Sarah McDonald, author of “The Cancer Channel,” was diagnosed with two, unrelated cancers. She talks of her diagnosis of breast cancer in this excerpt.
When I arrived home Dr. ObGyn called me. She told me Dr. Radiologist had called to say she didn’t like what she saw in my scans. We would still need to wait a couple of days for the results of the biopsy to come back, but Dr. ObGyn wanted me to know sooner than later that it was likely breast cancer.
“Why is this happening?” I asked, feeling defeated and helpless.
“I don’t know,” she said.
I hung up with Dr. ObGyn and immediately called Kristin.
“I am still waiting to get the tests back, and I won’t hear until next week, but it looks like I have breast cancer too, Kristin. I think I’ll need to go back out on leave and I don’t know when I’m going to be coming back to work.”
She told me how sorry she was to hear that, and I could hear in her voice that she really meant this. She assured me the last thing I should worry about right now is work—that I should just focus on getting the treatment I needed. She told me that she’d have the benefits team call me the following week to handle the paperwork that would extend my leave. She told me she would be thinking of me and that I should call if I need anything. “I mean that, Sarah” she said.
I tried not to think about what it would mean to have two cancers. Was this just the beginning of what would be a whole bunch of cancers? How long do people live with two (or more) cancers? The “I have cancer” drumbeat was deafening in my head. I felt like I was in fight or flight mode every hour of every day. I started to wonder if it is possible to have a heart attack from stress. While I felt prepared for whatever physical pain I might experience with radiation, etc., I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to sustain the level of stress I was feeling. For the first time in my life, I started thinking I needed to be medicated to calm down. I vowed to ask the next doctor I met with to prescribe something to give me some relief, a break from my terror.
Sarah McDonald’s book, “The Cancer Channel,” will make you feel you’ve met a new, fun friend, Sarah shares in vivid detail the events surrounding her year of cancer treatments. She touches on both the terror and the humor that can be found in the little moments that are part fighting this awful disease. As a survivor and a champion determined to foster better understanding of the dos and don’ts with cancer patients, Sarah provides a story of hope to all who read this.
Readers of this book will laugh and cry – and find it very difficult to set down.