Monday, July 7, 2014

My Sister's Diagnosis

July 3, 2014

Coincidentally, my sister had been monitoring a lump on her right breast for the past 4-6 months, which I had no idea about until today, when she finally had a biopsy done. There's no history of breast cancer in our family.   Several aunts and cousins have had biopsies done at one time or another, and all were benign. So, my sister wasn't worried too much and we compared and contrasted our situations.  Her lump sounded smaller and more well-defined than mine.  So now, only my husband and sister knew about my lump. My parents, God love them, are extreme worry warts, so I like to keep the drama and stress to a minimum, for their sake!

July 7, 2014

I got a voicemail from my mom while I was at work.  I called her on the drive home and she said that my sister's biopsy results came back positive for cancer. Whoa.  Nobody was expecting that.  I tried to reassure her that this has happened to countless women before, there are all kinds of treatments for it, it will all work out, worrying won't fix the problem etc.  

But as I hung up the phone, I began to panic.  If this is happening to my sister, does that increase the odds for me?  What would that mean for the baby?  I suddenly felt an extreme urge to see the specialist as soon as possible.  The next morning, I called her office to try and get in sooner.  I didn't care what time or what office, I'd drive 500 miles and camp outside if I had to.  No luck.  I called again the next day, and was able to move my appointment up to July 14, 3 days sooner than originally scheduled.  I'll take it!  But that still left 5 excruciating days of waiting.  It was at this point that I told my parents what had been going on and the worry and anxiety settled in for all of us.

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