Page 84 2023 PAINT THE PAPER PINK Lincoln Daily News Oct/Nov 2023 time thinking that was a little odd. She was a grown woman, capable of going potty on her own, but she was told that she just really shouldn’t be alone, and someone should go with her to the restroom. When it came time for the biopsy, it was a very painful experience for Andrea, because there were several tries to get it done. She recalls the doctor saying, “Now that wasn’t so bad was it?” He then asked her to rate the pain experience, and she told him between one and 10, her pain was a 12. She also remembers there were a number of people who kept coming and going. “It was like one of those Saturday Night Live episodes where people keep coming in and then calling someone else to come in, and then another, until finally the doctor comes in and the gig is up that none of the others are doctors.” She said, “it was like all these people were coming but they weren’t telling me anything.” After the biopsy Andrea was given an ice pack for her breast and remembers the little pink ribbons on it. The technician stayed with her while Andrea applied the pack and then asked what Andrea was going to do for the rest of the day. For Andrea, the obvious answer was “I’m going back to work.” The technician said she wasn’t sure that was a good idea. When Andrea left, she drove to her husband’s workplace just a few blocks away. She shared what had happened, the mammogram, the needle biopsy, but told him no one had said she had cancer. There was a lot going on in Andrea and John’s world as they were showing their home that was on the market. An open house was scheduled for that following Sunday and the two went out for brunch during the open house. It was there that she finally asked her husband, “What if…” John’s response was whatever it was, they would deal with it together. The weekend passed and on Monday Andrea looked for a call that did not come. Then on Tuesday she had a big meeting at work she was preparing for. She was at the office when she received a call from Memorial Hospital. Andrea remembers the caller being light and airy, very chatty, and thinking this is not the cadence or attitude of a person who is about to say, “you have cancer.” But she did. Andrea recalls the same sing-song-ee voice on the phone saying, “Unfortunately you have breast cancer.” There were more words that came afterward, all meant to be encouraging. The voice said that she was a cancer survivor with a similar diagnosis as Andrea. It was meant to be an encouraging conversation without gloom and doom, but at the time it more or less fell on deaf ears. Andrea said for the next little while, she and John became students of breast cancer. They did the research and read everything they could find online. Even so, they were not prepared for the next blow. She met with a surgeon who still said he could not feel the tumor. Because of that and her age, the plan of action was quite radical. The next step for Andrea was an MRI which was not a comfortable experience. She had to lie on her stomach with her arms over her head. The table had a special section where Continued --
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