My sister-in-law has breast cancer. We found out a couple of weeks ago. Both of her parents died from some form of cancer, so she's been vigilant about getting checked every 6 months for any signs of it. This last time it was confirmed....well, not at first. Her doctor saw something, but said let's just wait and see what happens. Luckily, she didn't follow that advice and got a second opinion. It is breast cancer. I believe it is stage 1 or maybe they haven't staged it yet because they need to see if it has spread anywhere else. She'll be going for a bone scan and a test to see if it's in the lymph nodes. She hasn't had any symptoms whatsoever, which in a way is a good sign...but with cancer, you never can tell. It can be very sneaky and unsuspecting.
She also has decided to have a double mastectomy if that's what it takes to get rid of the cancer. I cannot even begin to imagine the stress and worry she and my brother are going through. I'm going to call them tomorrow and see how they are doing. I haven't been able to do that yet...as we normally don't chat on the phone. It's more of a "when I see them in person, we catch up on things" type of relationship. I will call them tomorrow though.
To make matters worse, her sister - who would be there for her 24/7 - ended up having a brain aneurysm just about the same time my sister-in-law was told about the cancer. Her sister had to go through an 8-hour brain surgery and is in rehab now....hopefully she will be ok.
It's weird, a month ago I was out to lunch with my mom, aunt and sister-in-law....we were sitting there trying to plan another lunch - because we recently decided to try to get together once a month for lunch. Now it's a month later and we are trying to plan how we are going to help her get through this.
Life really can change right before your eyes and the only control you have is how you react to it. All of this has reminded me to be grateful for the simple things in life - because you never know when something may change life as you know it.
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