The next day my recovery was interrupted by a call from my doctor. He asked my husband and me to come to visit his office that afternoon. After asking several times if I had cancer, he tried to comfort me but said I needed to visit him in his office so that we could talk in person. Well, a word of advise, when the doctor wants to see you in his office it is usually never good news. Immediately I was overcome with gut wrenching fear and became nauseous.
As my husband and I drove to the doctor’s office not a word was spoken. We left fearing the worst, yet hoping for the best. When we arrived at the office we were the only ones there. He stayed late that day so that he could talk with us. When we sat down in his office, I could tell by the look in his eyes it was not good.
I tried to be brave and spoke first, “So what is it?”.
The Doctor said, “I am sorry Luann, but it’s cancer. You have uterine cancer.”
When he said the “C” word – Cancer, I became numb. “But I don’t understand. You did a biopsy the day before and it was benign!” As I tried to make sense of it, thoughts flooded my mind. I have never ever had a bad pap-smear. Why me? What did I do wrong? I have always tried to be healthy by eating all the right food and exercising. This must be a mistake. Maybe they got my results mixed up with one of the other ablation surgeries that day.
The doctor sensing that my mind was racing said, “I double checked and unfortunately there were no mistakes. Since we did the procedure in the hospital, I was able to do a D&C prior to the ablation and took another biopsy. This biopsy came back positive. You have cancer. I would recommend a full hysterectomy.”
As I sat there, letting it all sink in, all I could think about were my two precious boys – Austin and Nick. How would I tell them?
Six weeks later, I returned to the hospital for my second surgery-a full hysterectomy. What should have been a three day visit, turned into a 13-day nightmare, but that is a different story.
The important thing is that I listened to my inner voice. Thank God, I had heard his whisper. If I had gone with my first decision and done the procedure in the doctor’s office, he could not have done the D&C and would have never taken the second biopsy.
Looking back to that day, I know that God and my Dad were definitely watching over me. The gift I would like to leave you with is to “Trust to your inner voice”.