Some news.

I have some news.

I’m not quite sure how to tell you.

So, I’m just going to come right out with it.

No point in beating around the bush.

Okay, here we go.

I’m just going to say it.

Any moment now.

I…

Okay, so, remember a few days before my birthday, when I took the morning off for an emergency? So I was at the doctor’s office because, well, okay, you know how when you shower you’re supposed to do those self exams where you feel around to make sure there aren’t any lumps? Okay, so, I felt a lump, and I didn’t really think anything of it, because, I mean, I wasn’t even thirty yet. So I asked Godfrey to check, and you know how oblivious physicists are, so I figured maybe he wouldn’t notice anything. But then he said, “Hey, why is it so swollen here?” So we went to the doctor, and she just thought it was mastitis, because, you know, my son is only two, so that’s totally feasible. But I asked for a mammogram anyway, so then we did the mammogram and an ultrasound too, and there was definitely…something. But everyone was all, oh, it’s probably just benign. Because, by that point, it was like a week after my thirtieth birthday and, I mean, it can’t possibly be anything else for a thirty-year old woman, right? But then we met with a surgeon the next day who was like, uh, yeah, we need to get a biopsy. So we did that, and we...well, we just got the results today.

Deep breath.

So, it turns out I…

Sigh.

It’s cancer. 

I have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

I don’t really know what to think.

I’m kind of in shock right now.

I mean, I’ve only been thirty-years old for two weeks.

Isn’t breast cancer, like, for postmenopausal women?

Anyway, they were hoping it was stage 1 but…

Right now it’s confirmed at stage 2b.

Because the tumor is big and it spread to my lymph nodes already.

So there’s a chance it could be stages 3 or 4.

We don’t know yet.

I’ll have to have more tests done.

And probably surgery.

And I’ll definitely have to do chemo.

But, I mean, whatever.

It’s not like hair and nails don’t grow back.

I just… I don’t get it.

How did this happen?

What did I do?