Lunch and the Reality Bites

After spending allllllllllllllllllll morning at Loyola, determining for myself that it was cancer, and then having the radiologist agree that the lymph nodes needed to be viewed on the ultrasound, Mom and I decided that lunch was in order. Because the doctor had indicated that they wanted me in for a biopsy ASAP, we chose to eat close to the hospital. Driving through Forest Park, we found a plethora of dining choices along Madison Ave. Mom and I were both pleased to find a sister restaurant to our favorite, La Sorella, and were thrilled to find parking just across the street.

Lunch was the first good food I had been able to get down in a very long time (more on the neausea later) and it tasted good going down. Just as our food arrived, Mom looked at me and declared, "Crap! I forgot to feed the meter." I grabbed my jacket, phone (the hospital could call at any second) and my wallet and went running out into the street. JUST as I crossed the street, the parking police had pulled behind the car and the officer was about to write me a ticket for an expired meter. While Mom and I had both noticed the meter, neither of us actually went to feed it. LOL. Because the officer didn't seem to want to back down, I informed him that I had pretty much just been diagnosed with breast cancer and we had stopped for lunch and forgot to feed the meter. He immediately expressed his sorrow for me and agreed the last thing I needed was a parking ticket.

Like I said, lunch was actually very good and I ate almost all of it. During lunch I tried to express my fears and concerns and to let Mom know that it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I actually had breast cancer and that I needed to start making plans. Mom, like everyone else, kept saying, "It might be nothing, you don't know until they know for sure." What I wanted to scream, but actually calmly stated, was that "nothing" does not grow tendrils nor potentially invade your lymph nodes. I had to start making plans for the worst and hope for the best. Or did I?