My friend had a bowel resection today for the cancer they found during a routine colonoscopy a few weeks ago. At the time, the doc removed a polyp and was sure it was nothing...until the biopsy came back. Now she's down 7" of colon and will be in the hospital for 3-5 days, (forever in insurance time), and will be recovering for weeks. I want to be supportive, and I try, but the one thing I can't bring myself to say is that everything will be all right. Because I don't know that, and I don't believe that anymore as a default, and I don't want to be a liar.
Another widow thing; it makes us socially uncooperative in so many ways.
I am hoping for the very best, for my friend's sake, of course, but also my own; I can't lose another best friend. But at the same time, I know it's totally out of my hands, as most things are. So I find myself in the limbo between unreasonable-yet-comforting optimism and fatalism. The die is probably already cast. She came through the surgery well, but now there's a waiting game. Did they get it all? Will it come back? Will she have to do chemo or radiation after all? Will she, and those who love her, ever be able to relax again?
It may all be fine; but I have plenty of reasons to know that it isn't always. I no longer believe I wouldn't survive another great loss of a loved one; I just don't want to, you know?
I can totally relate to this. I have a friend that told me that she had found lumps in her breast. I am trying to be supportive, but I just feel like I have enough to bear without worrying for her. That makes me sound horrible. I have distanced myself from people because I just don't know if I can go through it again. I know it is different when it is a friend than a husband/boyfriend. I don't want to feel that gut-wrenching ache that never seems to completely go away.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to this too.
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