In the year 2022 I was forced to make a very strong decision, but it was about my health and the health of my mother.
It happened that in December 2021 my mother had a stroke, one of many that happened to her. She lived with my sister and was the one who took charge of caring for my mother although she visited her almost every day.
In May 2022 I felt a small lump in my left breast while I was bathing. I went to the doctor and he told me that I had to have a mammogram to be able to better analyze the case. The truth is that I had not had it done and in June, a few days later, my son, who was living in Colombia, tells me that he got me tickets to go and see me there. They were handing out permanence permits and I would obtain registration in an EPS (medical insurance) and if I had to have surgery I could do it in Bogota.
My older sister asked me to think more about it since we did not see any improvement in my mother's health. Every time I went to visit her she was sleeping and she recognized people less and less. She also gradually stopped eating when she was a person who ate very well, for nothing she lost her appetite. The truth was that it was becoming more and more dull.
I made the decision to leave, but not before talking to my mother. I went to visit her on a Tuesday since my trip was scheduled for Wednesday, June 15, 2022. I told her: Mom, I have to travel to see myself in Colombia about this tumor that appeared in my breast. If you want, you can rest from what is stopping you here without us being able to enjoy you as we always did. I don't know how many times I've told you but I'll tell you again, I love you very much and I'm very proud to have been born from your womb. You are the best mom in the world.
Nobody listened to this conversation I had with my mother since I didn't want to make my sisters feel bad, but for me, my mother hadn't been with us for a few months. I gave him a kiss on the forehead and left. The next day I went to Colombia, but my heart didn't want to leave, I told the driver twice to turn around that I didn't want to leave anymore, but he would never understand what was happening to me.
I arrived in Bogota on Thursday the 16th and on Saturday the 18th my sister announced to us that she didn't see my mother well, "Mommy is fading", were her words. At around 6:30 in the afternoon he called me on a video call and asked me if I wanted to say goodbye to my mother. You can imagine how I felt, desperate, guilty, the worst daughter in the world. But I repeated, crying, what I had told her when I said goodbye: I love you mommy and I thank God for putting me in your womb and choosing you as my mother. My son and I were devastated.
My operation did not take place in Colombia, it took place here almost a year later since they never gave me an EPS to see me healthy. Upon returning to Venezuela in 2023 I was able to have surgery and they removed my entire left breast and 5 lymph nodes to rule out any expansion of what the reflex Biopsy diagnosed: Breast Cancer.
I think there are many of us who spend our lives making the wrong decisions, I thought it was the right one, but in reality if I had stayed I could have been at my mother's wake with my sisters and I would have had the surgery anyway but earlier and not wait almost a year. Thank God today I am in good health but with a little regret for not being with my family at that time.
