One thing that I've learned as a cancer patient (and from helping my family with medical issues) is that flexibility is key. What can get the plan one week can change with one appointment. I thought for sure that I would have a CT scan this week at the ungodly hour of "morning", but my latest visit with my liver doctor upended that. Now I have an MRI in the afternoon on the weekend. All of that work to get me a CT scan was rendered moot with one decision from my liver doctor. Suddenly my schedule changed with the stroke of a pen. And that's fine. I work remotely and my schedule has the flexibility to do so. Not everyone is fortunate. I can't imagine how someone who has no control over their schedule would handle this.

What makes this even more "fun is "m not sure what will happen after this scan. The current options are:

• Surgically remove the liver tumor that is hanging out close to one of my main blood vessels, do radiation and chemo to shrink the rectal and other tumors, and then resect the rest with additional surgery.

• Do a "one stop shopping" and resect everything in one go.

(Personally I'm more a fan of the unlisted option "my body figures out how to dispose of these damn tumors and nobody has to go in to do anything" but I think that option is way off-of-the-table).

So I get to be flexible with what is upcoming. The MRI may show options that were unimaginable now, or it may show that our options are more limited than we thought. Through all of this I need to be flexible. Holding on too tightly to what is upcoming is just going to add unnecessary friction and strain to the process.