A Double Mastectomy: A Short Story
They held hands all the way back home.
The trip to Hattiesburg to buy Mechelle Stockett’s mother a wig made out of real hair — she was tired of the shiny fake ones — had gone well. She’d been fitted and the order had been placed.
After six years in remission, Stockett’s mother, Mary Howell, had relapsed. She’d beat the breast cancer once, but it came back with a vengeance, metastasizing to her bones.
It didn’t stop Mrs. Howell from going on a mission trip to Honduras shortly after being diagnosed or shuffling down to the front of the stadium, sitting down to rest every few steps along the way, in order to see her niece perform a ballet in Jackson.
“We didn’t know she was about to die. She said, ‘Live until you die,’ and she wasn’t about to …show more content…
Ley to call their family, to let them know her decision: to have a double mastectomy.
Mrs. Howell first notice a lump in her breast in 1997, Stockett said, but the doctors told her to wait, to see what happened.
“Who knows what happened in that time,” she said, noting her mother was diagnosed after that year was up. “That’s why when I called my dad and said that I have breast cancer and am having a double mastectomy, he said, ‘Good. Cause the doctor said to wait and watch it (to your mom). You tell the doctor that if he wants to watch it, he can take it out of you and put it in a jar, put it on a mantle and watch it all he wants to.’”
But she didn’t have to say that. Dr. Ley had already agreed with her desired course of action.
Stockett was diagnosed with breast cancer on Wednesday and the Tuesday following she had a double mastectomy.
When she came home, little candles with flowers and Bible verses were arranged throughout her …show more content…
“It just made me more aware of little things that people do for one another,” Stockett said. “I had ladies that would drive me back and forth to Jackson and sit with me in doctors’ offices because reconstruction takes awhile. Ladies came and sat with me at home while my son said I was a T-Rex because you have to keep your (upper) arms by your sides. I was overwhelmed with how good people were to me.”
Her sister, who originally decided to have a double mastectomy if she were ever diagnosed with breast cancer, came to stay with Stockett after her surgery.
“It’s ugly. There are tubes; you have to drain them. It’s just gross,” Stockett said. “The first time she looked at the drains, she said, ‘I’m fixing to go lay down,’ and I asked, ‘You’re not going to help me drain them?’ She said, ‘If I did, I would faint.’ It was just too much.”
Her sister would later find noncancerous lumps in her breasts, but Stockett said she opted for a lumpectomy after watching Stockett’s experience.
“The one who gave me the courage to do it ended up reneging,” Stockett said,
The trip to Hattiesburg to buy Mechelle Stockett’s mother a wig made out of real hair — she was tired of the shiny fake ones — had gone well. She’d been fitted and the order had been placed.
After six years in remission, Stockett’s mother, Mary Howell, had relapsed. She’d beat the breast cancer once, but it came back with a vengeance, metastasizing to her bones.
It didn’t stop Mrs. Howell from going on a mission trip to Honduras shortly after being diagnosed or shuffling down to the front of the stadium, sitting down to rest every few steps along the way, in order to see her niece perform a ballet in Jackson.
“We didn’t know she was about to die. She said, ‘Live until you die,’ and she wasn’t about to …show more content…
Ley to call their family, to let them know her decision: to have a double mastectomy.
Mrs. Howell first notice a lump in her breast in 1997, Stockett said, but the doctors told her to wait, to see what happened.
“Who knows what happened in that time,” she said, noting her mother was diagnosed after that year was up. “That’s why when I called my dad and said that I have breast cancer and am having a double mastectomy, he said, ‘Good. Cause the doctor said to wait and watch it (to your mom). You tell the doctor that if he wants to watch it, he can take it out of you and put it in a jar, put it on a mantle and watch it all he wants to.’”
But she didn’t have to say that. Dr. Ley had already agreed with her desired course of action.
Stockett was diagnosed with breast cancer on Wednesday and the Tuesday following she had a double mastectomy.
When she came home, little candles with flowers and Bible verses were arranged throughout her …show more content…
“It just made me more aware of little things that people do for one another,” Stockett said. “I had ladies that would drive me back and forth to Jackson and sit with me in doctors’ offices because reconstruction takes awhile. Ladies came and sat with me at home while my son said I was a T-Rex because you have to keep your (upper) arms by your sides. I was overwhelmed with how good people were to me.”
Her sister, who originally decided to have a double mastectomy if she were ever diagnosed with breast cancer, came to stay with Stockett after her surgery.
“It’s ugly. There are tubes; you have to drain them. It’s just gross,” Stockett said. “The first time she looked at the drains, she said, ‘I’m fixing to go lay down,’ and I asked, ‘You’re not going to help me drain them?’ She said, ‘If I did, I would faint.’ It was just too much.”
Her sister would later find noncancerous lumps in her breasts, but Stockett said she opted for a lumpectomy after watching Stockett’s experience.
“The one who gave me the courage to do it ended up reneging,” Stockett said,