Telling the Kids

After my oncologist appointment, Roger, Rachel, Rebekah, and I were home. We can't even remember where Katie was or who brought her home. Maybe she was swimming with her friend Sophie. We decided to go ahead and tell Rachel and Rebekah, so I got the papers the doctor used to explain it to me and tried to give them the same explanation. Like me, they didn't like hearing words like leukemia and cancer, but they were relieved to know that I am not dying. 

As we were finishing up, our friend Sabrina stopped by to borrow our portable DVD player for her family's house-hunting trip to Tennessee. I wasn't sure how to fit, "Today I found out that I have leukemia" into small talk, so I didn't say anything.

When Katie came home, I gave her a more simplified explanation. She was concerned to hear that I have a type of cancer, but I reassured her that I wasn't going to die from it. I hoped this was true, since it would take awhile to get the biopsy results to confirm the diagnosis.

My sister Juanita had told me she and her boyfriend would be down after work, but I wasn't sure if they were coming on Thursday or Friday. When I talked to her after the oncologist appointment, they were loading the car and pulling out. I told Roger they were on their way, and we tried to straighten up the house a little bit. Everything was happening so fast and Roger thought it would be better if they waited and came down a different weekend. But when I had talked to Juanita that afternoon and told her she didn't have to come down this weekend and we might need her more later on, I sensed her need to be with me. And truthfully, I wanted her here, too. They wouldn't arrive until the middle of the night, so we left the light on and the door unlocked and went on to bed.  It had been a long, exhausting day.