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“You have two breasts.” The young woman looked at her with sympathy. “I’ve seen it happen to more than one woman who didn’t have cancer in their family.”
She joined Sophie at the machine and told her to open her gown on the left side. Then Kaylee guided her breast into the machine. “Now hold steady. I know it hurts. Don’t breathe,” she told Sophie.
Not a problem. Holding her breath was easy. It made the pain in her breast as the machine smashed it in its death grip much easier to bear. The loudness of the machine filled Sophie’s ears as it scanned her breast, doing its thing, taking the image, then it released, and she gasped letting the air release from her lungs.
Kaylee took a side image too. Then Sophie slipped her arm into the gown. “Doctor Hillard wants a picture of both breasts,” Kaylee informed her.
Sophie nodded and grumbled then slipped her other arm out of the gown to complete the test. The tech explained to Sophie that she could get dressed and wait in the lobby where she picked her up while the radiologist looked at the images to be sure they didn’t need anything else.
Sophie went back to the dressing room and changed into her own clothes. She followed the exit signs to the waiting area where she sat in one of the overstuffed chairs that were comfortable by waiting room standards.
It wasn’t that long ago that she and Kai and their spouses sat with John Overly waiting for Micki to come out of the OR after her emergency C-Section. A happy occasion after a little scare. The twins were beautiful. A boy born first they named Simon John. Their daughter who came second had been in distress. They had named her Everly Rose. Both children had a thatch of dark hair, their mother’s big brown eyes and they were the happiest babies Sophie had seen.
Over the weekend, she had just seen them with Kai and Roman who brought Alexander. Her friends were getting babies and she was getting breast cancer.
She turned slightly so she could see the sunlight filtering through the tinted glass. Then no one could see the tears, threatening to spill from her eyes. Sophie rested her chin in her hand. She heard her phone dinging again and sighed. Sophie knew that she had received another text message, probably from Josh wondering if everything was all right. It wasn’t like her to not respond. As Kai liked to say, her phone was attached to her hip. It rarely took her more than five minutes to respond to anyone’s message.
She dug through her purse searching for her phone. There were three messages from her husband.
How was Doctor Ben? Everything go well?
Hey Sophie, not like you to not answer. That phone is attached at your ear all the time. Everything ok?
Got the voicemail, really starting to worry now. Please call me.
Sophie’s hand trembled that held her phone. She was okay. Right? She had no breast cancer in her family. Her lump was probably a cyst, right? Breast cancer happened to other women, not her. She didn’t know anyone with breast cancer or any cancer for that matter.
She hated that fear that consumed her right now. It felt like the fear she had when Josh or Kai forced into going to a scary movie. She always sat between them. She hated it because she couldn’t escape. At times she was on the edge of her seat looking over her shoulder waiting for the axe to fall like in a Michael Myers movie.
Anyway, it was like that fear. All consuming. Anxious. She wanted to crawl under her seat. Her heart was pounding right now. She was ready to start biting her nails. She had been chewing on her bottom lip. She was surprised there wasn’t a hole yet. Sophie didn’t want to scare Josh too. Why put him through this misery too?
She gazed at the phone in her hand resting on her thigh. Her eyes welled with tears. Both the phone and her hand trembled. Then she wiped away the wetness with the back of her hand. She was making too much of this, she was sure.
The radiologist who read her mammogram called her name. “I’m Sophie Russack.” She rose and straightened her jeans. Her landscaping shirt, the Russack logo emblazoned on her chest was once again tucked neatly in her pants.
Sophie approached the woman, not much younger than her. Her dark hair pulled back in a slick, ponytail like the tech wore hers. “I’m Doctor Simpson, Sophie.” Sophie shook her hand.
“Doctor Hillard’s nurse Carol is working with our scheduling office to try to get you in tomorrow or the next day to do an ultrasound and a biopsy on the lump in your left breast.”
Sophie licked her dry lips. She looked up at the bright lights to avoid crying. “Do you think it’s cancer?” She asked.
“I would rather not guess,” Doctor Simpson stated. “We think it’s important to find out as quickly as possible though, so you can start a treatment plan if it is cancer.”
Sophie nodded. “So, you think it is cancer.”
“Sophie, the lump in question does have markers that indicate cancer, so I would like to get your ultrasound and biopsy scheduled quickly but to say for sure that it is cancer…I usually prefer to wait until your oncologist has performed the biopsy for confirmation.” Doctor Simpson was no nonsense and straight to the point.
“Carol will call you as soon as it’s scheduled. Are you okay?” Doctor Simpson patted Sophie’s shoulder. She was serious but understood, the news was upsetting even though they wouldn’t know more until the biopsy was done.
“I’m fine.” Sophie’s voice cracked. “I’ll just wait for Carol’s call.”
Sophie walked away from the doctor leaving her standing in the waiting room. Leaving the waiting area without seeing anyone or anything. Sophie was shell shocked. Cancer couldn’t happen to her.
Her phone dinged again.
Sophie, I’m really, worried. Would you answer me?
What did she tell Josh?
