I didn’t grow up with any sisters. I have two older brothers, and that served me well for my tomboyish, sports-loving childhood. It wasn’t like I sat pining for a sister, but there was a small part of me that always wondered what it would be like to know that kind of bond, to have that built-in, already programmed bestie in life.
Then I received a cancer diagnosis…
My chemo treatments were always scheduled for Wednesday mornings around 8 am which usually got me home by about one or two o’clock in the afternoon. My mom would keep the kids at her house for a few days after chemo so that I could be free to be miserable. And I was, for a good four days. I may be unusual this way but the worst of it was always a few hours after my infusions. By five o’clock on the evenings of my chemo treatments, the nausea was in full force and I could be found curled up in my bed. There was one thing that took my mind off the nausea and allowed me to drift off to sleep.
My friend, Sara would leave her stressful, paper-pushing job every third Wednesday to sit with me in my bed and rub my back. In those hours as well as so many others during which I was cared for by my closest friends, I experienced what it was like to have a sister. If your Pink Warrior is going through chemo or perhaps recovering from surgery, she just might need a friend like that…the back-rubbing, sister kind.
[…] Day 7: Rub Her Back […]