The week of Thanksgiving my mom broke the news to the family that she was diagnosed with stage 2 invasive breast cancer. The cancer is 3.9 cm on the verge of stage 3. It is also known as invasive breast carcinoma. which means that the cancer spreads and enters the blood. Luckily when she went in the doctor said it has not spread into the lymph nodes.
From the day the news broke my mental state changed not in a bad way but more sad and I got the feeling that she doesn’t deserve it I still believe she doesn’t. But, that is life. I was using basketball as an escape and just trying to play good for the games my mom can make.
But ultimately I have been playing a very low level of basketball and I have put so much pressure on myself that it makes everything worse.
The process to remove the cancer starts January 13th. That day my life at home will be different for awhile. It will be the first time in the high school gym I am at a game and I look and my mom isn’t there. My mom is super anxious as she should be, but that being my mom makes me feel bad that I can’t do anything about it.
She is the strongest mentally in the family so I feel confident she can get through this. Going home and seeing her wipe her tears trying to hide crying hurts, but that is just the type of mom she is.
In 2023, a man who was an uncle to me and brother to my dad died of cancer. So when the news came out everyone thought of his situation. After letting in settle in we got better and realized that it was different than his.
At first my mom didn’t want anybody to know at all but the word quickly spread. My dad set up a really good thing for Christmas, he had his friends and my friends make pink ornaments.
The team and the people from the teams I have played on before all made and sent in ornaments just to show she is not alone in this journey. On Christmas Eve with all the ornaments sent in me and two of my brothers waited for her to fall asleep, which was like 2am. Once she fell asleep we took off all the ornaments that were on the tree before and redecorated it with the breast cancer pink ornaments.
She hasn’t been able to sleep since she found out so she came down early in the morning, once she saw the tree it shocked her. She got tears in her eyes.
We got a picture of her next to the tree with our dog which is super cool. But the real challenge starts in 5 days.
