#FlashbackFriday and A Chance Encounter
I wanted to share a chance encounter that I had yesterday and post it for #FlashbackFriday. While I was busy doing what I’ve been calling my “boots on the ground” work to promote Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day 2015, I had a fortuitous circumstance, an encounter of compassion.
Tweeting in the Stairwell
My Twitter account was full of activity yesterday thanks to some overwhelming support from Social Media friends and supporters. I was at the imaging center to hand out flyers for my Breast Reconstruction Awareness event. It seemed like a logical place to drop off promotional material for women getting mammograms and screenings. I took the stairwell trying to be inconspicuous and out of the way of the patients. OK, so I was also admittedly latching on to the imaging center’s WI-Fi so I could check the craziness of my Tweets coming in. It was a back stairwell that was used mostly by employees coming and going. As I was standing there tweeting away I heard some light footsteps coming down the stairs. With my head down and buried into my phone I thought it was only polite to turn around and at least smile to the person coming down the stairs. I was really concerned that they might wonder what the heck I was doing standing in the stairwell thumbs engaged at my phone.
When I turned around this is who I saw.
This was the kind woman, and my compassionate radiologist who had to deliver the news over a year ago that she found a suspicious lump in my breast and was fairly certain it was cancer. This was the women who knew I was alone that day and also knew my husband was out of the country and asked me if I wanted to call him.
When I saw Dr. Borders as she descended the stairwell, I could feel my mood lighten, elevate. I sensed her compassion on this Friday just as I did the day she told me of my likely 2nd breast cancer diagnosis. She takes care of so many patients and yet she remembered our not so happy meeting in April of 2014. She told me who she was and I chucked a bit. I said to her, “Oh I know who you are! You’ve been in one of my blogs!” I promised to send it to her via email so she could read it.
With that, she smiled at me quizzically, handed me her business card with her email and I told her in a few brief sentences what I had been through in the year and a half since I last saw her. Then, we stepped outside and I asked her if I could get a photo with her. With her long, lithe, arms she offered to take the picture. I wanted to know how she was doing and we started a warm conversation about her family. It was a true ray of sunshine in my busy day just to be able to share what her daily life was like outside of radiology.
Many of you who read my blog know that I make no bones about the doctors I have felt so fortunate to be a patient of. Dr. Borders is no exception. This soft-spoken, yet confident and skillful doctor was the one who had to deliver the news that I had cancer again. I don’t think I could have felt as strong being alone that day were it not for her compassionate demeanor.
I truly do believe that some of the positive things that happen in our life are chance meetings. I could not have predicted that I would ever see Dr. Borders again but I did and I am grateful. I wanted to share this account with you because this was truly a #FlashbackFriday story worth sharing. Compassionate doctors do make a difference in our lives, even after we are no longer in their care. That compassion is not soon forgotten.
I would love to hear your stories about a chance encounter that brightened your day!
Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. ~ writer and cartoonist Allen Saunders & heard in John Lennon’s song Beautiful Boy