Timing Isn't Always on Our Side

My name is Heather and I am a single mother of two living in the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago.  I was diagnosed in January 2019 at the then age of 35 with Triple Negative breast cancer.  I have since undergone chemotherapy and single mastectomy.  Pre-cancer hobbies included obstacle racing and furious drunken dancing. 

This is to remind myself of the time I thought I was going to die because I got my period.

I was planning to get laid the weekend before I started chemotherapy -- start date was Monday, Feb. 11, 2019 and my period was expected Sunday Feb. 10, 2019.

So it’s Friday morning. I’m in the shower, I’m getting ready to go to the hospital for the last of my tests. These are the BIG tests, CT scan and bone scan, essentially to check the rest of my body for cancer. And what do I discover to my dismay? My period has come two days early.

I was so disappointed. I felt like something had been unjustly taken away from me. I started feeling like I had nothing to look forward to which escalated very quickly into mentally spiraling along that train of thought, thinking they might find cancer all over my body, give me stage 4 and time to live in number of months. I can be SO EMO these days.

I was bawling in the shower fearing my own mortality because I got my period and I wasn’t getting any action this weekend. I told Kevin about it. He said just think how funny this will be to look back on when you beat this thing.

So that’s what this is for. To document the moment I though I had no future because my period was early -- so I can look back on it and laugh. Also, I got my test results back before I even left the hospital that day and they were clear.

I was not in fact told I'd live only a certain number of months.