Anniversaries

As the first anniversary of being cancer-free approaches, I am sitting in the exact spot I was sitting when I got the call telling me I had cancer. We have a condo on Hilton Head Island that we use when it isn’t rented out. It has a lovely view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Roughly a year and a half ago we were staying here preparing for my daughter’s wedding on the beach. We and several others decided to make an extended weekend out of the big day so had arrived several days early. My husband had gone out for something. I was sitting alone on the couch looking out over the beach when my phone rang. It was an Annapolis number and I was waiting for a call from the doctor so I answered.

I answered fully expecting the standard results – it’s nothing to be concerned about. She said the results indicated a sarcoma. Never having heard the term I did not react. She followed that with its cancer. We talked for a bit more, ultimately deciding the oncologist that was monitoring the meningioma (benign brain tumor) would be most logical to handle the cancer.

I called his office and scheduled an appointment for Tuesday, as I was not going to miss my daughter’s wedding. We had caught the cancer extremely early so there was no doubt of beating it. Shortly, after my husband returned, I told him the results were in and it was cancer – that’s when it hit me.

I debated about telling my girls before the wedding. It wasn’t a long debate as we have a strict – no secrets policy. With the advancements in treatments, cancer is not the death sentence it once was. We talked about it, then moved it to the back burner for the rest of the weekend. We celebrated and had a phenomenal time.

The doctor decided on a course of treatment, the insurance company decided they knew better and modified the plan. After much haggling, the insurance company won. This may mean other medical challenges down the road but knowing early treatment is the key to success I wasn’t willing to fight them. I was one of the lucky ones in that I would not need chemo, just radiation, heat treatment, and surgery.

We scheduled treatments and surgery. The surgery landing on our fifteenth wedding anniversary. Initially, we were thinking that’s a heck of a way to spend our anniversary. After the pathology results came in that they’d gotten it all rather than thinking I got to spend our fifteenth anniversary in surgery, I realized I got to spend our fifteenth-anniversary becoming cancer-free. Truly, an amazing anniversary gift and a legacy moment I shall reflect on every anniversary.