The Phone Call

I left my biopsies on a Friday afternoon, with the protocol of getting my results back in 1-3 business days. So I got an added 2 days of waiting for my results to come in.

The waiting is the worst part. You never know when the phone is going to ring and where you will be. You can’t clear your schedule, but what if you stay busy and miss the call. (well, you just call them back when you are free - easy solution there).

So I’m working, and typically my phone is facing downward while I work so I don’t get distracted. Well for some reason that day, it was facing upward. I was with a client and I saw on caller ID who was calling me - it was my doctor’s office! I took a deep breath, my heart race sped up, and I had to quickly ground myself and contain myself as I had 20 more minutes in this session. When my session ended, I can’t explain to you the surge of energy that went through my body. Then I had to figure out, do I call them back or continue with my day and attend to next session (I had 10 minutes until my next session). I decided to look at my voicemail for clues - I notice it was the doctor calling me, not the nurse. I took a deep breath, opened my email and realized my next client had to cancel! Thank you universe! Within five minutes, it was my doctor calling me again. I picked up, knowing exactly what she was going to say. Yes, she confirmed, I do have cancer. She did a wonderful job holding space for me and telling me my next steps. She told me my form of cancer is DCIS in the right breast - both my biopsies came back positive on the right side. She gave me 3 breast specialist who specialize in oncology to call. She then told me “I’m not going to die, but this does need to be taken care of urgently.”

Antonio had called me earlier, I texted him to let him know I was talking to the doctor. I called him. What a unique phone call. One of highest moments of his life and one of the scarier moments in my life, happening in that one phone call. I told him to tell me his news first (because I had a hunch I knew what it was). He got a new job, with a promotion, and thank goodness a pay increase! He found a job where he gets to integrate all his talents together and tap into his culture! I couldn’t be more proud of him!!!! And then I got to tell him my news. To be honest, I don’t really remember how that conversation went. I was just grateful that I had no more clients that day.

As I was saying in my last post, before I knew I had cancer, I was making a plan on what I would do if I had cancer - one of the parts of that plan was not to disconnect myself from my friends. So I had already started to prepare my friends when I went in for a biopsy. One of them happened to be texting me right before the doctor called, so I called her right away. I cried and cried on the phone with her. Then our tears turned into laughter. And then our conversations turned into strength and resilience and that I (we) will conquer this! And then another friend texted me, I called her too. More tears, more laughter, more conversation of overcoming this!

And then I had to begin the phone calls with my family. I called Ally first hoping my mom would be with her, of course my mom was not. I told Ally never mind, but she could hear in my voice something was up without me every saying a word. So I told her, and then my dad her the conversation so he knew. They then collated together and started writing up our family history and Ally began researching best doctors in town. My mom finally came home and I told her, followed by my other sisters.

I’m so grateful for my family and friends! They are showing up for me in all ways, no matter the distance.