How not to tell your mother something of relative importance

Back in December 2010, I told my Mother about my "tumor" and how I was going back for more surgery, her only concern was "As long as it isn't cancer."

Oops.

The surgical procedure went well, some of the tumor was removed (it was described as looking a bit like an over-ripe pear) and sent off for biopsy. Care to guess how often Mom asked if the results of the biopsy were back? Every darn day! Every darn day, she'd ask, "do you have the pathology report?"

Well, I never did have the pathology report, but, I did know what the preliminary test results were. So technically I wasn't lying.

Back to my point today ... How not to tell your mother something of relative importance ...

You should never ask your mother to go to an oncologist appointment when she's walking through a store. Apparently she almost walked into a display when I asked if she'd be interested in going with me. I don't know how long that was after she hung up on me before announcing to the store "It's Cancer."