A Day On My Life

Twelve hospital stays, nine surgeries, and fourteen years later, you would think this patient and his family would have had enough hospital stays for a lifetime. He grew up with type I diabetes, which later put stress on his kidneys causing them to fail. He desperately needed a kidney transplant. The patient is my dad and I was just the little girl in the hospital room watching it all.

When I woke up on April 3rd, 2011, I didn’t expect that later in the day, my whole life would be changed forever. I was aware, however that something was wrong.

In 2007 I was four. I was in my last year of preschool with Mrs. Valentina in the starfish room. I was completely oblivious to the events transpiring in the world around me and couldn’t wait to start kindergarten. Meanwhile, my parents were fighting tooth and nail to keep their jobs. 3 out of every 5 people in my father’s division were fired. They worked all day and night to keep their jobs for our family. My family was new and our parents needed steady employment to send my brother and I to a good school. Luckily, my parents kept their jobs by the skin of their teeth. However, my life was forever changed.

The day started off as a normal Tuesday in April with the exception that today was the start of DC Cas week. I was anxious and nervous but ready for the DC Cas because I’ve been waiting all year for this big day and now that day had finally came and I was more ready than I could have ever be. My teachers had been preparing me for this day and I wasn’t going to let them down. After waking up I got dressed in my uniform hopping that today would be a good day and not aware of what was yet to come. After getting dressed I proceeded to breakfast where the big news came.

Continually, my father would come home from work weaker and disable sometimes he could barely stand up. He started getting blurry purple spots on him and that's when I figured something wasn't the same about my father. He used to always carry himself with energy and laughter but, now he couldn’t get out of bed. We took him to the hospital and they told us he had stage 2 cancer. This experience has not only changed me as a person but changed the way I had to live for a while. When my father had to be on around the clock care at the hospital me and my older sister had to help out around the house. While most 4th graders were outside playing with their friends, I was inside everyday helping my mom cook, clean, and feed the dogs. I had to step up a lot and do more thing that i'm not used to because my dad wasn't around to help us out. We would go up to the hospital about every other night and stay up there and spend the night watching over my dad at night. My dad’s cancer taught me that life is too short to be wasting my time on the little things that aren't even important! I’ve realized l I need to make every minute and every moment

It was a typical Wednesday morning. I was getting ready for school and I was going to be wearing my very authentic shoes that I bought from Nordstrom. Today was going to be an amazing day because my family said we could go hiking after school. So I got ready and head downstairs to eat my breakfast. Today I had pancakes with some strawberries on the side. I ate my breakfast with delicacy because I just got my braces but I was so hungry, I basically devoured all my food. Then the time 7:45 am beeped on my watch which meant it was time for me to head to school. I picked up my backpack and catched the bus.

The sky was bright and the birds were sitting on the tree branches singing their songs. I layed in bed slowly trying to pull myself out of bed. It would be my first day back to school in 3 days. I reach for my phone to look at the time. 7:15. Schools already started so there is no point in going. The teachers will understand. I set my phone back down on the nightstand. After a few minutes pass by I hear my phone buzz. It’s a text from my friend, Britney.

I woke up the following morning and glanced outside my foggy window. I closed my eyes the sound of rain began to slam on the roof. I dragged myself out of bed knowing what this morning had in store. Today I had to say goodbye to Sam. I lathargically brushed my teeth and got dressed subconsciously, in a daze. When I walked downstairs, I heard my dad ask, “How are you feeling kid?”

On Monday October 29,2017 I woke up in Haverhill, Massachusetts at 7 in the morning, but that morning didn't feel like I was in Haverhill. I woke up in a daze,my mother on the other side of the door, “ Babez wake up it’s 7 now”. The daze could have been from the fact that I got an extra hour of sleep and I was too comfortable to get up, however it wasn't the first time I had slept in. While getting ready time seemed to be standing still, Completing my hair and makeup perfectly(...well to me) in under twenty minutes and I looked presentable,but I wasn't mentally there. Something was still off and I couldn't figure it out. Dismissing it I go downstairs to wait for my mom, we all know twenty minutes isn't enough for the majesty herself. I decided it would be a good idea to warm up the car and scarf down some waffles at the

The fear I felt just two days before my dad’s kidney transplant surgery, taught me to be strong. I was miles away from my family, yet I had one last exam before I could join them. When I was finally by their side, it was three hours into his surgery, and all we could do was share our feeling of helplessness. Now when I watch my father go back to

August 8, 2015 was the day of my graduation party, the memory stays vivid in my mind. After hours of creeping its way across the sky, the sun finally broke its way through my blinds and shined onto my face waking me up. Before I even opened my eyes to see what time it was I knew I had overslept. The night before I had promised my mom that I would get up early and help her to cook for the party. This was not the first time I had promised my mother that I would help her do something but only went on to let her down. Numerous times I had forgot to set an alarm or hit snooze one

My dad had been on the transplant list to receive a new liver for about eight months, when he suddenly passed away. When I heard the news, I knew I had one of two options, I could turn my back on God for what He allowed to happen or I could turn to Him for support and reassurance. I, by the Grace of God, chose to turn to Him during this troubling time and will be forever grateful for that decision. In that moment, I felt like the relationship we shared was so much greater than it had ever been before. He was no longer this individual that I worshiped once a week, nevertheless a part of me wherever I went. No two people deal with the death of a loved one the same way, but having Him there with me as I grieved, strengthened my faith and my relationship with our

He answered, "guys, your mother has cancer." As soon as he said the word cancer, my eyes began to tear up, but I knew I had to be strong for him and for my brother, who did not know how serious this problem was. As days passed, the news got worse, her treatments were too strong for her petite body, and her spirits of getting better where out the door. We continued going and struggling through this nightmare going to treatments and multiple surgeries she underwent. We would always pray for her,

I watched my grandfather struggle with Nephropathy, a kidney disease caused by diabetes. Large amounts of glucose make the kidneys channel an excessive amount of blood. All this makes it hard for the filters. After some years, the filters start to leak and all the useful protein is lost in the urine. Waste products then start to build up in the blood which then causes kidney failure. This becomes very serious because then a kidney transplant becomes necessary. I remember my grandfather was always in and out the hospital. He had been on the waiting list for a new kidney for many years. Because of his disease, he wasn’t able to do a lot of work. He only worked for about 3 hours a day just because he didn’t want to stay in the house all day. To keep him alive while waiting on the kidney transplant, the doctors gave my grandfather a lot of medicine to go home with. He had a whole container of medicine that he had to take every day. So with all that medication he had to take, it made it more difficult for him to do a lot of physical activities that he was able to do before he got sick. He finally got the transplant in 2012. Everything was going great for the first three months until he got an infection. My mother said the infection came from the surgery room. The infection got really bad after a few months and he passed away. Watching him struggle in pain for so many years while waiting on a kidney was painful. It was sad to know that he did all that waiting only to die after

Finally I rolled out of bed after I let my mind wander into the more fanciful things about a highly unlikely future. I suddenly plummeted on to the hard wood floor but thankfully a mountain of clothes cushioned my fall. This sure woke me right up. After a while I picked something out to wear. That day in particular I remember that I wanted to look less like a child and more “adulty” as I used to call it. For some reason deep in the back of my closet I surprisingly had something that was calling out for me to wear proudly. I started to smell my mother’s usual breakfast for Saturday morning but it smelled a little different this time, so whilst my stomach was rumbling and grumbling and my mouth started to salivate to the oh so delicious smells coming from the kitchen, I quickly finished getting dressed. I then ran downstairs in a hurry to