The best bad news
On the call, the radiologist who had done my biopsy asked how the wound was healing up. I chattered for a minute and started asking a question about some stitches that weren’t behaving. She finally cleared her throat and interrupted me. “We got the pathology results back. The report shows that there are abnormal cells.”
“Abnormal cells?” For a moment, I was completely confused. “What do you mean?”
“It means you have breast cancer.”
I looked over at my poor husband who had only been hearing my side of the conversation. “I have breast cancer?”
Jeff’s eyes went wide. He looked like I probably did: shocked and disbelieving.
“Yes. You have breast cancer. But thankfully, because we caught it on a regular mammogram it appears that we are getting it early.* I know this is bad news. But truly, this is the best bad news that you could hear right now. There is so much we can do. My colleague is going to call you in a few minutes to discuss next steps.”
As I ended the call, we pulled into our driveway. My friend was already in our house talking with our teenage children. Jeff and I had no idea how we were going to go in there and act like everything was normal; I knew I had to tell them.
I stepped inside, said hi to my kids, and asked my friend if she could come into the garage for a moment. She must have seen a weird look on my face because when we stepped back into the garage, she asked if everything was ok. When I told her what I just found out, a completely understandable expletive left her mouth. We said we needed to tell the kids, so we put the haircuts on hold, sat down with our teenagers at the kitchen table and explained what we had just learned. It was hard. They were scared.
I wasn’t scared. Because it didn’t actually feel real. But that soon changed.
Stay tuned for PART 2 in next week’s blog as I continue my story in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you want to learn more about early detection, visit the National Breast Cancer website here.
*Editor’s note: Ladies, get your mammograms!
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