Decisions, decisions . . .

Yesterday Mrs. Yurodivi went to see her oncologist. I went along to hear what the doctor had to say.

The doctor is a tall, vaguely condescending woman with a butch haircut and a pound of slap; I guess she's probably in her early 50s. We'll call her Dr. B. She first ordered me to sit down, then turned her back completely to me and addressed Mrs. Y., acting as if I were not present.

So the last time we were there, she recommended chemotherapy, and Mrs. Y understandably has some misgivings. For instance, the two drugs the doctor is planning to use have a very high risk of serious side effects, including leukemia and "severe heart damage." But at the same time she recommended chemo, she also ordered a test called the Oncotype DX; Mrs. Y's score was a 6, and anything lower than 17 is considered low risk.

Now Mrs. Yurodivi is weighing the options and trying to decide whether the risks of severe heart damage and leukemia are worth the possible reduction of the risk of recurrence, which apparently is already quite low.

Any input you all might have would be welcome. Of course it's ultimately Mrs. Y's decision, but we are praying for guidance about what to do. Please continue to pray for her, if you can spare a moment after praying for the hurricance victims and those helping them. We sincerely and deeply appreciate all your prayers up to now.

Thanks be to God!

Go, read, and weep with joy, because a miracle appears to have occurred in the case of Kobayashi Maru's brother.

Via Julie D at Happy Catholic.

I can't help thinking that we should also thank the Fourteen Holy Helpers for their intercessions.

Meantime, Mrs. Yurodivi is going back to the oncologist on Tuesday morning to see what the future holds, at least in terms of treatment, so please invoke those same helpers on her behalf! We need all the prayers we can get.

Zecher Tzadik Livrachah

Uncle Bill was a bit of a free spirit, but he wasn't afraid of hard work. He held seemingly dozens of jobs, starting with truck driving, served in the US Army during World War II, ran a chain of auto repair service stores, and sold recliners. He was a real fixer, and he was social beyond belief. He had half a dozen children and dozens of children, and some great-grandchildren as well. The Rabbi said that he had led "a Biblical life," and certainly his descendants will be like the stars in the heavens.

Bill remarried late in life, and the second wife was nearly forty years his junior. Many tongues wagged and made dire predictions about their short-term prospects. Of course, people sometimes surprise you, and it's unwise to bet against love. Bill and his young wife had been married over 23 years when he lost his fight against cancer.

At the memorial service this morning, the Rabbi referred to Bill's wife as a "true woman of valor." As much as she tended to his bodily needs, and suffered with him in his final struggle, I am inclined to agree, and I am praying for her recovery. She looks exhausted, poor thing, and I can't begin to imagine what it must be like.

And yes, I did say "Rabbi." Bill's bride is Jewish, and her family belongs to one of the older synagogues in the South. The Sanctuary is beautiful. I don't want to go into too much detail, because someone might recognize the place, or know my uncle; he has lots and lots of friends. I am still officially anonymous here on the Web, but I should point out that I have a lot of experience at singing in Hebrew, and have done so for a long time. So I volunteered my services to the widow, and the family told me afterwards that having me sing the 23rd Psalm (in English, but on traditional Hebrew melodies) was "a beautiful way to bring the two halves of the family together." So I'm glad that I was able to put my gifts to work in God's service that way. Even though I had to get out of bed at 3:00 AM to drive the four hours to the other city, it was worth it, if only to know that it helped the widow and the rest of the family.

The Rabbi gave a beautiful, erudite and witty homily about my uncle, who spent a great deal of time and effort on fixing things at the synagogue. He and his wife volunteered for the soup kitchen and manned the homeless shelter there at times. The homily was touching without sentimentality, and he handled the possibly delicate situation of having a roomful of evangelicals (and at least one Catholic) with tremendous grace. My siblings and I came away from the service feeling satisfied, though we were sad to say farewell.

In the Temple they have a saying: Zecher tzadik livrachah, or May the memory of the righteous ever be for a blessing. Rest in peace, uncle, in the bosom of Abraham, and may I receive the grace to meet you there.

Guilty Pleasure: Trashy TV

I was prepared to dislike him, but Tommy Lee seems like he might be a decent guy.

