“Why did you wait so long?” Dr. Kowalski said with a concerned tone.
“‘Oh shit!’ I thought to myself,” Olga recounted to me, “This is serious!”
“Maybe because I was afraid?” The words unexpectedly spilled out of her mouth. Olga was surprised; she did not feel afraid.
“Not afraid?” I said to myself, trying very hard not to raise en eyebrow.
Olga simply did not want to be given the third degree about something she had repeatedly been told was a non-issue. “Maybe because all the other doctors that felt the lump said that I had nothing to worry about.”
“I knew,” she told me again. “I didn’t need a biopsy to confirm anything. I knew I had cancer. I just wanted them to leave me alone. I wanted to go away and I would deal with it when I got back.”