My dear friend who drove me to my appointment is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to know. If she has a flaw, it is that she tends to blurt out what she thinks, even when she should probably not say anything.
I have been living with this horrible fear of what might be wrong with me, but until I have told that the problem is not my back, I refuse to think about the other possibility. My friend had not seen me in the last four weeks, so she hadn't seen how badly my condition had become. With in the first three minutes of seeing me, she said, "Oh my God, it looks to me like you have ____. I ignored the first comment, but once we got into her car and were driving to the appointment, she said it twice more.
I overreacted. I told her quite loudly that the thought had crossed my mind, and others had mentioned it too; but until I heard differently from the doctor, I didn't want that word said outloud. I am very lucky that she didn't just dump me out into the street and leave me there. I have since apologized.
