ductal carcinoma, and even more specifically the hormone positive kind, which is good). Theoretically this is not related or only distantly related to my bout with Hodgkins Disease back in 1992. It was found through a routine mammogram a couple weeks ago, which triggered a follow up mammogram right before I left for Burning Man and then that in turn triggered a biopsy appointment a few days after I returned (boy I'm glad I waited on that!) The biopsy results just came back yesterday.

2) The next step now is lots of tests and consultations and then eventually a decision on best treatment based on all the info we collect. I'll certainly share that info as I get it for those who might be interested.

3) As a philosophical thing I believe in sharing one's journey through tough times and not hiding around cancer. So I'll probably be posting about this a lot. I'll try to put trigger warnings on my cancer posts but if this topic freaks you out or is just not your cuppa tea and you don't want to keep hearing about it, I totally won't hold it against you (or probably even realize) if you unfriend or hide me for awhile.

And for those many lovely souls who keep asking what they can do to help, my only answer at the moment is just keep checking in and showing up. This journey can get lonely or scary at times and attentive friends are always a blessing.