We’re closing in on six months since our arrival in Guatemala. Normally at this point in our tour we would have seen and done enough things around our new city and country to give us a few blogs worth of material. Even with the pandemic, I still managed a blog a month during our early days in Israel. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a chance to settle in or explore anything beyond our neighborhood.
Very soon after our arrival Misha received a call that changed everything. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. Our first reaction was shock, followed by confusion at what could have caused it at such a young age. What started as an exciting day meeting new colleagues had just been turned upside down.
The initial phone calls to family were some of the hardest we’ve ever had to make, especially because the most common response to follow up questions was “I don’t know.” My mother detailed her experience with breast cancer several years prior, which at least gave us a better understanding of the process ahead of us. In the weeks that followed, we had many conversations with doctors that relieved some anxiety and laid out a course of action.
Misha returned to Texas for doctor’s visits while I remained in Guatemala with Mochi and the expectation that I would receive all of our shipments from Israel and Washington, DC. Unfortunately, this didn’t materialize because of the lengthy time it takes to get said shipments released from port. Appointment after appointment, the news got better. While they couldn’t say for sure without further testing, it appeared the cancer was early Stage 1. Misha had her first surgery to remove two cancerous lumps and a couple lymph nodes in early December. The surgery went well, confirming that it had not spread. However, they did not get clear margins, meaning there were still cancer cells at the edge of the tissue that was operated on. Misha underwent a second surgery four weeks later to clean this up before proceeding with treatment.
The most difficult part of this whole experience has been the time between each appointment or phone call, when no updates are coming in, and there’s nothing to do but sit in the swamp our minds. Why is this taking so long? What could we have done differently? What questions did I forget to ask? The pacing felt glacial at times, but we also had and have a lot of confidence in the medical team at our disposal.
I returned to Texas just before Christmas, missing the first surgery but making the second. The biggest frustration with this process came at an appointment (that really should have been a phone call) in mid-February. We were informed that the order to test the now-removed tumors from early December had only just been requested. At that point, we had been expecting to start radiation treatment soon. This new piece of information meant we would have to wait another month, and that was in the event that the testing did not reveal a need for chemotherapy. In the meantime, Misha needed regular physical therapy sessions to resolve a cording issue in her right arm, a result of the surgery to remove lymph nodes under her armpit. For Misha, the sheer the number of doctors’ appointments coupled with trying to maintain some semblance of a remote work routine has been exhausting. Finally, after another month of crossing our fingers, we learned that Misha would avoid chemo. She’s halfway through four weeks of radiation as of this writing.
All the waiting was the biggest challenge to overcome, but it certainly wasn’t the only one. While in Texas, we’ve been staying with Misha’s parents. They are very gracious to offer us their hospitality and have made a lot of this process easier, but we are too old to be living in somebody else’s house. Nobody has any space or free time to themselves, and everybody gets stressed as a result. Not to mention the fact that there are currently 3 dogs, 3 chickens, and one very obese cat thrown into the mix. Misha has been working remotely from the desk in her brother’s old bedroom, surrounded by Lego sets and a closet full of camo, with neighborhood dogs yapping like there’s no tomorrow…man, it’s enough to put anyone in a constant mental fog.
All this is to say, we are dreaming about the days when we can settle into our Guatemalan apartment, take the trips to Antigua and Lake Atitlan we’ve been so excited for, and make this our home for the next year and a half. If you’re reading this and are in your 30’s, man or woman, it’s never a bad time to check your sensitive areas. If it wasn’t for a routine check, Misha never would have discovered her cancer in the first place. We are so grateful she’s in a position to access good medical care, found this early, and that it’s treatable. We hope to be back to normal life soon, making fun discoveries in our new country.
Beer and Diplomacy 
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