Thursday November 15th, 2012, I was scheduled for a biopsy (an examination of tissue removed from a living body to discover the presence, cause, or extent of a disease) to find out whether the tumor in my chest was cancerous, or malignant. We left my doctor’s appointment to go home and pack, to spend the weekend at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera. At this time, I really just wanted my family around me, and so we went and picked my brother up from school early.
In the car, I had to somehow explain to my brother, Ryan, what was going on. I could not figure out how to make out my sentences, so I just let my mind do the talking. I remember saying “Bubba, I have to go to the children’s hospital tonight.” He replied with “Why?” I told him “I have to go get a biopsy. The doctor found a tumor in my chest and they think I have something called Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which is cancer.” Telling my brother was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. At this point in time his grandmother was also going through chemotherapy for multiple types of cancers including lung cancer, and she did not have much longer to live. Out of everybody, the hardest person to tell was my brother. We went home, packed our clothes, and went to my grandmother’s house.
At my grandmother’s house from the moment we arrived, it was very awkward and quiet. It was like nobody had any words, the people closest to me had nothing to say. Everybody around me was so worried they literally could not even speak.