As a musician, I was impressed to see that he practiced seriously enough to get into the marching band. Anybody who studied at a football school like Nebraska (or any school in the South, for instance) knows that they take marching band very seriously.

In fact, it's an unspoken secret that the best brass players in most of the great opera houses of Europe are Americans. Why? Because of FOOTBALL. Without football, there would be no marching band, and far fewer children would be exposed to brass instruments. In Europe, on the other hand, children are pre-selected by around age 11 to determine what they're going to study, and even what they will be when they grow up.

Although our educational system has many flaws, I'll still take it over the European one any day.

But back to Tommy Lee. The show humanizes him in a way that seeing some of his antics don't. Again, I never imagined I would like it, but so far I'm enjoying this show.

Recipe Moment: Clarifications

About those recipes . . .

1. The Sweet and Sour Pork is not actually deep-fried. It's more like pan-fried. You should give it a shake about halfway through cooking to brown the other side.


2. The Green Beans really do need to be deep-fried. The quick cooking gives them a wrinkly skin and makes them very tender, but not limp.


3. The Burritos de Pollo al Horno Tostador can be made with the smaller "soft-taco" size tortillas. If you do this, you can serve two per person. If you make them with the big tortillas, they would be great with a little more salady garnish and a little arroz y frijoles.

Hope everyone enjoys these! I'm planning to give Julie's Doboschtorte a try next weekend; I think it will take most of Labor Day weekend to make it!

In praise of the Toaster Oven

Eve links to this site to point to my recipe-blogging, which is about all I can think of to write these days, other than cancer. Thanks for the link!

Meanwhile, she also lists a recipe for a goat gouda sandwich that sounds like a quick and tasty meal. Incidentally, it was prepared in a Toaster Oven -- an appliance no home cook should be without, especially if you have a small family or no children (as we have). It's small, it uses less electricity than the big oven that holds up your stovetop, and it is really, really good at broiling dishes like the aforementioned sandwich, nachos, and anything that needs to have browned cheese (yum!).

It's also good, I've found, for making small batches of biscuits, smallish pizzas (even frozen ones), and things of that nature. Mrs. Yurodivi bought some frozen par-baked baguettes a while back, and the toaster oven is the perfect place to bake one or two of those -- really all the two of us need.

The model we bought is a Euro-Pro (made, incongruously, far to the East of anything that could be construed at Europe). It has a rotisserie feature as well, which is pretty cool.

And on top of all this, the toaster oven also makes excellent toast, up to six slices at a time, so it displaces the conventional toaster. Also, as Eve points out, you can actually see the food while it's cooking, so you can tell when it's done.

In short, this is an appliance every kitchen should have.

Recipe Moment: Sweet and Sour Pork

Okay, yes -- I realize that everyone has a recipe for Sweet and Sour Pork. The recipes have been floating around the States since the Second World War. And everyone has seen the woeful shortcut that passes for S&S Pork (or chicken, or whatever) at the local Chinese mega-buffet: dried-up pellets of fried chicken with poofy-crisp batter, to be slathered in a clear, red sauce of brightly colored corn syrup.

Well, this recipe isn't like that! It has fresh ingredients and loads of flavor, plus contrasting textures -- a big deal in Asian cooking. It's not that time-consuming, although it will certainly look that way. It's just really, really hard to write down Asian recipes with any precision, because the style of cooking tends to be somewhat extemperaneous; and of course you have to adjust flavors on the fly when you cook anything, but esp. Asian food. So here goes!

Ingredients

The Dish

• A good pound of pork, cut into 1" cubes


• 1 large red, yellow or orange pepper, diced about the same size as the pork


• 11/2 cups fresh pineapple, cubed about the same size as the pork


• 2 cloves garlic, minced fine


• 1 tbsp Kecap Manis (Dark, sweetened soy sauce)


• 1 splash of Chinese cooking sherry (You can find this and other ingredients at your local Chinese grocery store, but I'll link to pictures so that, if you're not familiar with them, you at least have an idea what they look like)


