I met with the oncologist today, and I don't have to start chemo till 2006!

This is the great news that I was hoping for. I guess it is typical to wait 4-6 weeks after surgery and since my surgery was Nov. 15, Jan. 1 is close enough to the mark. But of course I won't start on Jan. 1, but some time soon after that. I will go into the drug plan detail in a future email.

I credit my victory to my "dress for success" strategy - I wore a pinstripe suit and heels so that the doctor would think she was dealing with someone on the level of Condoleeza Rice, not some geeky bike coordinator.

I also went the Condi route for another reason: I had set up a meeting with the pathologist and wanted to ensure that she showed me the slide of my cancer. I had called her earlier in the week and asked to see my cancer on a slide and she was very resistant. She kept saying "I don't know why you want to see your cancer. What do you expect to achieve?

I finally swayed her when I said "I don't think you should worry about what I am going to get out of this. But I will tell you what YOU will get out of this: I will stop bugging you and we can move on."

She got the picture and was very compliant when I showed up in my power suit and showed me the slide under the microscope which was VERY cool. My cancer is pretty damn wild looking next to the normal cells. It was pink and purple and just going in all different directions.

Note to all medical personnel: People don't mess with Condi and now we know that they don't mess with Carolyn!

That's it for today. Thanks for your support!