The "girls" have put a scare into me. The other day when I found a lump in the left breast, I I called my girlfriend, Julie, who lost a breast to cancer last year. She's also a nurse, so she talked me off the ledge.
My roommate lost a breast to cancer 5-ish years ago, so when she woke up I handed her a cup of coffee...and my left boob.
I expected the women in my life to rally around me.
What surprised and touched me, was the reaction from the men in my life. Ted. Dennis. Simon. These are some of my dearest friends, and each one reached out to talk to me, to comfort me. Even my ex has stayed in constant touch, so to speak. We were, after all, married.
Men get a bad rap, and I am getting a little tired of it. The men I am surrounded with are kind, caring, deeply-feeling people. Simon lost his mother to breast cancer when she was 50. That's how old I am.
He has been riding me like a donkey through the gates of Hell, making sure that I am aggressively moving to find out what that lump is, and what to do about it. He isn't going to let it go. He texts me every day about it. He calls me every day. I love him, and he loves me. THAT, is obvious.
Ted Garcia is my co-host and my dear friend. One of the nicest people you will ever meet. And funny? You have no idea...
When I told Ted what I had found, his gaze dropped down...there...and he stared for a second. Then he looked me in the eye and said, "I want to feel it."
I burst out laughing. Then, I realized he was serious. And not in a creepy way either. He was the second man I know who wanted to immediately reach into my shirt.
Dennis, who has been a major light in my life during the divorce, asked too. And he wasn't being creepy, either. He beats me soundly at Words With Friends, and takes me to see my fantasy and action and Sci Fi movies. He feeds me and tells me I am a really good person. Dennis likes me. I make him laugh, and we fire off inappropriate movie quotes at each other for fun and taunting purposes.
Both Ted and Dennis wanted to know what it felt like, that lump. I think they both needed to process that bit of information on a cellular level.
Also, both may have questioned if they were real. They are. And they're spectacular. And that's why I am concerned.
The men in my life love me. They want me to be ok. They want to help me through this experience in a very real way, and that's why they asked. And that's why I let them.
No. Not THAT way. No one saw anything of an intimate nature. Or felt anything of an intimate nature. The lump is in the north central area of the breast. Also, this was, in the parlance, an over-the-shirt type-a deal.
No one was sexually harassed in the feeling of the lump.
But one woman was reminded of the love she is surrounded with, courtesy of the women AND men in her life.
Read more about breast cancer, causes, prevention and treatment HERE
LH
(PS: my Mammogram is this afternoon, and the Ultrasound is Friday.)
Photo Credit: LaDona Harvey, Getty Images
and now for some Tubes. Thank you, James, the ex.