Leah's Journal

18 MAY 2006 - PHONE CALL AT NIGHT

Last night, while enjoying the final episode of The Amazing Race, the phone rang. I was surprised to hear Mother's voice because she rarely calls me. The following is pretty much verbatum:

Mother: "I have something that I want to tell you and, after I tell you, I don't want any discussion - and I don't want you to go into a spin. I told Kathleen and I told Rita and I want to tell you."

Leah (about to "spin"): "Okay."

Mother: "About five years ago, I found a lump in my breast. I didn't tell anybody about it because I decided then not to do anything about it. It didn't bother me much and, when it did, I exercised my arm and the discomfort got better. When Rita made the appointment with Dr. Buchanan, I knew that he would probably want to do an upper cervical exam..........upper body exam. I told him about the lump, that I had had it for five years and that it didn't bother me. I also told him that he was not to say anything to Rita about it. He assured me that, because of privacy laws, he would not. He examined me and tried his darndest to make it hurt - but, it didn't. Finally, he said that he thought that the lump was fibrous tissue."

When I responded to Mother, she couldn't hear me and said to Rita, "I don't think she heard a damn thing I just said!"

I asked Rita to thank Mother for her confidence. I also said that I would blog about it - but only with her permission. Rita asked Mother and she said, "Okay." I said that I would take her secret and share it with the world. Mother laughed. In this way, Mother's "news" is shared but she doesn't have to make each individual phone call.

I hope never to receive another "I have something to tell you" phone call from Mother. And, if I do, I hope that it will have the same non-event result. Cynthia, who surprised me here at work today and took me to lunch, agreed that, after five years, it is doubtful that anything serious is going on. Mother sounded robust; it was good to hear her voice.