Tuesday, October 10, 2006

When Your World Stops

Adrienne is doing well right now and won't see any more doctors until the end of October when she sees her oncologist and cardiologist, and gets a bone density scan and thyroid test. Since she takes hormones for ovarian failure, she is apparently at risk for endometrial cancer so she needs to be checked for that at some point, as well as for breast cancer since it's been ten years since she received her first round of radiation to the chest. As they say, cancer is the gift that keeps on giving.

One day last fall, when Adrienne was waiting for her ride after her radiation treatment, she called me, very upset. A family in the waiting area with her had just received bad news and they were all crying. It brought back all the times we had received similar news and the awful feeling that the world has completely stopped. We often hear that every so many minutes, someone is diagnosed with cancer or some other horrible disease and we feel bad, but it's hard to put yourself in the position of the person who just received this news. Their world, for that moment or some period of time, comes to a complete stop. The rest of the world goes on normally, working, eating dinner with their family, visiting with their friends, simply living their life. Sometimes when I'm sitting in a restaurant, with all the people talking and laughing and having a good time, I stop for a moment to think about the people whose world stopped that day.

For now, our world is revolving quite well and we hope it stays that way for awhile. Starting Friday, Adrienne has a few days off of school so she will be coming home with a couple of girlfriends. We can't wait to see her.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A very thoughtful post, Alison. I know those moments too well, both as an unwilling participant and as a bystander. Sometimes being the one watching helplessly is worse, I think.

Thanks for checking in with us. I'm glad that Adrienne is keeping on with keeping on as my mother used to say.

Karen, Clare's mom