Cancer. Why was it always cancer? I had witnessed cancer take my friends, family, you name it. My internal monologue pleaded, “You’ve taken so much, but you cannot take her.”
In October, 2009, the malicious virus hit a little too close to home when my mother was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in her life, this time coming in the form of Stage 3 Breast Cancer. Even as a 10-year-old, the extreme gravity of the situation was evident. Yet, being the youngest in my family, my parents and siblings attempted to shelter me from the grim reality in order to protect my childhood innocence; however, I always had my ways of finding the truth. Early on, I realized that being the serious steadfast solider was not my role in this equation. Rather,
…show more content…
For some reason, God had chosen to answer our prayers. The worst was behind us, yet cancer’s wake still remained. Even though it may sound strange to say, I’m thankful for the lessons that came out of that horrible time. On a daily basis, I hear my peers complain about school work or a busy schedule, and I wish I could just explain them the foolishness of their careless words. Although it may seem cliché, life is too short. Too short to waste precious time and energy on living a miserable existence. Living everyday like it’s your last became words that I lived by. There’s no time to waste dwelling on previous mistakes or past failures – you only get one life. True, these are common tropes and clichés, but people can never truly grasp their depth until life itself hangs in the …show more content…
Witnessing the stony demeanor that surrounded cancer and seemed to infect the people around me made me fear adulthood, but I’ve realized that being an adult doesn’t mean that you have to be strict, or callous, or aloof. The task of creating happiness all around me has never stopped, as I try to spread laughter and smiles to people who need them. I realized that you never have to stop being a kid; losing that childlike wonder is not something that has to come with adulthood. Although it’s true that I’ve matured significantly and have a greater understanding of who I am, I will always be a child at heart. By keeping this part of me alive, I’m reminded that cancer can never beat me.
I can’t say that I am grateful for cancer for nearly destroying my family, but I can say that I would not be the same person today without it. For better or for worse, cancer has forever altered the way I perceive my daily life. At least from my shoes, each day is a new opportunity to make something great. So, yeah cancer. Take your best
Terry knew that aches and pains are common in athlete’s lives. At the end of his first year of university there was a new pain in his knee. One morning Terry woke up to see that he could no longer stand up. A week later Terry found out that it was not just an ache he had a malignant tumor; his leg would have to be cut off six inches above the knee. Terry’s doctor told him that he had a chance of living but the odds were fifty to seventy percent. He also said that he should be glad it happened now fore just 2 years ago the chance of living was fifteen percent. The night before his operation a former coach brought Terry a magazine featuring a man who ran a marathon after a similar operation. Terry didn’t want to do something small if he was going to do something he was going to do it big. "I am competitive" Terry said, "I’m a dreamer. I like challenges. I don’t give up. When I decided to do it, I knew it was going to be all out. There was no in between Terry’s sixteen month follow up he saw all the young people suffering and getting weak by the disease. He never forgot what he saw and felt burdened to thoughts that died to run this marathon. He was one of the lucky one in three people to survive in the cancer clinics. Terry wrote asking for sponsorship " I could not leave knowing that these faces and feelings would still be here even though I would be set free of mine, s...
Although illness narratives are not novel or new, their prevalence in modern popular literature could be attributed to how these stories can be relatable, empowering, and thought-provoking. Susan Grubar is the writer for the blog “Living with Cancer”, in The New York Times, that communicates her experience with ovarian cancer (2012). In our LIBS 7001 class, Shirley Chuck, Navdeep Dha, Brynn Tomie, and I (2016) discussed various narrative elements of her more recent blog post, “Living with Cancer: A Farewell to Legs” (2016). Although the elements of narration and description (Gracias, 2016) were easily identified by all group members, the most interesting topics revolved around symbolism as well as the overall impression or mood of the post.
Diagnosed with cancer and given just months to live, Randy Pausch decided to give a last lecture. Randy felt this was important so that he may give a sort of goodbye to those who he cared about, share advice and life-experiences that he felt were important, and most importantly for his kids, whom would never really get to know him because of their age. This book is a collection of stories and general life advice that Randy felt was important to share before moving on.
One of the main themes of this novel is the fight against cancer. All three of the main characters struggle with cancer. Hazel struggles with her terminal lung cancer, and Isaac has to have his eyes removed because of cancer. Augustus, who has already lost a leg to Osteoscarcoma, struggles with his cancer returning. However, they all learn through this that their cancer does not control them. They still live their lives to the fullest that they can, and make the best of what they have.
Shock, anger, numbness, denial, acceptance, and fighting for one’s life, are the general phases of grief through one’s experience with cancer (cancersurvivors.org). Although discovering about one’s cancer can be excruciating, an additional agonizing reaction to a sick person is how the others are affected and their one-on-one reaction to the person. Feeling overly pitiful to one’s illness can impair the situation for the one who is ill by emotionally making the tragedy feel additionally worse. Although the extra sympathy, empathy, and compassion Hazel Grace Lancaster is treated with in The Fault In Ours Stars are intended to comfort, these exaggerated emotions have the opposite effect, further isolating and reminding her of her limited existence, but concurrently, the reality of condolences is pivotal to Hazel’s life.
