Last April, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was caught early, and a simple routing out of the tumour was sufifcient to call it a ‘healed!’
I joined a Breast Cancer Awareness group to help other ladies that had been ‘blessed’ with the same diagnosis. I thought to myself, “truthbot, you’ve been through a cancer diagnosis + treatment, maybe you can be of some comfort to those that face the same diagnosis in the future.”
I. Was. Wrong. Very Wrong. My home phone number was given to a woman that had an abnormal mammo. For the internet’s sake, let’s call her ''deep throat". deep throat called me this very evening, expressing all her fears about breast cancer. She hasn’t even had a diagnosis, yet she’s freaked out about her mammo. I tried to console her and I listened to her rantings for nearly an hour telling her she needs to see a specialist before she freaks out.
deep throat didn’t want to hear anything about no 'stinkin specilastists. Did I mention that deep throat was drunk off her ass? I tried to weedle and cajole deep throat into seeing a specialist, and it ended on a sour note.
“”“I’m gonna Sue You!!! I’m gonna Sue You!!!”
She’s gonna Sue me. On what grounds, I have no clue. I have never met the woman. But she’s Gonna Sue Me.
Maybe you should’ve told her to lay off the sauce, since alcohol increases breast cancer risk.
She was drunk, and it sounds as if her nature is to milk disasters to the max.
Call someone senior in the Cancer Awareness group and tell them about it.
You’re not in a responsible position where you are liable for damage to her from just a conversation.
What she’s going to do now is one of these:
(1) forget all about it,
(2) take it to a lawyer while sober and get let down gently,
(3) take it to a lawyer while drunk and get let down more quickly,
(4) call you again, tell you you saved her life and she loves you and she’s leaving you all her possessions when she dies of cancer (this will take 90 minutes and will be just as unpleasant as the first phone call).
I wouldn’t worry about getting sued, and especially about losing the lawsuit. If you’re still worried, note the date and time, and what she and you said, and what observations you made that caused you to conclude she was drunk.
She may recover and act more like a regular human being once she’s past her first panic (which this was) and not drunk.
If I sound intolerant, it’s because I hate being around someone in a panic (tho I’ve panicked in my time), and I’m intolerant of drunkenness.
:eek: I can understand how disturbing that must have been for you, but I wouldn’t take it very seriously. She probably doesn’t even remember the ranting now.
You’re doing a good thing by trying to give back to other survivors. Cancer is such a horrible disease. I hope that you can find some other way to stay involved that is rewarding even if this phone thng isn’t a good fit.
Thank you all for your replies. My post was rather tongue-in-cheek; as I realize the woman won’t sue me. But I was dumbfounded that our conversation on the phone turned so ugly in such a short time frame.
One minute, she’s thanking me for listening to her and “being there”; the next, she’s yelling “I’m gonna Sue you!!”
Thank Og I’m not her health care provider. I contacted the head of our group and told her I didn’t think that “deep throat” and I were a good match as phone buddies. I related the convo I had with “deep throat” and she chuckled, and concurred.
I am still very concerned about “deep throat”, she has hard choices she needs to make about her approach to a possible cancer diagnosis. Getting smashed because you had an abnormal mammo isn’t one of them. I was trying to reassure her that she could have an ultrasound. And seeing a breast specialist would be a logical step.
But we all react to stress in different ways. I like to take the bull by the horns, and do what can be done. Others take solace in a bottle, it seems. I wish “deep throat” all the luck in the world, and I do hope that further tests rule out the big “C”.
You don’t even know, really, if she even had an abnormal mammo. She could just be some sort of attention-seeking loner looking to connect with someone sympathetic. Seen Fight Club?
Art
“Philantrophy”?
And to think I thought the milk of human kindness was some sort of metaphorical construct. 