Thursday, January 23, 2014

Friendship and cancer


I have a very dear childhood friend, Kathy, who just recently found out she has breast cancer.  She had a double mastectomy yesterday and will be starting chemo most likely in 2-3 weeks that will go on for a year.  My husband and I went to the hospital last night to see her and she’s doing very well and it didn’t go into her lymph nodes which was a huge worry.  Thank God!!  What shocks me is that they’re sending her home today!  WTF?!?!?  She had the surgery yesterday!!  Not just the double mastectomy but also breast reconstruction surgery!  She has 4 drainage tubes coming out of her!  After my gastric bypass I only had one drainage tube and it was a pain in the ass.  Four has got to suck!!!  Yes…I am using a lot of exclamation points here because I’m still in shock that they’re sending her home after such major surgery!! 

Anyway…we have known each other since the fourth grade and grew up together.  She got married shortly after graduation to her high school sweetheart and they are still happily married with two grown children and a grandson.  I went into the service a couple months after their wedding and married my first husband shortly after I got out of the Army.  Kathy and I kind of went our separate ways…not intentionally…it just kind of happened.  We saw each other a couple of times, but in general, it wasn’t until my second marriage 14 years ago that we started getting back in touch.  It's only been a few times though but we have been keeping in touch on Facebook.

When I found out about the cancer, I don’t even know how to describe my feelings.  Fear and panic were the top ones I guess.  I have seen and talked to her more in the last month than I have since our childhood.  One of the things we have both been going back and forth over is the regrets we have of not staying in touch.  We have both had memories come flooding back of growing up together and realized just how much fun we had and how much we’ve missed each other.  We’ve promised each other that it’s going to change.  It’s amazing what cancer can do.  It’s just so sad to me that that’s what it took to get us to realize how important we were/are to each other.  I love her dearly and when she starts losing her hair from the chemo….I’m shaving my head!  That’ll be something new.  J

Take care and God bless!

3 comments:

  1. My prayers are with your friend. My husband's sister in law has breast cancer. She is also going through chemo.

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    1. Thank you Munir! My prayers are with your husband's sister-in-law. It's a nasty, nasty thing cancer is. :-(

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  2. She was in such high spirits considering the surgery she just endured. I'm looking forward to seeing them again soon.

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