It was Oct. 28, 2023. Gavin woke up late that Saturday and came out of the bedroom with his hand cupped around one side of his neck.
“Hey, honey, does this side of my neck look bigger?”
I looked at him, expecting to see a pimple or bug bite. But instead, I saw a bulge in the middle of his neck. I moved in quickly and poked it. It was hard, and the tissue around it was squishy.
“Does that hurt?” I asked as I tapped it.
“Does it hurt to swallow?”
He swallowed and shook his head.
“Maybe you should go to the doctor today,” I suggested.
We started with an appointment at the neighborhood walk-in clinic. That led to Gavin needing an appointment with his primary care physician, who ushered him right in for an ultrasound that afternoon. As we waited for the results to come back, my husband drew a circle around the lump to measure if it was growing.
It grew every day. It was hard not to look at it while we spoke. He’d catch my eyes shifting from his eyes to his neck and back to his eyes.
When we finally got the results back, we learned he needed a biopsy. The earliest biopsy appointment available wasn’t for three weeks. That didn’t work for me. I told him to call a different office, and I’d do the same, and we’d work the system.
We sat on hold for hours trying to get a live person. We did that for what felt like days on end until, finally, the elevator music stopped, and I heard a woman’s voice. I introduced myself and Gavin, and we explained our situation and begged the lady on the other end of the phone for help.
“Can you please help us get in sooner? We can go anywhere in Arizona. We will drive a few hours if it means he can get a biopsy next week.”
She put us on hold, and we prayed. When she returned to the phone, she said the earliest appointment was Nov. 10, which was only a week away. We took it.
While we waited for his biopsy and the results, I filled my time with Thanksgiving preparations. I ensured both my ovens worked fine and cleaned them after every use. Obsessively.
I tried three different turkey recipes. Thanksgiving is Gavin’s favorite meal of the year, and he loved that I downloaded different turkey recipes for him to try before our families came to our brand-new home for our very first Thanksgiving. I tried a Mayo-based one, which Gavin and I loved. I also tried a wet-brine recipe shared by a social media chef and a dry-brine rub shared by a different social media chef. I made turkey pot pie, turkey tetrazzini,…
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