• 1 tbsp. Sambal Oelek


• Kosher salt or sea salt


• 1.5 c. flour


• 1/4 c. cornstarch

The Sauce

• 1 clove garlic, minced fine


• 1 tbsp. Kecap Manis


• 1 tbsp. Sambal Oelek


• 2-4 tbsp. tomato paste


• 1/4 c. vinegar (I usethis brand of rice vinegar)


• 1/2 c. dark brown sugar (light will do if that's all you have)


• pinch of kosher or sea salt


• A few tbsp. of chicken broth


• 1/2 tsp. cornstarch

Utensils and Vessels

• Wok


• bowl for flouring pork


• Half-sheet pan with cooling rack, x2


• Chinese "spider," or wire skimmer, for breading and for rescuing stuff from the frying oil


• Chan or large, metal spatula

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200° F.


2. In a good-sized bowl, add the pork, garlic, sherry, salt, Kecap Manis and Sambal Oelek; stir to combine.


3. Combine the flour and 1/4 c. cornstarch plus a generous pinch of salt.


4. Bread the pork by dredging it in the flour mixture. Shake off the excess over the bowl using your Spider and put the pieces in another (dry) bowl. Let it sit for a few minutes while you do the next steps.


5. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir well; you must make sure the cornstarch is well dissolved.


6. Chop the pepper and pineapple into the appropriate size pieces (if you haven't already).


7. Heat enough oil in the bottom of your wok to be able to fry a few pieces of the pork at a time. When the oil is good and hot (at least 350°), deep-fry the pork in batches for three to four minutes. Drain the cooked pork chunks on the other cooling rack and place the pan in the oven to stay warm.


8. When you're finished with the frying, wipe out the bottom of the wok to remove the burnt crumbs of the frying mixture and return it to the burner on high heat. Add a few tablespoons of oil and swirl to coat sides.


9. When the wok is very hot, add the peppers and stir-fry for thirty seconds or so.


10. Add the pineapple chunks and continue stir-frying until it is warm. It's okay if the pineapple gets a little browned on the outside; that tastes good as long as it isn't totally carbonized. If there's pineapple juice left in the bowl where you had the pineapple, add it to the sauce bowl and give it another stir.


11. Make a well in the middle of the pan and pour the sauce into the bottom of the pan. Stirring Let it come to a boil and begin to thicken. This shouldn't take long if your burner is reasonably robust.


12. Take the meat back out of the oven (Remember to use a potholder unless you have a very high pain threshold!) and tip it all into the pan. Stir to combine everything, being sure the meat is well coated in the sauce.


13. Tip the whole thing into a large serving bowl. If you're making other dishes besides this one, make this dish first, because it will hold reasonably well for a little while.


14. Serve with steamed jasmine or basmati rice. This dish is substantial enough that it can be a one-dish dinner when served over rice, but it is also good as a compliment to a spicy dish like the chile beef dish I'll post in the next week or so.


15. Get some water in your wok so the sauce doesn't bake on.

Notes

I had a good friend from the Mysterious East who taught me this and a few other dishes and (more importantly) some guiding principles to apply to Asian cooking. One of the most important things in this style is the contrast between still-distinct flavors and textures. In this dish, that would mean the crunchy peppers, the heat, sweetness and sourness of the sauce, the strong yang of the meat, the crisp batter, and the sweet-tangy pineapple. Really, when you make Sweet and Sour anything this way, you can see why it was so popular, and it will make you shake your head in sage disappointment the next time you go the Golden Royal Dragon Palace Mega-Buffet. The stuff you get there just ain't the same.

If you would like to make this with other meats, I would just say: don't bother. Chicken is naturally sweeter and softer than pork, and shrimp is also rather sweet. If you make it with chicken or shrimp, make a crispier batter; otherwise it won't be quite as wonderful.

Enjoy! I would love to hear about it if you try any of these recipes.

Recipe Moment: The Best Green Beans Ever

Okay, perhaps that's boastful. But after you try these, you may be tempted to agree. I certainly prefer them to the waterlogged, disintegrating olive-drab specimens one gets with the average hamburger steak.

