My Anguish

At the time of my medical problem,

I was a high school art teacher in the Sidney, Ohio school system. My students and my friends at school helped me through that tough week of waiting even though most of them didn’t know my situation and how scared I was as I waited for the news.

I arrived home around 3:15pm on Thursday after the school day and I listened to my telephone messages right away. One message was from a nurse at the Clinic in Dublin. My husband must have picked up the phone before the message was completed. He wasn’t home at the time so I was hoping that meant it was good news. I started practicing my skit for the show that night just to keep my mind off of the report I so desperately wanted to hear.

Don arrived home with a red rose and a sad face ten minutes later. He told me that the nurse told him I had breast cancer. I would need a mastectomy, chemo therapy and radiation. My world came crashing down on me. I was hysterical with tears and aggressive behavior. I wasn’t sure what I should do next. I had to call the doctors’ nurse to hear the horrible news all over again. I could barely talk because of all my crying. I tried to understand what I was going to go through, but I couldn’t believe the news I was hearing.

My husband called my friends, Teresa, Amy, and Maria to let them know what I had just found out about my cancer. He told them I could not perform in The Red Glove Review that night or Friday and Saturday. My depression continued as well as the tears. All three friends came by to try to cheer me up so I could perform in the show that night. But it was no use, I just could not get up in front of 750 people with a smile on my face. It was hard enough just to breathe between my shed of tears.

At one point in my delirium I remembered a person who had gone through breast cancer and had a mastectomy, chemo therapy and radiation. I told Don I needed to know what I was going to have to face and I needed to talk with this person.

My Journey to Life