The Waiting Room of Life: How I Coped With Medical Uncertainty

3 mindsets that softened the hardest days of not knowing for a professional coach

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I lie down on the bed, turn to my right as instructed, and let the technician rummage around to perform my breast ultrasound. Peeking at the screen, I marvel at how much the inside of our bodies looks like valleys and mountains. Then I spot her marking up some circles in yellow on her screen.

Is marking up things good news or bad?

When I hit 40 last year, my doctor had me do a mammogram. We found two lumps that got medically categorized as “probably benign”, something I had to Google multiple times. Does this mean I have cancer or not? Is the probability of “probably” more or less than 50%?

Because I didn’t have a family history of breast cancer, I was asked to retest in six months, which I did recently, and this is when I saw the technician mark things in yellow circles. The results are out now, but my doctor has taken time off. So, I have to wait two more weeks until she can interpret the results.

Waiting for a medical test result that can alter the course of your life (even if temporarily) is like a kid forever waiting in a dysfunctional family, not knowing if their parent will beat them or not on any…