 |
|
 
|
|
|
Debbie LeDonne
I composed the following muse while staring in the mirror at my almost 58-year old “personage.” Here is what I wrote then, before I knew that one year later, almost to the day, I would be diagnosed with breast cancer:
I look in the mirror at the now drooping breasts, boobs, girls, whatever is the nom de jour, and see the blue green stark veins running down and through them. I think first to myself that age has descended upon me and with it the memory of what those dangling works of art did. They nurtured my two children, let down upon hearing any baby cry, and caused me an endless amount of pain and infection as I nursed through mastitis after mastitis. If they were measured like tires, it would be time to trade them in for a new, smooth pair with low mileage and the ability to land upright in a rollover. And as far as seeing Lincoln's head on a penny underneath the soft folds, well forget that, Abe!
That was then...this is now. A lumpectomy and radiation- who would have guessed? A dear friend of mine sent me a note quoting Gilda Radner: "If it weren't for all of the side effects, everyone should have cancer." Well said. Breast cancer has been an inspiring, amazing, and heart-wrenching experience, but I am not sorry that it happened to me. I have found out how many, many wonderful friends I have, and that has truly touched my heart. I will never forget the faces of my grown children as they learned their mother had cancer. Because I am the wife of a surgeon, medicine has always been a topic in our home.
But now, cancer has truly hit home and has new meaning for all of us. I am blessed to have had incredible care from the very first moment to this wonderful evening. And I am so, so grateful to be here and alive and well, a mom to two wonderful children, the wife of a very special man, the sister of two wonderful sisters, (one also a survivor) and a friend to many.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
