The Waiting Game

Once you or someone you love has been diagnosed with something big, the times between scans become sacred in-between times where you do your best to live in light of the ever-changing circumstances of your body. Sometimes that can be a time full of fear, but others it is a time full of hope.

BY Samira Rajabi

PUBLISHED December 06, 2018

Samira Rajabi was diagnosed with a vestibular schwannoma, also known as an acoustic neuroma in 2012. She has had ten surgeries to deal with her tumor and its various side effects. She writes a blog about her life, surgeries, recovery and experiences at LivingWithHerbert.com. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studies media studies. In her spare time she plays with her two pups and spends time with her husband exploring Philadelphia.

I read an article recently in CURE about precision radiation for people who have metastatic cancer where random tumors pop up. I was heartened by the article, because that's what my mom has, and she has these little tumors that seemingly come out of nowhere and resist her chemotherapy that helps her maintain a healthy body by keeping all those cancer metastases at bay. (Here's the article).
I read it while I was nervously waiting to be called back from the waiting room for my MRI for my brain tumor. Yes, if you've been following my journey, this was the MRI I spent three months waiting for and wrote about in my last piece for CURE. I had waited a long time for the insurance approval of the MRI and in that time my anxiety had reached peak levels. When anxious, I busy my hands. I tend to read or play on my phone in waiting rooms; a lot of people I observed around me did that same to pass the time. I'm just not sure how many other people in the room were waiting for a brain scan while reading about tumor recurrences in metastatic breast cancer.

Read More: