How Multiple Myeloma Changed My Life

I am a firm believer in the idea that the most difficult experiences we go through in life are the experiences that have the most profound effect on the shaping of us as a person. One of the most, if not the most, difficult experiences of my life was when my mom was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Explained in this paper will be what happened, why it was difficult, and what was learned from this experience. Early on in January of 2016, my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells that are in a person’s bone structure. X-rays showed that there were multiple lesions spread all throughout her body. The news came as a great shock to my whole family and almost every aspect of life seemed to be in a state …show more content…
From our home in Kickapoo, Illinois, Little Rock is roughly an eight-hour drive. While this in itself was hard, the trips generally lasted three to four weeks in length which added an even greater strain. Something that was soon very evident in everyday routine is that there is a myriad of tasks and events that go into running a family. Many people do not fully understand the amount of time and effort that needs to be put into making a family function. Often times throughout the course of her treatment I would be in charge of taking my siblings to school, picking them up from school, and cooking dinner for them. Early on in my mom’s treatment my dad was working long hours at his job so there were instances where I would be tucking my little brothers into bed and preparing them for the next day as well. While these challenges were difficult and hard to power through, I learned many valuable and beneficial …show more content…
Time played a major factor in multiple instances. Since I had to integrate my siblings’ schedule into my own, I learned to manage time more wisely and use it as efficiently as humanly possible. There are various things that make a family function that go seemingly unnoticed but when one parent is an eight-hour drive away and the other is still working to provide for the family, you begin to notice all of the minuscule things that are in reality key factors. Taking those small things for granted soon goes away when you are placed in a situation such as this. Anything can happen in life, whether it be good or bad, it happens and life can be turned upside down in the blink of an eye. After having gone through an experience such as this, I have learned that it is more beneficial to work through the issue rather than throwing in the towel and giving