Laying on my bed with my ipad in my hands, my parents called me and my two brothers down to our living room. A little nervous, to see if something was wrong I quickly ran down my stairs and dashed straight to my living room where I saw my two brothers and my parents gathered around the sofa. When I entered my living room I said to my mom and dad,”what is going on?” My dad sat me down and said to me , I have some devastating news to tell you guys. I slowly sat down, my heart racing like a streak of lightning racing the sky.
Knowing that something sad was about to pour out of my parent's mouths I tried to think on the bright side. I kept saying to myself, it cannot be that bad, it can't be that bad. I was deeply regretting even leaving my room in the first place. He started off by saying your grandmother is very sick. I replied to him saying “with what?” He then answered me by saying your grandmother got diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. I did not really have a response the first couple of seconds, but then it hit me. Me and my
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It has been about 2 weeks that she had got diagnosed and my family decided to take a trip up to Pennsylvania because we lived in Rhode Island at the time. After a long, exhausting five and a half hour car ride we finally arrived to my grandmother's apartment! We stayed with her for the next week or so taking turns to taking her to the doctor's office and going to the grocery store and running errands for her. One day she came back from the doctor’s office with more devastating news, she had told my family and I that her cancer had gotten worse and had bumped up to stage four which is the highest stage that you can get. She told us that the doctors said that she had about a year of life left to live. As these powerful words came out of her mouth it felt as if my heart broke into a million tiny
During the winter of my sophomore year of high school my aunt, whom I am very close with, was diagnosed with stage three ovarian and cervical cancer. She underwent various surgeries and chemotherapy treatments, spent weeks in the hospital, and many more weeks battling the effects of the chemotherapy from home.
When I think about the moments leading up to my diagnosis I remember feeling weak, confused, shaky and sleepy. I did not notice that I had began sleeping throughout the day. My body was craving soft drinks like soda and juice but not food. Days would go by and I eventually fell into a deep slumber that I found myself only waking up from to use the bathroom. I knew something was wrong and that if I did not get to a hospital it would get worse. Nothing could have prepared me for the life changing diagnosis I would receive.
In December of 2010, my grandmother was diagnosed with a severe case of Mesothelioma. This news was incredibly overwhelming for my family because the oncologist said that the cancer had proliferated, and there was not much he could actually do. Later on, we found out she only had three more month to live. My grandma underwent chemotherapy for almost two months, but her condition worsened significantly. The oncologist demanded how her treatment plan would carry on, and never offered my grandma any choices. I wondered why my grandma was getting worse as the days went by. My fam...
Something as simple as taking a walk around the facility can prove to be a battle with patient X. From the day I met patient X it was noticeable that she was lacking her memory. Patient X could no longer tell me her name and everyday it would be different struggle, but for that day it was getting her out of bed to take a walk. From the moment I walked in and introduced myself, patient X could not provide me with her name. Patient X constantly asked if I was her baby, and when dealing with an Alzheimer patient, it’s always best to go along with what that patient is saying. As I got patient X up and out of bed, she started to become violent and resistant. Patient X took forty-five minutes to simply get out of bed and dressed, and that was the very beginning of the battle that would consist all day.
Living our busy lives no one else in the family could travel to Houston. Grandma was a strong woman. She could overcome anything and cancer was not going to defeat her. When she arrived at the hospital the doctors took a cat scan and figured out that she had stage four melanoma skin cancer. While my mother and grandma were at M.D. Anderson I was at home living a normal life just starting my first high school basketball season. Every night I worried about how she was doing not thinking about my school work or my athletics. A couple weeks later I called grandma and asked her how she was doing and she assured me that everything was going to be okay and that I should not worry about her. That’s how she lived. She never put herself first in any situation and family and friends were her main focus. Grandma would do anything to make her grandkids happy. I told my grandma I loved her and hung up the phone. The next day at school I looked up the percentage of people killed by melanoma skin cancer and the results were not good. One person dies of melanoma every 54 minutes. When I got home that evening I told my dad that I needed to be in Houston with my grandma. He said he didn’t think that he could make it happen with his busy schedule. I called my mom upset realizing that
My kids have had no childhood illnesses other than chickenpox, which they both contracted while still breastfeeding. They too grew up on a healthy diet, homegrown organics etc. Not to the same extent as I did, though, as I was not quite as strict as my mother, but they are both healthier than I have ever
"Ring, ring", I wondered who was calling me at this time of evening. "Yes; o.k.; Yes, I'll be there", I said before hanging up the phone. What was wrong, I wondered all that evening that the doctor wanted me to come in to discuss my lab results? I had never been asked to come in to the office after doing blood tests before; when receiving a call as this the mind plays tricks on the person and wild things start popping up in the head.
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 am really awfully sorry, but right now it is not the time for me to be talking, we need to get some help!” I was then carried fourth to that dusty pink house right in front which had an open gate and an elder sitting in the front porch. The elder asked “Oh, what do I have hear? Is there something I could do for you guys as that child of yours is crying?” I had always been mistaken as my aunts child, we looked quite alike and I just inhabit some of her quicks and movements which seems quite identical if you ask me. “I really need to use the bathroom grandma and I promise to clean it up right after. Oh, and could you please get me some band aid and safety aids? That will surely
He makes me feel like I am like none-other, but not in a respectable manner. I remember his eyes, lifeless and dark. His smile had a revengeful look upon it, his canine teeth set in his mouth as if her were a vampire. His heart was cold and full of hate. I remember some of the memories as if they were yesterday. His words would cut me through me faster and deeper then any scalpel could. He smelled of cigarettes and coffee on a daily basis, but tried to always cover the smell with the horrendous Brut cologne.
The people who I look up to is my mom and my dad. Ever since I was born, they helped me with my problem that I have. Every day after school my mom would help me with my homework, because most of the time I don’t understand my assignment, that she knew how to do some math work, because I would forget how to answer my math, while my dad is at work. On his days off me and my dad would sometimes go fishing in the river or a lake, because he would like to spend time with. Other times we would go hunting for deer or bird, because it would be boring if we didn’t do
She was getting better and feeling good. This made everyone very happy. Within a year she was out of the hospital and she was cancer free. The family was very excited when we hard that. She would have to go to the hospital once a week for check ups but she got to go home. She was very happy to get out of the hospital. She was cancer free for six months and everyone thought she was going to make a full recovery. When she went into one of her check ups they found a small amount of cancer but they said they found it very early and that they hope to be able to take care of it. This hit the family pretty hard because we all thought she was doing really good. We just didn’t understand how it could come back after all this time. She just kept getting worse and she never started to feel better. She kept getting worse and after almost a year she
The fall of 2014 turned out to be the most formative season of my life, in terms of health. Drawing on the parallels between my father’s illness narrative and my grandmother’s illness narrative and the ways in which they deviate, I hope to articulate their health experiences in terms of gender discrepancies, medical pluralism, and physician expectations. In describing these accounts, I will attempt to highlight the ways in which these illnesses affected my family’s lives. In an attempt to be healthy, my dad and I resolved to consistently begin going to the gym.
From a young age I was scared of the authorities’, in my mind, the flashing red and blue lights were always coming to take my dad from away from me. Growing up, my dad was my best friend. He is to this day one of the most admirable and hardworking people I know, and I have the privilege of calling him my dad. Ever since my sister and I were old enough to comprehend my dad’s immigration status, I realized how much my dad has to struggle daily just to be in this country. Having grown up with a dad who could literally be taken away from me at any second has made me appreciate him, and everyone in my life.