Lump

The day I found a lump was not the worst day of my life. Surgery, chemo, radiotherapy, baldness, fatigue, nausea. The pity in other people's eyes. Pain, always pain. Sometimes throbbing, sometimes pulsing, sometimes stabbing. My life ebbed rapidly away, each day more wretched than the last. I cursed every god I could. And then like a wounded animal, I curled up to die.