This morning on my way to work I passed a green mini van, and a ton of memories came rushing back at me. Not of my childhood (although my parents totally had a green minivan), but of college. Why? Because Jackie!’s car in college was a green minivan with a sliding door. Yeah, it was super sexy. A lot of people would be mortified to have a mini van in college. Not Jackie! She embraced it.

That car was key to our existence. We took it EVERYWHERE. If we wanted to go to the beach, we’d all pile in. To the bars, we’d all pile in. If we wanted to go play a prank on someone, we’d pile in the van. We’d often drive down the streets around school with music blaring and the sliding door wide open. It was a traveling party and everyone was invited.

When Jackie! traded in the green monster after college, she was thrilled. The rest of us were BUMMED! It was the end of an era.

At the same time I was remembering Jackie!’s car, Jackie! was in a meeting with her oncologist to find out what the next steps in her treatment would be, and to hear the pathology results on Turk the Tumor. Dr. McDreamy told Jackie!’s family after surgery that, from looking at the tumor, he thought it was a slow-growing stage 2 glioma.

The pathology report disagreed. The tumor is a more aggressive stage three.

The oncologist recommends immediate chemotherapy and radiation beginning in the next few weeks. She is going to present her treatment ideas to Jackie!’s team of doctors, and the final verdict will come back next week. Then Jackie! has to decide if she wants to do radiation now or hold off, as in her case it can only be done once. She also has to talk to fertility experts about their suggestions for her reproductive future, as chemo and radiation can have adverse effects.

I don’t think I have to say how much this all completely blows. It was a stunning bit of news. Stupid tumor. Stupid cancer. If Turk was a person, I think it would be safe to say we all would have beat the everloving crap out of him. I personally would have broken his nose in at least three places – and you don’t even want to know what I would have done to his crotch.

I know Jackie! isn’t going to let this slow her down. While she isn’t going to embrace this crap diagnosis with the same zest she once had for the green monster, Jackie! has never been the kind of woman to let anything get in the way of her plans. She has big, huge plans, and none of us will be surprised when she accomplishes all of them.