Beginnings - Not the way I wanted

Considering my Grandma had passed away with a malignant brain tumor less than a year prior and I had a Great Aunt who was fighting a metastatic brain tumor and was just hospitalized, I really was dreading telling my parents that the MRI revealed a brain tumor. Now each of the three brain tumors are very different in origin and survival but I was beginning to understand that brain tumors are all terrifying in the eyes of the onlooker.

When I awoke the morning after finding out I had a tumor, I was dreading the day. Not because of what I had or the unknown in the air, but because I had decided I needed to tell my parents. Things would be horrific if they found out "through the grapevine" and this was something they needed to hear from me. So I left a bit early that morning and drove the 6 miles or so to their house.

They knew something was wrong the minute I pulled into the driveway. My Mom asked immediately what was wrong and I just calmly told them to sit down. How do you tell them their daughter has a benign brain tumor? Cut and dry, pulling no punches, and let them know everything you know. That's exactly what I did. Both of my parents took it about as I'd expect. My Mom did everything in her power not to cry but you could hear it in her voice she was on the edge of it the entire time I was there. My Dad was in a state of shock. Probably over the still open wound of losing his Mom and now me throwing a curveball at him. My Dad doesn't handle medical things well, so it was about as I expected.

We talked for a while and my Mom did her thing by writing down what I knew so she could do her own research. As I'd already found out, there wasn't much to go on to find out what I really had. It was difficult but I was able to leave that morning with a clearer head than I'd had and really the remainder of the day wasn't to awful bad.