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds of fresh green beans, cleaned and trimmed of stems and that little string thing that sometimes gets caught in your teeth


• 4 cloves of garlic, minced fine


• 2 tbsp. dark sesame oil


• 2 tbsp. premium oyster sauce


• 1 splash dark soy sauce


• 1/4 c. chicken broth


• 1 tsp. Sambal Oelek


• 1 green onion, sliced


• 1/4 tsp. cornstarch


• 1 pinch of salt

Tools

It really, really helps if you can use a deep fryer. I have never made this dish any other way, in fact, since the time I juggled it between two woks and nearly set my church's kitchen on fire.

• Deep Fryer, heated to 375°


• Wok, preheated


• Tongs


• Half-sheet pan with cooling rack (if you can't fry all the beans at once)


• Serving bowl filled with hot water to pre-warm it

Instructions

This couldn't really be much simpler. A word of caution, however: if you're making multiple dishes for a big meal or for guests, make this last. It will get cold in a hurry.

And another word of caution: this goes really fast, so make sure everything is ready and within reach. You won't have time to do anything after you start frying.

The first time I made this dish, I was in a complete tizzy because I had only ever seen these beans on the Mega-Buffet, and I had never seen them 'on the hoof' in the kitchen, so to speak. But the second time I made it, the beans were great. Don't try to skimp on the fat and do them steamed: the texture of the beans will be completely different and far less satisfactory.

1. Clean the beans (if you haven't already done so). Get them as dry as you can, because water and hot oil aren't on very friendly terms.


2. Mix the sauce ingredients together, combining thoroughly. (By 'sauce ingredients,' I mean everything but the beans.


3. Get the wok on the fire.


4. Fry the green beans in your deep fryer for no more than 25 seconds. If you have to do it in batches, which you probably will, let the beans drain on the cooling rack while you do the next batch.


5. Dump the water out of the serving bowl and wipe it dry, then set it next to the stove.


6. When you have finished frying the beans, toss them all into the wok and add the sauce. This will make a very impressive, Iron Chef-style cloud of smoke and steam, so I hope you have a good exhaust fan!


7. Toss the beans in the sauce. Because the pan is hot and there isn't all that much sauce, it will come together in a matter of seconds.


8. Tip the whole thing into the serving bowl and serve it right away, before the beans get cold.

Recipe Moment: Chicken Burritos

Full name: Burritos de Pollo Asado al Horno Tostador.

(serves 2-4, depending on how hungry they are)
No! It has nothing to do with horned chickens.

This was another fridge-cleaning moment for Yurodivi. On Sunday I grilled a batch of chicken breasts seasoned with adobo, and this seemed like a good way to use up a couple of them. I make zero claim for authenticity in this recipe; I'm not Latin, I know bupkiss about Latin cooking, and I don't have an easy time following recipes. That said, here's what I did.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (seasoned with the Adobo of your choice) and grilled over charcoal, cubed into 1/4" cubes


• 1 can of Ro-Tel Tomatoes and Green Chiles


• 1 handful of grated mild cheese, divided (I think I used about 4 oz.)


• 1 can of refried black beans (more on that later)


• 4 large flour tortillas


• 1 handful of shredded lettuce


• 1 medium tomato, sliced


• sour cream


• the salsa of your choice


• 1 9" x 9" Pyrex pan.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 (I used our toaster oven, which saved some kilowatthours)


2. If you don't have a can of refried beans, you can do this:
   
   1. Open a can of black beans or pintos.
      
   2. Rinse them well in a strainer and put them in a pot
   
   
   3. Add some chicken broth or water, enough to cover, and cook them until they're good and soft.
   
   
   4. Mash them with the back of a spoon (or other blunt instrument), cover and set aside.
   
   
   5. Did I mention this was not rocket science?
   
   
3. Rinse your strainer and pour the Ro-Tel into it. Mash the tomatoes and green chiles with the back of a spoon to press out most of the liquid.


4. In a bowl, combine the chicken, the Ro-Tel, and about half the cheese; mix until combined.


5. If the tortillas are cold, nuke them for a few seconds to loosen them up.


6. Spread the tortillas out on a cutting board and smear them with refried beans toward one side. Save a little of the beanage to use for glue.


7. Divide the filling among the four tortillas, placing it atop the refried bean smears.


8. Smear a little dab of beanage on the opposite edge of the tortilla from where you started and roll them up, closing them at both ends if possible. The bean substance will act as a glue to hold the burritos closed.


