“I’m sorry Mom. I just thought it would be best for me to do this all by myself. I wasn’t coping well and didn’t have enough sense to ask for help. I burdened Lara, then pushed her away. I don’t even know how she could stand to be around me right now.”

“She loves you very much honey. We all love you. We’re your family. We’ll help you get through this. You don’t have to do it alone anymore. Okay?”

Dana nodded then her father spoke. “The nurse asked us to let her know when you woke up. I’ll go get her and I’ll let Howie, Lara and Bette know that you’re awake. Bette said the doctor wanted to talk to all of us together about your release tomorrow and what we should expect. I’m sure he’ll be in shortly. The nurse is holding your breakfast if you think you can eat something.”

“Thank you daddy. I’m still a bit nauseous but I’ll try to eat.”

“OK. We’ll let her know and we’ll see you in a few minutes.”

***

By the time Dr. Shapiro came to talk to them Dana had had a bit of breakfast. She’d washed up and changed into clean comfortable clothing. She was sitting with Bette, Lara, Howie and her parents as they talked about their aborted vacation trip. Howie told her that it wasn’t any fun for him without her there anyway so it was just as well. They promised to reschedule for the following year when she could join them. It felt good planning for the future instead of impending doom.
Dana had dreaded that Bette had called her parents. She wasn’t sure how they would react, but so far they were supportive. She felt grateful to have her family surrounding her as the doctor talked about the surgery and aftercare.

“OK Dana I’ve got all the test results and X-rays back. It looks like we got it all for now. Unfortunately the cancer was much more progressed than we’d anticipated. You know we couldn’t tell until we got inside. It had metastasized to the lymph nodes. In addition to the breast I had to remove a great deal of muscle and tissue. This is going to require a more aggressive protocol that will include chemo and radiation therapy but the prognosis is looking really good Dana. We can beat this thing and from what I’ve seen of your support system here I don’t have any doubts they will be championing you throughout. I also want you to take advantage of the many cancer support groups and resources that we have available. It will be helpful to all of you. Caretakers need support as much as the patient when we are dealing with long-term care. We’ll provide literature and additional information with your release packet. For now I just want to talk to you a little bit about what I did and what to expect for the next few weeks okay?”