Irish playwright, George Bernard, once said that “Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” Can someone truly “create themselves” when his or her life’s quality and longevity are in jeopardy? It is very sad to think about children who have been diagnosed with cancer and that if they lose their battle, may never get to live a full, healthy life like their peers. According to the Childhood Cancer Foundation, a staggering 175,000 children are diagnosed with cancer worldwide each year; for 25% of them, the disease will be fatal. An estimated 13,500 children and adolescents younger than 20 years of age are diagnosed annually with some form of cancer in the United States alone. Those who do make it through their adolescent years have a greater risk of developing chronic health problems or secondary cancers in their later years. It goes without saying that the disease creates much hardship, pain and suffering. That being so, support for families and patients going through this hardship is very critical. There are many organizations that strive to be that backbone for these families. The Make a Wish Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House for example believe that, if a child is exposed to positive experiences and atmospheres, it will have an overall positive effect on his or her health and wellbeing. These support groups provide great opportunities for struggling families, but ultimately that can only go so far. Cancer not only compromises the patient’s physical health, but also affects the social, mental, economic, and emotional well-being of their entire family.
In 1998, the most common cause of child and adolescents death claimed approximately 2500 young lives in the United States alone. The cause of this dreadful loss of life was due to childhood cancers. This paper explores the changes in the life of children dealing with cancer, families that have been affected by these diseases (also known as pediatric cancer) and a small part of the journey they experience. Cancer does not discriminate and affects all members of the family unit. This paper investigates the challenges that a family will experience from the first diagnoses through palliative care. It examines research and statistic about childhood cancer from organization as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the National Cancer Institute's (NCI), Children’s Cancer Research Fund (CCRF), and other cancer research organization. Although there are 12 major types of cancers that affect children, the main focus in this paper will be acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). It will also include an interview, the personal experiences of a family, real life emotions, and the effect on the parents and sibling of the (Ashtyn) child presently facing acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Life is no longer what formerly was known as being normal. Life with cancer becomes a new journey, the new normal family life that, unfortunately is not normal, but a life that includes cancer.
The book is written by Pamela Tucker Burton, an ordinary person who experienced the death of four family members, she shares her experiences and how a family stay positive, when they faced a deadly disease. In Pamela’s family were no cancer survivors, there were no encouraging sentiments to alleviate their pain. For a family with strong Christian beliefs the only healing and strength for their family was to pray, don’t be afraid and be spiritually prepared for the final journey.
Cancer is a deadly disease that millions of people die from a year. Many loved ones are killed with little to no warning affecting families across our world. My family happened to be one that was affected by this atrocious disease. This event changed the way my family members and I viewed cancer.
A cancer diagnosis can significantly change your life and the lives of your family in various ways. Hearing the news “you’ve been diagnosed with cancer” leave patients and their families in a whirlwind of emotions. The initial shock of this diagnosis leaves feelings of sadness, denial, frustration, confusion, fear, anger, and often times the “why me?” feeling. Thoughts start going through your head regarding how this affects yourself, your family, and your everyday life.
She’s been struggling everyday of her life for the past 10 years; battling and fighting this horrible disease has made it hard on her and her family. The cancer has now metastasized, making it difficult for her to take care of everyday responsibilities and participate in daily activities. Her 13-year-old daughter is watching as her mother suffers and becomes brittle and weak.
From the very time of birth, each one of us is made differently. We all have the same cells, body parts, and makeup but we all have a different face to present to the world. We all have different situations, beliefs and personalities. One thing everyone, both young and old have in common is the possibility for cancer to become an obstacle in his or her life. Cancer is a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells and has affected more than one million people each year just in the United States. As of now there is no cure to this disease, although there are many different forms of cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and many different places to receive this. Chemotherapy is used to treat cancer cells with drugs that have a toxic effect to your body. Chemotherapy is a very harsh and difficult treatment to go through but the outcome may be well worth it. This treatment is not for everyone, though and is no guarantee that these treatments will cure you. It is only the patient’s decision to choose … is it worth living and fighting for, or is it time for me to go? Being diagnosed with cancer can drastically change someone’s life, along with the lives around him or her. This is why it is a hard decision to decide whether or not to receive treatment for this deadly disease. If the decision is made to refuse treatment for cancer, the decision must be respect. There are many reasons people refuse treatment. It’s hard to tell whether it’s more painful to the diagnosed patient or to the family and friends that are involved. People who refuse treatment for cancer have good reasons. Everyone’s diagnosis is different with respect to support, money, and general outlook on life. If they do not have much of these things they a...
Imagine having to wake up each day wondering if that day will be the last time you see or speak to your father. Individuals should really find a way to recognize that nothing in life is guaranteed and that they should live every day like it could be there last. This is the story of my father’s battle with cancer and the toll it took on himself and everyone close to him. My father was very young when he was first diagnosed with cancer. Lately, his current health situation is much different than what it was just a few months ago. Nobody was ready for what was about to happen to my dad, and I was not ready to take on so many new responsibilities at such an adolescent age. I quickly learned to look at life much differently than I had. Your roles change when you have a parent who is sick. You suddenly become the caregiver to them, not the other way around.
I sat back and let the sun bathe me in its bright, reminiscent light. The atmosphere around me was quiet, but just a few feet away people were mourning a great life. It was a life that some say was “lived to the longest and the fullest.” I ,on the other hand, held a solid disagreement. The “longest” couldn’t yet be over, could it? Seventy-five just seemed too short when I had only shared thirteen years with this fabulously, wonderful woman.
This was an existential experience that brought joy to children’s lives while receiving chemotherapy, as well as gave the parents some free time. Even though this experience greatly benefits the children fighting cancer, their sibling and parents, I can safely say that the children I met at Sunrise Day Camp and Long Island Jewish Cohens Children’s Hospital inspired me and continue to be my role models. In addition, through my experience volunteering for three years with Sunrise Association, I realized that I am benevolent and sensitive toward children and adolescents who are given a life that they do not deserve. I know that the characteristics I possess have confirmed that I am capable of fulfilling my dream and goals in the future. These many experiences opened my eyes to a whole new perspective on life and ignited my interest in the field of