9. Spray the bottom and sides of your baking dish with non-stick cooking spray, then lay the burritos in the dish. They will crowd together, but that's okay. If your burritos have a large personal space, use a larger pan and separate them.


10. Spread some salsa over the top of the burritos, then sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over that.


11. Bake until they look ready and the cheese is browned. If you warm the ingredients in the microwave before you stuff the burritos, this won't take very long.


12. Let the burritos rest for a few minutes. While they're resting, make a little salady garnish on one corner of the plates with the shredded lettuce, the sliced tomatoes, and a dollop of sour cream on top. If the tomatoes aren't very flavorful, you might want to salt them a little to perk up the flavor.

If your family aren't terribly hungry, you might serve just one of these for each person and add some chips and salsa. This made too much for the two of us, and we had the leftovers (about half a burrito each) for breakfast.

God as our Debtor?

Julie D at Happy Catholic posts a fascinating reflection by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori. Go. Read. Digest.

Recipe Moment: Quick Shrimp Fried Rice

When I started this blog, I thought I would post recipes from time to time, because food is (ahem) an interest of mine – in fact, too great an interest. But when I referred to MamaT’s post about the pork chili, I realized I had totally neglected it here online. So here’s a recipe for a quick shrimp fried rice that I made the other night with leftover basmati rice from the fridge.

Fried rice is super-easy anyway, but this one is even easier because you don’t have to spend any time marinating and chopping up meat. Yes, I know it’s cheating, but as my Asian friend taught me, Asian cooking is all about improvisation. This particular recipe used up an onion, a pepper, a handful of frozen veggies, and some other stuff.

If you don’t have a wok, use a non-stick frying pan and turn it as best you can. Woks are cheap: I got mine at the Chinese grocery store for $13.00, and I’ve never looked back. I admit it’s hard to use a wok if you don’t have a gas stove, but if you have a turkey fryer, you can use that instead. Just be careful not to singe your eyebrows with the turkey fryer!

Ingredients

• 1 bag of cold, leftover cooked rice (about five or six cups)


• 1 cup pre-cooked salad shrimp (thaw them if you use frozen, as I did)


• 3 eggs, lightly beaten


• 1 medium onion (red onion is nice, but I used yellow), sliced vertically


• 1 red pepper, sliced in thin strips


• 1 medium tomato, sliced into wedges (remove seeds if you like)


• ½ cup frozen peas-n-carrots


• 3 or 4 green onions, sliced


• Dark soy sauce


• Sambal Oelek (chile paste)


• Light soy sauce


• Fish sauce

Instructions

First of all, it’s important to get everything prepped in advance and put into little bowls or piles to get ready. Otherwise you will never have time to cut anything up while you’re cooking this stuff. It just goes way too fast.

1. Splash some fish sauce and a few drops of dark soy sauce onto the shrimp and the onions, then turn them to coat. Since the shrimp are cooked, you don’t need to let them sit for too long.


2. If the rice is clumpy, “massage” it between your fingers through the bag. The less you have to separate it in the pan, the easier it will be. Try to get the grains as separated as you can.


3. Preheat the wok until it is very hot; then add oil and swirl to coat the sides. (I usually use virgin organic coconut oil, but peanut oil is pretty good too, and a whole lot cheaper.)


4. When the oil is hot, fry the eggs until firm. It’s okay if you “scramble” them in the oil. When they’re good and firm, remove them to a bowl and set aside.


5. Toss in the onions and stir-fry for about a minute.


6. Add the peas-n-carrots and the peppers and continue stir-frying for half a minute or so.


7. Add the rice and press it down with the chan (or spatula), then turning it and stir-frying rapidly. Try not to let it sit still for too long. Splash on dark (and/or light) soy sauce and generous amounts of fish sauce to taste while you stir-fry.


8. Add the shrimp and continue to stir-fry. Since they’re cooked, you only need to get them warmed through.


9. When it looks right, add the cooked eggs, the tomato and the green onions and stir-fry for another half-minute or so, making sure the ingredients are fairly distributed within the rice.


10. Serve family style in a big bowl while it’s still hot. For seasoning on the table, put out a small dish of Sambal Oelek and the bottle of light soy sauce.

