Backward-Looking Back Analysis

I chose to write an essay about the “Topic of Cancer” by Christopher Hitchens. In this short autobiographical essay, Hitchens discusses his experience with Esophageal cancer. Just one day after lanching his book “Hitch-22” Hitchens was made aware of his illness, where he later describes the news as “taking me from the country of well, to the stark frontier.” It was then he chose to write about his experience for the purpose of documenting the changes that he, and his body were about to go through with chemotherapy, and also for the purpose of contemplating his current situation. The reason that I chose this story is because of my own personal experiences that I have had with many loved ones in my life. There is one case in particular that stands out in my memory, among the rest. It was when my friend of many years discovered that he had a very rare form of brain cancer. Soon after undergoing chemotherapy, he lost his battle. There are many people that believe chemotherapy at any stage is the best, and often times, the only way to cure cancer, yet others claim that chemotherapy is not the answer at all. A close analysis of recent statistics can settle this debate.

Being diagnosed with cancer has impacted my outlook on life in many different ways. At first I saw cancer as a burden on my life and only the negative attributes stood out on how it was going to change my life and the way I saw people around me, but now after being two years cancer free, I have gone to realize the positive aspects cancer has had on my life.

In this article, Sarah Cotterill writes about how cancer has changed the way she sees and processes the world she lives in today. During this hard time of her life she has experienced both highs and lows throughout. Cotterill is only 29 years of age but feels she has the knowledge to speak in this topic since she has experienced it first hand.

Topic of Cancer by Christopher Hitchens is a powerful tale of a person diagnosed with cancer. Hitchens likens having cancer to a trip through a strange town with a strange dialogue. He says this best by saying “I see it as a very gentle and firm deportation, taking me from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of the malady.” (Hitchens) I am fortunate not to have a personal experience to measure the one of Mr. Hitchens but I do have several second hand experiences from the death of my Great-Grandmother, My Grandmother and my best friend Alice. I truly believe cancer is one of the lonely roads anyone must ever travel but like the Author adrift in Tumortown those close to the people involved ultimate have a piece of themselves live or die with them.

I remember thinking about how fortunate I was for having none of my family members to die from cancer. It was just another late night of working hard in the laboratory trying to find something. It was precisely 10 o’clock at night where I had never felt so accomplished. I had finally done it, I found the cure to cancer. At first I couldn’t believe my eyes when I had been reading the chart, but when I gave the antibodies to cancer patients their symptoms left and their cancer had been cured. I was 35 when I had found the cure and I lived in Iowa City, which is where I met my wife. I called my wife, Selena, and told her about my discovery and she started crying. It was a different type of cry..no it wasn’t tears from joy, it was tears from sadness. I asked Selena why she was crying. That day was never forgotten, not because of my discovery, but of the news that my wife told me. Our son passed away that afternoon from Lung Cancer. I was devastated. I went into a deep depression and I kept asking myself, “why couldn’t you have found the cancer just a couple hours earlier.” My story was all over the news, for awhile I never cared about anything but my son. I had received an extremely high number of money. I didn’t care about money anymore. I gave over half of it to people who needed it more than I did. I didn’t feel like doing interviews until about 6 months after his death. I learned something from my experience, In order to achieve your goal, sacrifices will need to be made. I found the cure to the most deadliest thing in the world but I had lost my most prized

Days dragged on and a sundry of treatments began. Relief escaped me upon acknowledging others close in age. Day by day sadness was vacated and replaced by hope. Words

No one thinks that it will happen to them. No one thinks that one day it might be them walking into the doctor’s office, only to hear those three horrifying words – “You have cancer.” To say that cancer changed my life is an enormous understatement. Cancer took me on an insane roller coaster for two years.. turning, twisting, jerking. I never thought it would happen to me. I heard those three lethal words, but they were not spoken to me. My father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December of 2014.

Six years and then four months. First ALS then Glioblastoma. Rewind. A lot is missing. My story has partially been told already in this portfolio called "A Love Diagnoses." Continue. Since the time of the essay I have passed. October 17, 2016. You see, the time before I passed, I was in and out of hospitals. So much had gone wrong and doctors could not even pinpoint a cause or a solution. A hypothesis, the multiple drugs I had been on were causing my organs to fail and liquid to build up in my abdomen. These drugs, however, were showing progress of shrinking the tumor in my head. But they had to take me off the drugs because my body could not take it. Miserable. So miserable. My kids would visit me. While they were in the hospital room doctors

Supporting my uncle through his fight with cancer was a life changing experience that opened my eyes to the rapid pace of cancer development and to how devastating it can be to families involved. My role in his time consisted of supporting him closely through his journey until his final hours. Although this was an emotionally draining experience, it taught me resilience and made me more determined to give the best support I can to people in

From a young age, when not in school I was in and out of hospitals watching while my mother battled cancer three times. She finally lost her battle with cancer just after her 60’Th birthday. During this time helping her with treatments and care was something I did regularly and willingly. It was during the hospital stays and doctor appointments I viewed first-hand the tremendous positive impact nurses have on the lives of their patients and family members. The nurses that cared for my mother also cared for me. They showed me

Ever since my mom died of lymphoma about 5 1/2 years ago, I have always been interested in other people’s cancer stories and their reactions like Fault in Our Stars or Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl. Jeffery’s reactions are most mature to any others that I have ever seen. Most people wouldn’t make anything close to an attempt, but Jeffery does ten times more. His side effects of his treatments are math abilities and a small limp. Jordan Sonnenblick experienced cancer in his life with a student that he previously had when he was an English teacher. The reason I chose this book is mainly because this is the sequel to a book that I previously read, Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie. Also, the synopsis or description of the book looked interesting.

Living with cancer is an enormous challenge, and most of us are encouraged to try coping skills like yoga, meditation and patient support groups. While I have found several techniques helpful, expressive writing has been surprisingly therapeutic for me. This seemed to come out of nowhere. I had published journal articles, book chapters and scientific papers during my career. I had even written a few simple rhymes for social occasions and business functions, but I had never considered doing any creative writing before cancer struck. My cancer adventure began early in 2014 when a large tumor was discovered in my head and neck. This explained my recent hearing loss and the jaw pain I had felt for some time. It was an advanced, high-grade cancer,

When I turned 11-years-old my whole childhood began to change my life went from being perfect to everything but perfect. One day I came home to hear the news my father, my best friend; my hero was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. Not knowing the struggle my family was about to take on I just began to cry. I had a million things running through my head what’s going to happen? Will everything be okay? Why him? What is going to happen? With all these things rushing through my head all I could do was cry not knowing this was least worse to come.

Hearing that Kevin had cancer, paired with the devastated expression on his face, my heart sank. The occasional heaviness in the air at the shelter seemed to amplify and words – of which I usually have plenty – seemed to scurry from my tongue. I sat with him, I listened to him, and I did what I could to show him that I

Did you know that 39.6% of men and women are diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime? Children and adults who have been diagnosed with the disease face physical, mental, and social problems. When you go through an adversity like this you develop, or realize that you were full of strength all along, weather you conquer the disease or not. Through all the challenges patients face while fighting cancer, I believe it's the physical, mental, and social challenges they face that help them realize the strength they've had inside of them all this time.