I Have Cancer and My Brother has Cerebral Palsy

There are things in life which none of us can control, in my life there have been many such things. In trying to write this essay I have a difficult time trying to decide what I am going to write about. I have many ideas running through my head,and I am trying to decide what makes me who I am, what makes me special. Soren Kierkegaard said, "Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards." I have a difficult time understanding my life even as I look back, I am unsure of why things happened and what effect certain events had on my life. I say this because I know nothing else, I have nothing to compare my life to. I am who I am and I have always been this way.

There are three major topics that I am considering to include in my essay. The first topic is my medical history, which is quite thick, as shown by my four fat medical files. The problems all started at an early age when E-coli was found in my hip, and it had to be removed. I went in to surgery for the first time, before my first birthday, and had part of my hip scraped out to remove the bacteria. This was the first of about 5 major surgeries and a vast number of visits to the doctors. I could talk about the trauma I went through wondering if I would ever be able to walk, but I was too young to remember any of this. The E-coli was of little importance in my mind except that it was my first surgery, and also that Doctor's told my parents I would always walk with a limp, and be unable to compete in athletics. The condition that everyone believes had the largest effect on who I am is CANCER, I made that big and bold because I want the sympathy vote. I was diagnosed with cancer on Feb. 11, 1987 and went into surgery 2 days later. I didn't remember that date, and I had to go ask my parents all of this. They remember it all. I had a stage four Wilms Tumor attached to my left kidney, I know what side because I get to look at the huge scar every day, and that the doctor's gave me about a 50/50 chance of survival.