On My Mind

A dear friend contacted me recently... the day I left for Chicago in fact. She and I don't live near each other any longer, and as sometimes happens when people move we hadn't spoken in awhile. My friend has dealt with losing her mother to a recurrence of breast cancer, and has struggled with the idea of having genetic testing to determine her own risk of developing cancer.


The test results came back positive.


She has known this was a possibility. But now she is dealing with increased testing and monitoring and the doctors proposing some pretty radical ideas and treatment. I am being purposely vague on details here, as this is really my friend's story to tell and not mine. I wish I lived closer to be able to offer the concrete support of being there... a shoulder to cry on or a hand to hold or a friend to provide a distraction by talking about music or movies or the craziness of life in general.


The older I get the more people I find who have been touched by this. I'm only heading out of my thirties and I have had a mammogram of my own (nothing, thank goodness!). Recently I've discovered Toddler Planet, and a young Mom who is going through inflammatory breast cancer, another aspect to this disease that I really knew nothing about. I've been spending some time trying to wrap my head and my feelings around all this. But my friend is on my mind and in my thoughts and prayers, and I felt a need to throw this "out into the Universe."