Monday, November 19, 2012, began one of the longest weeks of my life. As I sat unsuspecting in my classroom, my mother was dealing with the prospect that she might be have cancer a hundred miles away in a doctors office. As unsuspecting as I was, when I saw a phone call from my sister during my school day I knew something "big" was up. She never interrupts my day of teaching unless it is something that needs my immediate attention, and the few times this has happened, involved something traumatic with one of my family members.
When I heard the possibility of something suspicious on my Mom's breast I reacted just as my sister knew I would. I, the eternal pessimist, believe in expecting the worse and hoping for the best. My husband tells me that this is the definition of a pessimist. I like to think of myself as prepared. My sister, the eternal optimist, said that we shouldn't worry and reminded me of the previous scares that proved to be nothing. She assured me that our college age girls could travel with my mom to the city and the follow-up visit the next day. After all, we hoped the diagnosis from the biopsy would show some benign mass.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012 was an extremely long day. I was to lead a meeting after school. All day, in spite of the cell phone policy in my classroom, I kept my phone handy. I explained to my students that I would need to read texts occasionally and that it was necessary not indulgent. My daughter and my niece kept me up to date throughout the meeting. My daughter sat quietly and text-ed me the words that she could not have fully comprehended. My niece asked questions and recorded the doctors entire conversation so that we could listen to it later and analyze the news more completely.
I remember texting back things like, "well that isn't so, bad is it", and "Wait! What does he mean?". Hind- sight being 20/20, I know now that I should not have missed this meeting. After all, this was news that would change the course of our lives completely. The lumpectomy and the insertion of a portal cast was set for Friday, November 23, 2012. The day following Thanksgiving.
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