The radiation waiting room was in the inner sanctum of the cancer center. Radiation was merely step two of my chemotherapy/radiation cancer treatment plan. The chemotherapy waiting room was simply the main waiting room just inside the entrance, where patients also waited to see a doctor or have blood work done. But radiation patients were special, we had our own waiting room. We got secretly buzzed back there simply by standing in front of the receptionist, Denise, who quietly buzzed us in while multi-tasking on the phone or computer.
Back in
the inner sanctum secrets were openly shared. One lady showed me her burned bosom
as a badge of courage, seemingly whether I wanted to see it or not. The next
day there was a new cubicle wall along the outer row of chairs, as if the
flashing from the day before was too much for some unintentional eye to bear.
The cubicle wall made it feel cozier back there, more private, secretive.
Before that it was just a side lounge of chairs. With the wall it felt more
like an actual waiting room. Perhaps there was a complaint, or even a
suggestion in one of those ever-present boxes.
So it
was back in the inner sanctum one morning in August when a new lady arrived,
Bev. She had been chatting with Cathy, who occupied the radiation time slot
after mine. Bev told Cathy she had a lumpectomy and now needed five days of
radiation, and that all of this was stealing her joy. I was hardly listening, scrolling
through my recent sunflower photos, red, orange and yellow sunflowers I grew
this summer, tired from stopping work and getting there every morning at 9am,
when Cathy leaned back against the new wall and said “Wendy, tell Bev what you’ve
been through.” I showed them some of my beautiful sunflower photos while relating
how I had a mastectomy in January, started chemo in mid-February, first once every
other week of a bad kind for four treatments, then once every week of another
kind of chemo, not so bad but still chemo, but for 12 weeks straight! Then they
gave me four weeks off before I started radiation in August, 25 treatments, one
a day every weekday.
Shortly
after relating my story I got called back to get my radiation treatment. I
thought about Bev that week and prayed for her, that God would restore her joy.
I didn’t see her for a few sessions, but Cathy and I got to know each other
better, and soon it would be her last session, since she started a few days before
me and was only scheduled for 20 treatments. On her third to last day I gave
her a magnet I made through Shutterfly. It’s a photo of a Paint Nite painting I
did of a bird flying in a forest over a stream, and I photo-shopped the words “God
will cover you with His wings” near the bottom. The next day Cathy gave me a
nice card with her phone number in it and a gift bag with a cute figurine.
Then I
got called back to get my radiation treatment. My photo was on the screen and I
said my name and birthday. The treatment went fast, and as I was leaving, I
stopped in the inner sanctum waiting room and asked Cathy her birthday. She
said “February 26th.” I exclaimed “That’s my birthday too!” And we
hugged in tears. I couldn’t believe it! We were sitting there all those weeks
and had the same birthday!
The
next day was Cathy’s last radiation treatment and we said our good-byes. I
texted her once that week that I missed her, since there was a cranky man there
one morning instead of her. Then I saw Bev again one morning. The next day I
brought her a magnet also. I handed her the magnet and let her know I’d been
praying for God to restore her joy. She started to cry and said she thought
about me and all I’d been through but I was still finding joy in simple things like
sunflowers, and she decided she needed to put on her big girl panties! That
made me laugh, and also cry a little. I told her how I cried with Cathy when we
found out we had the same birthday. I asked Bev when was her birthday. “Oh
February 26th.” “That’s my birthday and Cathy’s too!” I couldn’t
believe it. I actually got weak in the knees! Then I got called back for my
treatment. After I came back out, Bev was telling the next lady in the
radiation queue about our birthdays. That lady said she was there when Cathy
and I learned we had the same birthday, and now she was there the same day Bev
and I found out also. It was like they were events to remember! I gave her a
magnet too.
So Bev
and I exchanged phone numbers and her last day came quickly. The next day there
was a new lady there waiting in her time slot after me. I was chatty with that
lady, and asked her birthday right away. She said slowly “February twenty…fourth.”
So amazingly close. My husband Chris, says we have a very specific club, you
have to have breast cancer and be born February 26th.
