Cancer. No one is immune, no one is safe from its clutches. On this episode, Making Strides, Amanda shares a short story centered around a brave woman who fought through the odds, which leads into an intriguing discussion on how one would handle such a revelation.
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Welcome to Smirk. A podcast that covers society and culture through a storytelling lens. Part creative writing, part discussion, and always interesting. Each week our hosts brings a story to the show, a story they wrote themselves, which is immediately followed by discussion on the author’s moral or theme.
These stories can cover any topic the host wants to discuss, it can be lighthearted or more serious. No one but the author knows if these tales are truth or fiction, and part of the fun is guessing while you’re listening before the reality is made clear.
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Want to read Amanda’s story “Making Strides” in full? Think you can identify the moral or theme for this episode? Read it below, and then take a listen to the podcast.
Making Strides
October 7th. Tomorrow. Nancy’s marked her calendar and highlighted it with pink. Pink signifies an appointment for herself. She relies on her organization to keep on top of all of her activities in life. A full time mom, wife, and she works with special needs children. Her life can be busy. And exhausting.
She continues through the day, making dinner for her kids, scoops up the football gear, and takes them to her son’s football game. She’s laughing with her husband, Dave. He’s a great dad to boot. Always supporting his family, working hard as a police officer. They’ve been married for 32 years now. Time sure flies.
They get home, the kids drop their stuff in the exact place it is NOT supposed to be, shower and head to bed. Nancy goes to bed as well since she has that appointment in the morning. Bright and early.
Night wanders into day and Nancy’s alarm goes off. 6 a.m. She had better start getting ready. No deodorant, she reminds herself. Mammograms you can’t wear deodorant. She heads to the facility and checks in. No nerves, it’s just her annual check in. The doctor greets her, same one she’s dealt with for some years, and they perform the test.
That’s it. She’s off to the next activity.
It’s October 9th. Nancy receives a missed call and voice message from her doctor. Maybe it’s a misdial, she hopes. But she calls anyway. They don’t offer any information, but ask that she come back in.
Nancy heads over and checks in. Her doctor, the one she’s known for years, walks in with a concerned smile. Nancy’s worried now. Her doctor tells her the bad news: biopsies found cancer in two lumps in her left breast. Nancy’s heart drops. She immediately runs home, wakes Dave, and falls into his arms in tears. Dave reassures her there’s treatment, they’ll find a way.
Nancy meets with her first surgeon, who doesn’t seem to take it too seriously. No, she tells herself. I’m getting a second opinion. So, she does. Nancy meets with her second surgeon, who recommends she immediately begin chemotherapy.
Nancy’s body responds well to the treatment, but her surgeon recommends a mastectomy. Two weeks from now.
The day arrives. Nancy is going to have her left breast removed and 18 lymph nodes from her arm, per the surgeon’s recommendation. She gowns up, family beside her. She’s ready to undergo the biggest day of her life. She always thought the biggest day of her life would be her wedding day, or the birth of her children, but life threw a curve ball. So here she is. A fighter.
The doctor enters the waiting room and finds Dave. “She’s out and she’s okay, she’ll just be asleep for awhile”, the doctor says. Five lymph nodes were found to have cancer, in addition to 3 tumors in her breast. 25 treatments of radiation followed the surgery. Had she not gotten a second opinion, she wouldn’t have survived.
She’s ready to go back to work after 9 months of recovery. She misses her children there, and they sure miss her. Open arms come rushing up to her as she enters the room. Her teaching assitant, Jenny, smiles and hugs her, happy to see her again. The two talk separately to the side of the room, where Jenny tells her how inspiring and strong she is for getting through such a tough battle.
With the tiniest moment of hesitation and a bit of happiness, Nancy looks at Jenny with gentle eyes.
“A lot of things happened to me in my life. I’ve always been afraid; always worried for my husband. Now I’m not as anxious. I’ve tackled the beast. I wasted too much energy being afraid. I’ve tackled this – I can tackle anything.”