The date and time March 7^th, 10 am has been staring back at me in the calendar ever since I got that letter through the post stating,

“We have received a referral from Neurosurgery… a visit to Jubileumskliniken (JK) has been scheduled for you…”

I haven’t even wanted to make up plans past this date, unsure of what to expect.  In my referral I was also given the name of a woman oncologist, who to my understanding will be following me for the remaining journey. Within Neurosurgery I was only seen by male physicians and I was looking forward to some female bonding. After having displayed the referral to the receptionist and provided the necessary information I was asked to sit down and wait. I was told that if there were any delays a nurse would come by. At 10:05 a male voice called out my name with slightly broken Swedish. I looked over to see a Middle Eastern-looking man and I thought, “Aha, the nurse!” and my next thought was, “Great to see that JK is drawing its straw to the haystack and employing an immigrant nurse”.  

It turned out that the person I just described was the chief oncologist for the whole unit. Again it is a blessing to be able to say that everything clicked and we were able to spend some 45 minutes holding, in my opinion, a very constructive conversation. Both my husband and I were briefed on the upcoming procedure, including 30 rounds of radiation therapy. However, first I will need a mask moulded for my head and we were shown a demo. It resembled a plastic head made of chicken-wire, but with much smaller loops. Imagine Jason’s hockey mask in “Friday the 13^th“and you get the general idea. Exactly when this will take place is still somewhat uncertain. Either way, I am all set for Halloween.