December, 2006, was probably the hardest month of your life. It all started when your boyfriend, Bruins rookie center Phil Kessel, asked you about a lump. He was shy at first, probably because you had only been dating since September. “Hey, um, Y/N, can I ask you something?” He had just gotten out of the shower, having returned from practice half an hour ago, and was wearing just a towel. “Sure, what’s up?” He sat down next to you and nervously looked at his hands, “I know you’re only a freshman and you just started the nursing program, but can you look at something for me?” You could tell he was embarrassed, and you thought this was cute, but you tried to be as polite and professional as possible. “You know I’ve only taken two nursing courses, right? But yes, I can look at it,” you replied. “Umm, maybe we should go in my room for this.” He led you to his bedroom and closed the door. Now you started to get worried. At first you thought this might have been his way of trying to get you to ‘role play’ or whatever, but soon realized he was serious. “I think I found a lump,” he said and took off the towel that was wrapped around his waist. You swallowed hard and tried to appear calm, but you realized this could actually be a very serious situation. “Where?” You asked, and he showed you. You carefully inspected it, although you weren’t really sure what you’re looking for, but you found a lump. “You should have the team doctor look at this, because that is definitely not supposed to be there,” you said, trying to hide the panicking fear from your voice. You gave him a reassuring hug, but inside you felt like crying.
The next day you anxiously waited for him to return from practice. As soon as you saw his face you knew what the prognosis was and tears began streaming down your face. “It’s okay Phil,” you said as you pulled him into a hug, “It’s very treatable; we can get through this.” He was quiet for a minute and pulled away to look at you. “Y/N, you know what they’re going to have to do,” he said, looking more sad about the fact that he was going to lose a testicle than the fact that he had cancer. “It’s okay, you only need one. And no, they don’t do transplants,” you replied, trying to cheer him up. He gave you a small smile before kissing you and pulling you into another hug.
You nervously watched him that night as the Bruins played the Devils, resulting in a 5-1 loss. Every time he got bumped you wanted to scream, causing some weird stares from your roommate as you watched the game together in your dorm. The next day his family flew in from Minnesota and this was your first time meeting them, but you weren’t even nervous about it. Instead you were worried about your boyfriend having cancer at age 19, something no one that age should have to go through. You instantly clicked with his sister Amanda even though she was a few years younger than you, but she reminded you of your little sister whom you hadn’t seen since you left for college in August. Amanda, like her two older brothers, also played hockey, so the two of you talked about that, nail polish, nursing school, fashion, and Phil (she had a ton of funny embarrassing stories about him). You sat with her and the rest of the Kessels two days later while Phil had his surgery. You used this time to catch up on some studying because over the past few days you had been distracted with Phil, helping him though the diagnosis. It had gone by so fast, from the diagnosis to the surgery; all that was left was a follow up scan and blood test to see if the cancer had spread. Waiting for the results of those tests was almost harder, but you and Phil got through it. When the test results came back a few days later, he asked you to come with him since his family had left by then.
After sitting in the waiting room for half an hour the doctor finally called you into his office. After explaining that his surgery went well, he got to the results of the tests. You held his hand tightly as the doctor began explaining it, hoping and praying that he was okay The doctor smiled and said the tests did not show any signs of the cancer spreading, so Phil was now cancer free! You hugged him and gave him a kiss, but Phil didn’t look as relived as you thought he would. “I have one more question,” he said to the doctor. “Will this change anything? Like, will I still be able to have children?” You were kind of surprised that he cared about that. “No, you should be fine,” the doctor replied. Phil had the next few weeks off to recover, so you spent as much time with him as possible. Right before you left school to go home for Christmas break, Phil surprised you after class with flowers. “Thank you Phil! You didn’t have to,” you said as you took the bouquet from him. “You did well on your finals despite having to take care of me, so thank you,” he smiled, “and this is for you as well.” He handed you a small box and you unwrapped it. You slowly opened the box and inside was a beautiful necklace with a little teddy bear holding a heart that had ‘I love you’ engraved on it. “I know, it’s stupid, but I couldn’t think of how to say it so you’d always remember, and you call me ‘your teddy bear’ so, I just though…” he trailed off, blushing a little. “No it’s not stupid,” you said as you took it out of the box and put it on. “And Phil, I love you too.” You leaned forward to kiss him and he pulled you into a hug. “This is why I call you my teddy bear, because you have the best hugs!”
-Lila
