Tomorrow it will be 3 years since my mastectomy (November 15, 2010). And, since it’s an anniversary of sorts, I wanted to write something to honor the day, but frankly I’m so sick of talking about the serious side of breast cancer that I decided instead I would use the occasion to relate one of the funnier breast cancer stories I experienced from that year which has become a legend of sorts among my friends (a legend in our own minds of course).
Let me set the stage.
Every December my two college friends and I meet in New York City for our annual girlfriends post holiday celebration. We always start out the day with a long lunch where lots of good food and wine are consumed while we spend hours talking about the year and what we plan for the next; our year end celebration of life. Afterwards we see the latest big movie of the season.
Well, of course 2010 was a pretty crazy year for the three of us (when you’re close friends with someone who has breast cancer, the drama kind of over flows and rubs off on all of you) and since that years celebration was especially important, a LOT of wine had been consumed by all of us by the time we were done eating. Afterwards, we three all went to the loo, where I decided it was time for me to show them my new boobs.
You need to know that NO ONE had seen my new boobs yet. Not even my husband.
I was still in the early stages of reconstruction with the expanders and the whole process had me totally freaked out. I felt like Frankenstein with the scary scars and wanted these two, my best friends from college who had known me from way back in the day, to tell me the truth about how these suckers looked, and just how awful (or not) they looked.
So, all three of us crowded into the very tiny little restaurant bathroom stall where I proceeded to pull my sweater up and share the new boobs in all their glory. There was a lot of peering, oohing, ahing and poking. I recall there were some comments along the line of how natural they felt, how they looked pretty good (considering), how they looked much better than they’d expected, and in general, my friends gave the new girls a big stamp of approval.
We were in there for quite a while. And I assure you, we were NOT quiet while we were in there drunkenly exploring and assessing the new girls.
When we opened the stall door to leave, it suddenly dawned on all three of us that this was a co-ed bathroom.
Oh yeah.
And there was a line of people waiting (we’d been in there for quite some time and there were only two stalls).
And the first person on line was a young boy who looked to be about 10 years old, with a frightened and horrified look on his face.
Behind him were several adult men and women, all looking at the three of us as if we were absolutely depraved.
I nonchalantly sauntered over to the sink to wash my hands, while my two friends skulked out of the bathroom pretty quickly, absolutely mortified at the whole scene. I’m pretty sure we scarred that poor kid for life, but it was one of the funniest moments I’d experienced in what had been a horrible year, so I could have cared less about that poor 10 year old boy at that moment.
We ran out the door of this very fancy restaurant, drunk off our asses, laughing maniacally and all I kept thinking was how lucky I am to have such good friends who will be with me through anything I face.
Hence, the A. A. Milne Piglet friendship quote. My absolute favorite of Milne’s characters (right behind Winnie himself, of course).
Hysterical story!
And it’s all true :-)…..you should have seen the look on that kids face!
Hahaha, fancy restaurant bathroom shenanigans are my favorite. Hope all is well with your boobs still.
Thanks Don, yeah they’re still doing just fine. Stopped over to your blog, loved the snarky yet sweet tone 🙂 I’ll be back. Thanks for stopping over to MLB 🙂
What an “uplifting” 🙂 story of friendship and the girls. It’s great to have stories like this out there for others. Thanks. I was dispapointed that you didn’t bare it all for us here on Facebook. It’s just us girls.:) So glad you well and beyond the really tough stuff.
Hahahaha – I could NEVER share the girls on FB! – my husband and kids would be MORTIFIED 🙂 plus, I’m way too old and it wouldn’t be very appealing but thanks for the vote of confidence 🙂 And thanks for stopping by. xo
I loved this story and I can completely relate to trying to keep the humor going despite a cancer journey…I try to do the same (I hope) for my son who is currently undergoing treatment for a pediatric sarcoma. We laugh and joke every day. In my opinion, it’s the only way to get through it. Good for you! And what awesome friends you have too.
Hi OBM – (love your blog name btw), thanks for the note! I agree, there was no way I could have gotten through my BC experience without humor. Best of wishes to your son, I’ll be sending good thoughts his/your way. And thanks for reading MLB! xo
Well, this story certainly gave me a chuckle. Only two people other than my medical team have seen mine. I’m sort of sorry I haven’t taken pictures through this whole mess, but it didn’t even occur to me til late into things. Anyway, sharing with your girlfriends made for quite the story. I’m sure the little boy was mostly curious about why there were so many women in one stall. Thanks for sharing about it. And yeah, all those anniversary dates just keep cropping up don’t they?
Glad I was able to make you laugh. I didn’t take any pictures either, also kind of wish I had of both the reconstruction and of chemo, etc. I think all those people heard some of what we were saying and were in quite a quandry about what was going on in there but for me, it was kind of my first step towards accepting my new body and moving on. xo
Awesome. I had to have a reduction because my boobs were HUGE (36I cup) and I threw a party for them 🙂
Yikes, you had to have a reduction?! Sorry….any surgery having to do with breasts is scary in my mind. Hope you’re happier with them now. I love your blog, very funny! I can NOT believe you lost all that weight with the WI, very cool. xo
Oh wow! Way to make the best of a bad situation! I’m so glad you have sufficient sense of humour to laugh about it now 😀 I reckon the adults were probably more traumatised than the kid – kids are pretty resilient (though his parents may have cursed you for the ‘interesting’ questions he came home with later…)
Yes, the parents were probably very annoyed at us for prompting the questions from the boy, although not exactly sure what they thought was going on in there!
OMG, very funny! And how awesome to have such wonderful friends to hang with and to support you through such struggles.
Yes, they were my lifelines throughout the entire time. Thanks for your kind note!
Hahahaha!!! That is hysterical! Everyone needs to have friends like that.
Through the entire thing, though, I was thinking, “A coed bathroom?? With stalls?? Never heard of such a thing!
Yeah, we didn’t realize it until it was too late! In NYC, space is so limited that some places just have bathrooms for all, no men/women, just everyone. This turned out to be one of those places and it was pretty funny when it dawned on us.