Breast Cancer - A Love Story
by Cindy Price
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Several years ago I became intimately aware of breast cancer.
It was during a particularly hectic time. Only a few weeks earlier, I had married the love of my life. Shortly after our honeymoon my grandmother died. As executrix of her estate I was busy probating her will. At the same time I was running my own business and combining households with my new husband. Breast cancer was the last thing I had time for.
But I did take time for my annual physical and that's when the doctor discovered my lump. Thinking I had no risk factors and this was only a false alarm, I put off the biopsy for a few weeks while I traveled on business.
In the hospital after the biopsy, the doctor laid his hand on my arm and said somberly, "I'm sorry, it's breast cancer." He left me and my new husband alone. I turned to him and jokingly said, "I want you to remarry." He smiled back and kissed me.
And so began my breast cancer love story with the wonderful man who would make me laugh and smile through our journey together.
Soon after my diagnosis I suggested seriously to my new husband that since our assets had not yet been completely commingled, and I still had my house I could move back to, we could call off our recent marriage. After all, he had three children at home to raise. Neither he nor I had factored in my cancer care for our new family. Again, he smiled back and kissed me, giving me a look as if my idea was the goofiest thing I ever said.
Every woman with breast cancer and her loved ones have to make the journey in their own way. For us it was with humor. After the first surgery, I found his folded handkerchiefs were just perfect for cushioning my bra. He joked that it was nice for him to have a hanky handy when he needed one. Then he seriously added that he liked the thought of his hankies being close to my heart.
People who know me thought I would be the strong stoic type during my cancer treatment. But I was a terrible patient - crying and rallying against my body that I had taken good care of all these years and yet had betrayed me. He held me many times, bearing the brunt of the range and rage of my extreme emotions without a single complaint. Some men are like a mountain. He is an entire mountain range.
One day he came home from work to find me manically renovating the master bathroom. "My lymph nodes are negative!" I happily cried. This meant the cancer had not spread. "I told God I would build an altar if my lymph nodes were negative, so I'm redoing the master bath," I joked. He laughed too, but we both realized our prayers had been answered.
By the time of our first anniversary, I had been in and out of the hospital many times for surgeries, bedridden for months, under his care like one of the children. "Are you sure we've been married for a year? Because I only remember three months of it," I told him. He joked that this meant he could hold off with giving me an anniversary present.
Now years later, I recall the shock, the fear, the crying when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. But mostly I remember the man with the smiling blue eyes who made me laugh and smile - he still makes me laugh today. But most importantly, he turned my breast cancer experience into a love story.
Pull quote: Every woman with breast cancer and her loved ones have to make the journey in their own way. For us it was with humor.
