The telling

June 14 - The telling

How do you tell people this news? Who do you tell? When do you tell?

I tried telling my brother ( my only living family member) and his landline was disconnected and his cell doesn't work in his house. Ironically I could get on his FB wall and kept posting "call me" which he kept responding to with smart aleck remarks. After 2 days of this he did finally call and ... possibly felt a bit ashamed after I told him the news.

Work - I told my 3 bosses because I will need to take time off for diagnosis and surgery and treatment. I think I will tell the rest of work folks that I have a medical issue and am still ironing out the treatment plan. Which is true! I haven't even seen the surgeon.

Over the weekend I ended up telling a whole lot of people - because I ended up seeing a whole lot of people. Went to the RandC at happy hour time and ordered an iced tea. Time seemed to stop as the bartender looked at me like I was a Martian - " No really, I want an iced tea..... not drinking for a while" That drew even more stares and confusion. I just decided to blurt it out..... "I was just diagnosed with breast cancer and I'm not drinking for a while" "Oh....I see.... that'll be $2" In the silver lining dept my bar tabs ought to go down drastically! So, then the cat was out of the bag and suddenly everyone that I knew at the bar was in shock and then full support mode with hugs and sobs all around. These are the people I see almost every day so it was terrific to feel this network of support.

Then, ironically, I was hosting my wine tasting group on Saturday and rather than make up a story about why I wasn't drinking at my own house at the winetasting party, I again took almost everyone aside and told them the news. The cat is really out of the bag now!

There are a number of people that I feel I need to tell ... before they find out from someone else or when I post the blog address on FB. THis week will be very hard as I try to contact them all by phone.