Nol's Peculiar-Personal Narrative

She seemed to start enjoying coming in for her appointments and I would look forward to the days she was scheduled, as a bond had formed between us. She continued to come in for therapy, and soon enough a noticeable improvement in function could be seen and it was time for her to finish her therapy. On her last visit, I remember feeling a mixture of emotions; while I was happy that she had achieved her therapy goals and recovery of function, I was saddened by the thought of not seeing her anymore, as I truly saw her as a friend. Although we have had hundreds of patients come through our doors, most of whom I was close with and looked forward to seeing each day, I will never forget Jennifer, because working with her was my first experience of just how important relationships and bedside manner are in a field such as physical therapy. Not only was this experience a major challenge I faced in my professional career, but it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career as

B. At St. Jude’s she had three years of intense chemotherapy. But what she remembers the most was how the staff treated her like their own family, daughter, son, sister or brother. She also said when she arrived Danny

Should he be grateful for the lack of pain? Scared? Well, scared is a given. It’s like his shadow, a companion he isn’t even consciously aware of. It just lies in the background, taunting him, there enough to make dread pool in his belly alongside the blood, but just deep enough beneath the surface that he can’t fight it off.

Instead, he kept walking away, his severed arm burning and cramping as if it was still on fire. The pain never abated and it was maddening.

"Just tell me how you feel after the treatment." reminded the physician as his patient nodded silently, well aware of how he was being used as guinea pig. The physician, an aged and weathered man of around sixty years, fetched two metal rods, both the size of toothpicks, one comprised of brass and the other of steel. "So you said that it hurt, here?" he questioned as he tapped on the patient's temple. "Yes, thats where it hurts, sir." The man answered, although slightly nervous, he had hear of these famous "Perkin's Tractors" and also of the physician standing beside him, "John Haygarth." Although the patient was not much of a scholar, he had heard of the physician, "One of the best of his time," he was called. While the client was thinking this, Haygarth slowly applied the point of the rod

He said, "'Look, we’re sorry you’re in this situation. We love you,'" Dr. Phil continued. "'We’re behind you and we want you to come back 100 percent. If things need to be talked about or discussed, there’s plenty of time to do that. Now, let's get you healthy. Lets protect your life and get you as much recovery as we possibly can because you don’t want residuals here. You don’t want to stop adhering to the medical regimen one minute too soon. You want to make sure that just because you’re up and having conversation doesn’t mean that you’re fully recovered. You got to do everything necessary to make sure that your brain is back online and that you’re doing what you need to do

“I’m now facing 12 months of non cancer IV chemo to regulate my endocrine system. It has weakened almost to the point of failure due to all the physical stress to my body. I need this time to receive expensive treatment to heal, get back to work, and write my book project about 50 years of medical disasters…oh and by the way…the 4 heart surgeries were due to defects I was born with…I was not smoking and eating pizza every day in my mother’s womb (laugh).”

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

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.

They leave and come back, again and again, with this or that complication, or because they need more chemo, or because they’ve relapsed. We get to know them, their families, even their friends. And because we know them so well, in such an intense and intimate setting, we end up caring about them.” (February 4, 2009, 11:25

My CNTRL-Z happened 4 weeks ago. It was when I broke my leg. I was at my moms friends house babysitting at the time. I was just leaving the house I slipped down 2 stairs. Than, me, my mom, and Austin went to the hospital. The people working at the hospital took my x-ray. And told me that my leg was broken. Although, when I was at the hospital, the doctor wasn’t there at the time. He was around the area still so he came back to help me. I thought it was pretty awesome, that he would come back for me.

Eric: Well that my family doesn?t want to see me, my cancer is aggressive and that I may loose my benefits from the state and I can work. How will I eat or even live?

After a diagnosis, the hardest thing, in my opinion, is dealing with how you view and identify yourself. You slowly start to take things from your self – your smile, your laughter, and your love – all because you start to believe that the diagnosis given to you is all that you are, and no more. You start to identify yourself as only the disease. With all these thoughts consuming my mind, I found my physician standing faithfully by my side. She made me realize that my disease was manageable and treatable. She explained my disease to me, by showing me how to manage it, by offering me unyielding support and encouragement, by showing to me that I was not alone, and by making me see that I was more than the disease. She made me recognize that I am more than just a disease; I am human. It was her actions and answers that kindled my interest in medicine and improving patient care.

He started to get itchy. He looked down at his arms and their wasn't a spot of skin on him. It was all red from bites. Rainsford started to talk to himself to reassure him he could do this. He almost screamed out but then he heard footsteps.

“Yes I am mom. You heard what the doctor said. I have three months. IF I’m lucky. Just listen to me mom, I don't want to be the girl everyone laughs and stares at. The one people whisper about in the hallways. I don’t want people to all of a sudden care because I have cancer, I want to do this my way. Please.”