Every month, I sit with a group of women battling cancer. I know a lot of the different cancer treatments and drugs. I know the impact that this disease has on their bodies. They are strong, but their body is fragile and does not resist things like it used to do.…
At the age of three my mother was diagnosed with stage two of Adenocarcinoma cancer, and ventricular septal defect. At first i didn 't understand because i was a mere child but later on when i started school i began to realize that not only was my mother running low on time but also i was slowly becoming lost and confused of what was going on around…
What is a God? Is He a higher being someone made up to feel better when people did something bad? Or the “person” that is up in the sky waiting for us to join Him after we die? Or a real, loving, caring higher power whose always has your back? A Christian God is a God who holds all morals and who does not want to see His people hurting, but wanting them to succeed and have a great life.…
The late Diem Brown was a magnificent woman who had an energy and grace to her that would only be seen in fairytales. When she was just twenty-four years old, this self proclaimed dancing queen got cast to be on a reality competition show where she fought against other competitors in a series of challenges to claim a grand prize of two-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars. As her first reality TV debut hit, she hid a secret from not only her cast mates, but also from the world. This beautiful energetic soul had closeted the fact that she had been diagnosed ovarian cancer. Through here life she not only had to fight cancer one time but in all she battled against it for a heart wrenching three times.…
My faith has played a huge part in my life the last four or five years, and I had always had a strong belief that God lets everything happen for a reason. Three years ago this Halloween I lost one of the most important people in my…
She was thirty-four years old and 39 weeks pregnant when she was diagnosed with life threatening lung cancer. She and her husband decided to actively manage the tumor. They started chemo and kept changing drug after drug because it did not work. Another patient around eighty years old had end-stage respiratory and kidney failure. Her husband had died long ago with feeding tube and tracheostomy and she saw the pain he had undergone.…
I was by my sister-in-law’s side as she suffered through a terminal brain cancer and I watched her slowly wither away to a shell of a human. I saw the life slowly ebb out of her, behind a mask of pain and untold indignities, until she was unrecognizable as the vibrant person I once knew. Motivated by the thought of her son growing up without her, she fought with every ounce of strength in her body until the last day she was conscious, seeking every medical treatment available. Tragically, the cancer prevailed and her life ended one month after the tumor was discovered. Fortunately her suffering was short lived, but for many, the pain and indignities of a terminal illness can drag on for months, even years.…
When I was in the sixth grade my maternal grandfather was diagnosed Multiple Myeloma. I didn’t know much about what it was but I knew it was bad. It was cancer and as I sixth grader I knew that cancer was a scary word typically used to describe some sort of disease that would later turn fatal. My grandfather wasn’t given a sentence, none of us were sat down by the doctor and told we sound be preparing our goodbyes, we were told that the cancer wouldn’t kill him and to go on living a normal life.…
In 2007 my grandfather fell ill, he was in the hospital for weeks and barely able to sip ginger ale. Tons of scans, blood tests, and biopsies were performed, the diagnosis was cancer. We were told his abdomen was filled with solid tumors and they prepared us to say goodbye. There was no hope! Thankfully, through an amazing series of events, including some illegal behavior, my mom, a medical doctor, got a hold of my grandfather’s charts and scans.…
My grandfather did not want to disturb my studies so I was only told when he was already very ill, thus I felt was very important for me to spend his last moment by his side. It was during this time that I first began volunteering at the pediatric department of the hospital he was staying at. My grandfather’s cancer also spurred an interest in nonsurgical treatments of cancer that led me to shadow Dr. Simon Cheng, a radiation oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. In 2013, in the midst of multiple health issues, my mother was told that she might have breast cancer. Since my father was working in China, I took time off to be with her.…
Dealing With Adversity It was the summer before fourth grade when I was told that my dad had cancer. He was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer when I was ten years old. The day I found out was mostly a normal day. I was told in our dining room. For the next exiguous days after that I was depressed.…
The Grand Canyon is an awing miracle, but the most interesting thing about it is how it was formed. Water, simple and pure, was what carved the natural landscape of towering rocks. Hardships are like water, powerful yet plain, carving us out to be strong and beautiful. A hardship can positively impact a person's life because they influence outstanding personal growth. When I was seven, my grandma, “Nanny,” died of ovarian cancer.…
My aunt was lucky to be diagnosed early enough to have surgery that saved her life, but many patients are not that fortunate and die even if they undergo treatment. So many lives each day are touched by…
A few years ago my family faced one of the most tragic events life had thrown at us. My stepfather was diagnosed with Terminal Brain Cancer after he had unexpectedly suffered from a grand mal seizure one night at dinner. I, being so young, suffered from nightmares and anxiety due to witnessing all the pain he had to go through. After brain surgery, radiation, and many sessions of chemotherapy the doctors had told us he was now in remission and the cancer was at a minimum. A short three months went by and we had many great memories including my mother and stepfather having their wedding they had planned long before cancer interrupted.…
A death of someone is never easy to handle, especially when it’s someone you truly care about. Growing up, the subject of death was never really concealed from me. My parents were very upfront about it and taught me that it is part of life. I have experienced multiple deaths throughout my years, both of family and nonfamily members, but only 4 of them really impacted me and taught me lessons. I wouldn’t say that these experiences of death has made me numb to it, but has shaped the way that I handle and look at death.…