The lump

My wife Christina had felt a small lump in her left breast since the holidays. I felt it too. It was a hard, pea sized lump that wasn't painful. But it wasn't going away. I would ask her once a week if it had gone away or if it had grown or shrunk in size. The answer for a couple months was always the same, "Nope, it's still there."

We had both been seeing the same doctor in Davis, CA. for years. He has since moved on to practice on campus at UC Davis in the student health center. Christina had a co-worker recommend that she start seeing her physician at California Pacific Medical Center. She did just that and at her appointment, she brought up the lump. She was referred to the breast care center at CPMC in San Francisco. In the back of my mind, I started wondering if it was indeed breast cancer. Nah,  I thought. She runs 35-40 miles a week and takes great care of herself. Besides, cancer doesn't run in her family.She's never smoked and we eat bales of kale and rainbow chard every damn day! It's a cyst or benign tumor-maybe some dense fatty tissue, right?

On the other hand, our little dog Buddy had stopped laying with her at night on the couch. He literally didn't want to be around her.  Anyone who has read "The Art of Dancing in the Rain" knows what that could mean. He smells cancer! And her sports bras were smelling different after her runs...Come on, that's crazy talk. Right? Maybe Buddy's nose can do the same thing that MRI, PET scans and biopsies accomplish. They tell you that you are sick. And that you need help to get better. God, I hope he never stops sitting on my lap. I'm a goner if he does..