It’s a Tuesday and raining in many parts of Central Texas. Those close to me know today is my favorite day of the week. And that it’s raining – well, that’s just icing on the Tuesday. Any other day like this I would spend checking on team members and patients, planning programs, or analyzing data for leaders and my healthcare system to show returns on investments in care.

But today is very different. Rather than caring for others or the business of oncology, I sit in a waiting room with my family, preparing to walk through an extensive cancer treatment journey alongside someone I love. I have cared for others in this exact position; I have presented and published on these emotions and this process; and today I live it and I cope by writing through my own grief. In the waiting room. As the rain falls on a Tuesday.

Rain, rain go away…