I was Diagnosed with Breast Cancer at the Age of Sixteen

Though it was over twenty years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sixteen, a junior in high school. I had just arrived home after doing some volunteer work for a local congressman in my small town. I arrived home to find my mom, my best friend, sitting alone at the kitchen table. My first thought was to wonder why she looked so much older than she did when I saw her last, only eight hours earlier that day. "Sit down, I just spoke to the doctor, we need to talk." My life would change dramatically after that statement was spoken.

Through my mother's streaming tears I sat stone faced as I heard just the words, cancer, chemo, double mastectomy, hair loss, surgery. I don't think it actually processed in my mind for some time as every thing, every moment seemed to be pushed into fast forward. Being only sixteen I was more than confused. I mean I understood I had cancer and in less than a week (yes, it was actually that quick) they would be removing both my breasts and I would begin an intense round of chemotherapy. Pretty heavy stuff for someone who just an hour earlier was wondering if an older boy at the the congressmans office thought she was cute. I looked right through my mother's eyes as she tried to prepare me with every detail.

Honestly, all I could focus on was the loss of my hair at that point. I was not worrying about dying, I was not worrying about being sick from the chemotherapy, I was not even worrying about what my breasts would look like after the surgery, just my hair. God, I loved my hair and now it was going to all fall out, what would I look like bald? Would my friends make fun of me? Would it fall out in one clump or alittle at a time? I just could not stop thinking about my hair. Now, looking back, I realize how normal those feelings were at sixteen but at the time I was as dumbfounded as to why my mom wasn't just as upset about my hair as I was!!