I made this whole thing in about half an hour, only five or six minutes of which was actually spent cooking, and served it with frozen food-service egg rolls that I heated in the toaster oven. It made a nice Friday night meatless meal.

If you wanted to add chicken, you could dice a chicken breast and marinate it with salt, dark soy sauce, garlic and sambal oelek. You should stir-fry it after the egg and before the onion. Chicken and shrimp mix well together in fried rice.

Note: You can get all these sauces a lot cheaper at the chinese grocery store; for instance, the 8-oz. jar of Sambal Oelek is $1.99 at the one in my neighborhood. Just be careful if you go to one that's Korean-owned, because the sauces are different.

Please Pray . . .

. . . for Kobayashi Maru and his brother.

How could I, having enjoyed the blessings of your prayers and of God's rich blessings, fail to pass on the request to intercede for Kobayashi and his brother. This is a dreadful situation -- the sort of situation that can only be helped by God and the Saints.

Thanks to Julie D for making us aware of this situation. This is the perfect time to invoke the Fourteen Holy Helpers, whose collective feast was celebrated on 8 August until 1969.

O God, who didst miraculously fortify the Fourteen Holy Helpers in the confession of the Faith; grant us, we beseech Thee, to imitate their fortitude in overcoming all temptations against it, and protect us through their irttercession in all dangers of soul and body, so that we may serve Thee in purity of heart and chastity of body. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Yum!

MamaT at Summa Mamas has a terrific recipe for Adobo-Style Chili. She says it is more delicious in winter.

I haven't tried this recipe yet, to be honest, but it sounds a lot like something I had at a little restaurant on the Western Slope of Colorado (the desert part, not the mountains-and-snow part). The place looked like a dive from the outside, but every socio-economic level of vehicle was represented in the parking area, all up and down the street, from Beemers to 18-wheelers to beat-up pickup trucks.

They called the dish Special Pork Chili, and they only made it on Tuesdays and then reheated it all week long. It was spicy on Tuesday night, but by Saturday night it was darn near inedible. You could see grown men at the tables eating and crying from the heat!

Beyond the heat, though, the flavor of the dish was outstanding, and now I'm eager to try MamaT's recipe. But to be honest, I'll be waiting until it gets a little cooler around here: the "heat index" was 105 today, and all I feel like is salad and a tall, cool beverage or two.

For you German-readers . . .

. . . and -speakers:

Possibly the coolest site on the Teutonoweb. It's the entire Missal, complete with readings, in German.

Kind of makes me nostalgic. It's too bad that when I was actually there for a year, I was going through one of my low-faith periods, and I didn't take advantage of being near the Church. How I regret that now!

Thanks, Saint Agatha!

Allmächtiger Gott, auf die Fürsprache der heiligen Agatha vermehre in uns den Glauben, für den sie das Leben hingab, durch Christus, unseren Herrn.

Almighty God, through the intercession of Saint Agatha increase in us the Faith for which she gave her life, through Christ, our Lord.

Thanks be to God!

Finally, some good news: Mrs. Yurodivi and I met with her surgeon again today, and he showed us the path report. The "sample" was all clear; that is, there was no sign of any cancer at all, not even at the margins. The doctor said it was "highly unusual" to find nothing where previously there was something.

So anyway, Mrs. Y is not out of the woods yet; in fact, she's nowhere near halfway through them. But knowing that, at this point, there's no cancer in the surgical site is a good thing, and we are profoundly thankful to God and to all those of you who prayed for us.

To show our appreciation to Saint Agatha, this coming February 5, I'll be sure to put out Agathenkerzen against fire, which you can read about here.

Allmächtiger Gott,
du hast die heilige Agatha
zur Jungfräulichkeit um Christi willen berufen
und ihr die Gnade des Martyriums geschenkt.
Höre auf ihre Fürsprache
und hilf uns, in aller Bedrängnis auszuharren
und dir in Lauterkeit und Treue zu dienen.
Darum bitten wir durch Jesus Christus.

Amen.

