How My Family's Sarcoma Changed My Life

It was a typical day in the McDougal household; my sister was acclimating to college life, my annoying little brother was pushing my buttons, and my only worry was whether I was going to pass my next bio test. My dad was getting ready for a business trip to Singapore but decided to stop by the doctors for a quick checkup for his abdomen. Scans came back showing that the bump on his belly button was metastasized Stage IV Liver Cancer. I was completely devastated and couldn’t comprehend how my role model could have so much chaos inside of him. It took weeks before I could go a day without crying as I thought about my future without one of my biggest supporters. It seems for every glimmer of hope for a new treatment, a new, insurmountable brick wall appears when the scans show the treatment’s failure. As cliché as it sounds, every day truly is a rollercoaster; some days better than others. However, we slowly have adapted to this new reality and have truly understood that falling down is a part of life, but getting back up is living.

This past summer, I, along with my mother and father, travelled to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. My mom had been invited to participate in the St. Jude For Life Study because when she was around six to eight years old, she had a form of leukemia called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This particular study is to help all present and future St. Jude patients and help to research for a cure. While there, I saw first-hand how cancer can affect a family. You can just see all of the stress, the worry, the exhaustion, the tiredness, the fear, and the tears on the families’ and the patients’ faces.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among the world. Cancer affects almost every family in the United States and if it hasn’t then you should consider yourself lucky! I know that this terrible disease has affected my family tremendously. When I say that it has affected my family, I mean that it tore our world apart! Breast Cancer is something that I hold dear to my heart and will almost always be involved with in some way, shape, or form.

In my narrative essay, I chose to write about an experience from my youth that has affected me as an adult. I explain the tragic and heartbreaking details of my father’s fight with Lymphoma cancer, and his eventual death when I was eleven years of age and every detail is true. Although the majority of the essay my pull on the reader’s heart strings, the main point made both in the thesis and at the end was that a positive lesson was learned that has impacted my life as an adult from particular event that took place the night before he passed away. This event was a time when I had to really reach into my being and show tremendous courage to hold myself together and not cry in front of my father, because if I had done so, he would have known that the cancer had spread to his brain, and that he was

I’ll never forget the day when my mom received the heartbreaking call. I was about to head off to batting practice. Something told me to come back in. As I went back into the house, I saw my mom on the phone, tears streaming down her face. She was shaking uncontrollably. And the next thing I noticed was the phone falling to the floor and making a deafening sound. I heard the words, “Does this mean I have cancer?” This moment was so surreal and I can’t imagine what my mom was feeling. However, my family didn’t run from this obstacle. We tackled it. Due to the depth and stage of the Melanoma, she

When I was 25 years old I became pregnant with my son Cayden. My sons dad and I did not work out; at the time I was completing cosmetology school, while I was in school I met my best friend Stephen. Soon after we graduated he was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, at 28 years old. At the time my life felt as it was in a whirl wind of bottled up emotion. Watching my friend go through all of the consequences that “cancer” has to offer has made my mind, body, and soul regrow into the person that I am today. When you sit sideline with someone going through all their chemo, blood testing, all the surgeries, as well as recovery; not to mention the impact the disease does to a person’s mindset, has made each breathe I take every day have more of a purpose.

I realized cancer wasn’t a curse, but a lesson for my entire family. Over time with chemotherapy, prayers and an incredibly supportive group of family and friends, my mother's health stabilized and improved. Every member of my family had been impacted in a unique way, but one thing we discovered through this process is that while physical pain cannot be shared, emotional support works miracles. I learned that life is about being thankful for everything we have and overcoming obstacles we face along the way while lending a hand to those in need. With new perspective, I decided to take the opportunity to volunteer at a local food bank. Through my experience there, you can see firsthand the impact we make and intrinsically it’s a rewarding experience.

Following her diagnosis, we went to the cancer center biweekly. My mother’s continued stoicism in the face of adversity moved me, as did the resolve of the other children who faced pain and uncertainty each day. Their wills inspired me; they adapted to live life to the fullest in spite of their illnesses. I felt my sister would be okay surrounded by others pushing forward. She endured five rough rounds of chemotherapy. The doctors said she had a three percent chance of living, but faith that she’d be healed kept us

Kate’s cancer journey was terrifying enough on its own but it lead me to my own terrifying journey. Kate’s breast cancer was not the only occurrence in my family. My maternal grandmother had succumbed to breast

I have always lived a peaceful life with no illnesses or deaths in the family. I was sheltered from all the bad diagnostics and serious illnesses in the world. I never imagined that something as deadly as cancer would hit so close to home, but it did. The moment my mom was given the news, my life flashed before my eyes. Would I ever be able to braid her hair again without clumps of hair being tangled and caught between my fingers? How would my parents be able to afford all the treatments and chemo my mom needed? These questions ran through my mind, but not a single tear ran down my cheek. The reason was because I knew that now more than ever, my mom needed me by her side.

Cancer is one of the most destructive and scariest diseases that anyone could develop. According to statistics, there is approximately a 38.5% chance of getting cancer in one’s lifetime. Even if you personally do not get cancer you will live through the destructiveness of cancer from someone close to you because cancer does not discriminate; cancer kills young, old, weak and strong. I myself have lived through this horrible experience and have seen how it completely destroys and tears a family apart. I have lived through all the pain it makes the patient go through. I have seen, however how medical staff bring family together, creates hope for the impossible, and strengthen a patient's will to fight, and that is what I want to undertake.

My unexpected transition from childhood to adulthood occurred in 2011 when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. For the next few months, my family and I would constantly travel for about one hundred miles to the treatment center. My mom had to have several surgeries. I watched as the energetic, vibrant woman I had known all my life slowly became more ill and exhausted by each month’s end. Eventually, the inevitable came, the big decision. My mother was given the choice to either undergo radiation and chemotherapy or have a double mastectomy. It took a great deal of discussion and prayer before it was decided that my mother would have a double mastectomy as well as reconstructive surgery.

I decided to write about this specific topic since it has been also part of my life. My grandmother was a breast cancer

Cancer: the scary “C” word that nobody wants to hear or talk about. We go about our lives avoiding it until somebody we know and love suddenly has been diagnosed. Yet, this is not how my story goes. I did not know Lucy before she had cancer. I grew to know and love her after her diagnosis.

My family altogether had always been loving, supportive, and strong. All of these things only increased when my innocent mom was diagnosed with breast cancer during my eighth grade school year. My mother’s love for me and my