And the Wait Continues

In the Mitchell clan, mom has long been known for saying, "Boy, when you wake up in the morning, you just never know how your day is going to end."

And she doesn't mean in a "whoohoo, I just won the Lottery!" kind of way. She's always been a bit ominious, my mom.

But her words came back to me late Friday afternoon when I finally got the call from Dr. Sidhu. The call that I'd been waiting for all week. The call to tell me that mom's biopsy results came back negative, all she has is a little infection, but is otherwise fine, and here's a prescription for some magic pills to make her all better.

That's not quite how it went.

"...bladdy-blahblahblah," Dr. Sidhu said. "...abnormal cells... blahblahblah.... appointment with an Oncologist... bladdy-blahblah."

That's about all I heard. When our call wrapped up, I swear I could hear my brain buzzing like it had just been through a power surge. I was expecting this call, but wasn't expecting this call.

The brain. Fried.

But I did hear Dr. Sidhu say that the biopsy results were inconclusive. Additional blood work, which was done yesterday, may yield more answers. And so on Wednesday my mom, sister and I have a follow-up appointment with a new doctor, an Oncologist named Dr. Simmons. Hopefully, he'll be able to explain the origin and significance of these "abnormal cells."

In the meantime, all we can do is take the advice admonished by Dr. Sidhu: "Hope for the best," she told me on Friday, "and prepare for the worst." Advice that I've tweaked just a bit.

Prepare for the worst and pray for the best.