Almighty God, you called Saint Agatha to virginity through Christ's will, and gave her the grace of martyrdom. Listen to her petitions and help us to persevere through all troubles and to serve you in gladness and faithfulness. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Liveblogging the Operation, Part II

Mrs. Yurodivi is out of surgery. The surgeon says he took a "large margin" and hopes to have gotten a clean margin as well. She'll be leaving recovery in an hour or so, and then we'll be ready to go home by noon-ish.

Thanks for all your prayers! We still need more; we're meeting with the surgeon again on Monday to review the pathology report, and then decisions will be made, and we'll meet with the oncologist again in a week or so.

Liveblogging the Operation

Anyway, speaking of waiting, this is the first time I have liveblogged an operation, and I hope it’s the last. Mrs. Yurodivi is in the operating room even as I write, where the good doctor is performing a re-excision. The doctor said this one shouldn't take more than half an hour, so I won't have as much time to get nervous.

The extent the doctors go to these days to avoid mistakes (and the attending lawsuits) is pretty impressive. Every nurse who has come in has asked her to recite her name, rank and serial number (so to speak) and made her tell what procedure she’s having, and where. And they make sure that all matches what’s on the chart and what’s on the bracelet.

Even the surgeon, even though he’s thoroughly familiar with the case, came in and made a mark on the affected area. I thought it kind of looked like his initials, but Mrs. Y thought it looked more like a swastika — which seems vaguely disturbing, unless you’re a Hindu, in which case it could be a blessing.

So, in between prayers and supplications, here I sit in the canteen room of this large Southern hospital, right outside the surgical waiting room, taking full advantage of the institution’s free wireless Internet access. If the circumstances were less dire, I would think that was pretty cool; as it is, I’m just grateful to be able to communicate with all of you.

Thanks again for your prayers; please continue to pray for her, because she’s going to need all the grace she can get.

Heilige Agathe, bete für uns!

Waiting

Sometimes, waiting is the hardest part. Waiting to get tests. Waiting to get test results. Waiting to see the doctor. Waiting for the surgery, and then waiting for more test results. Then, after you get the test results, waiting for more surgery.

Waiting would try the patience of even the most patient saint.

Now, after today, Mrs. Yurodivi will be waiting for even more test resultsfrom the re-excision. The surgeon says this procedure will be less traumatic than the first operation because he won’t be digging around her armpit in search of cancerous lymph nodes. No, they’ve already discovered that her lymph nodes are clear, thanks be to God, so that won’t be necessary.

We have both been overwhelmed by the support and the love that Mrs. Y has received since her ordeal began. She has received cards and phone calls from friends and relatives she hasn’t heard from in years. Even her family have been supportive, even though she doesn’t really get along that well with some of them, at least under normal circumstances. And frankly, maybe this is all part of what Father means when he says that God gives grace in suffering: not just God Himself giving comfort, but his Holy Spirit moving others to give comfort of their own.

We are also grateful to you fellow bloggers and blog-readers for your prayers and concerns. It means a great deal to us to know that you are praying for her.

Update on Mrs. Yurodivi

Sadly, this situation just gets more and more frustrating as time goes on. While the doctors made rosy predictions out of the gate, and we approached the surgery with relatively little trepidation, it has now transpired that she will require a second surgery (known as a re-excision, not that I ever wanted to know that term), and after that surgery has healed, the one thing Mrs. Y dreaded almost as much as a mastectomy:

Chemotherapy.

Yes, chemo. Along with the nausea (we can manage that much better than before, they tell us) and the perilous destruction of her immune system (what was that Viet Nam thing about destroying the village in order to save it?), she will certainly lose her hair, which is an emotionally daunting proposition. And after the chemo, she'll need a couple of months of radiation therapy.

People tell us we should be glad, or grateful. Objectively, I can understand that: she found the tumor fairly early (but not nearly as early as they told her to start), and at this point it looks like she won't need a mastectomy (or a double).

But on the emotional level, I'm P***ed! Why did the doctors and nurses spin her all this happy talk if they knew it was likely to be more serious? Did they think she would refuse the treatment? Honestly, it's as if they don't consider patients adults.

Anyway.

I'll calm down in a few days. The second (and, we hope, final) surgery is scheduled for next Thursday, so we really need your prayers. I should not have been so optimistic, I suppose; and I shouldn't have let up in my supplication so soon.