Personal Narrative: Finding Yourself

“You have Cancer”. Something everyone hopes they never have to hear in their lifetime. Something I’m sure my parents never wanted to hear about their child. Or my brother about his sister. But that was my life. In April of 2007, three months after my ninth birthday I was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of muscle cancer. The next year consisted of countless rounds of chemo, surgeries’, and numerous doctor visits. Even with the determination to stay in remission my disease, unfortunately reoccurred. This led to another 6-months filled with chemo followed by aggressive radiation therapy which finally ended in August of 2009. Little did I know this wouldn’t even be the hardest part of my diagnoses.

This past summer changed my life. My health was more substantial in the past three months than it has been my entire life. Cancer is something that impacts everyone's life in one way or another, and this summer it was my own personal experience. Something that I never thought would happen to me did. After finding a lump on my neck I proceeded to go to the doctor expecting to be diagnosed with mono or some other flu like sickness. But after seeing the concerned look on my doctors face I quickly realized that it wasn't simply mono. A biopsy was ordered after countless inconclusive tests. The chairman of radiologist told me and my family that he was 95% sure that the swollen lymph node on my neck was cancer. After a long 4 days not knowing what the true results were I lie awake at night thinking about what the rest of my life will look like. Things that I have never thought about crossed my mind like: Can I have children? These 4 days was by far the longest of my life. I could not stop my mind from racing: Will I be able to graduate from high school? These four days I changed everything about the way that I acted. I spend less time on my cell phone and more time outside by the lake feeling the

Just four years ago Emily Dumler was living a happy and healthy life with her husband and three kids. Until one summer afternoon when Emily started to feel unwell, her sickness indeed up getting so bad that she checked into urgent care. From there no one could figure out what was wrong with her, and Emily had to stay in the hospital for forty three days, before it was realized that she indeed had cancer. Emily says, “Scott (her husband) and I were actually relieved to find out I had cancer because what I had been going through for the last forty three days was so rough and we wanted to find a treatment that could help me.

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

Summer of 2012, my grandfather was diagnosed with stage four Glioblastoma, and given only one year left to live. He had gone to have surgery earlier that week for the removal of his progressive tumor; his condition began to grow worse. The doctors got the tumor on the first try, but it was going to be a while before my grandfather felt back to normal. My family had many more trails and hardships to face in the near future.

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

Everything started when I was 6, when I got cancer at least that’s when I started noticing what’s going on around my world. It took 9 years to get the cancer “out’’ because it’s not really out of your body, cancer stays in you. Cancer was terrifying experience. It’s weird because one moment you’re in the house and from nowhere your life changes. The doctors told me I wasn’t going to make it, what kind of “doctor’’ tells a little kid that she is was not going to make it alive. My world stop I believe it is funny because at that point I didn’t knew what cancer was, so I was confused. I could only see my parents crying and I couldn’t understand why. After I couple of months a became an expert in this cancer subject. I knew my way to each room and the name of every doctor in the floor and the process a had to go through every day a 6-year-old that could tell what kind of quimioterapi they were putting inside her. Is in it weird?

I will never forget my last day in the hospital after being diagnosed. Finally after nearly a month of bad food and sharing a room with a four year old having just been diagnosed with cancer they were finally letting me leave. I almost felt out of place returning back to my home Pulling up on my driveway I felt scared; I knew my life had changed forever. I distinctly remember clutching at my wrist, the wrist where my hospital identification bracelet was as if I was missing something. I tried holding back my tears; however, the more I tried the more futile it seemed. I kept replaying the doctor’s voice in my head, the voice I overheard from the hall when I was supposed to be sleeping. “Your son is very sick. His life is about to change forever and it will take time for him to adjust “ the doctor said to my mom. Thinking back to this, I can only dream of discovering Emerson then; how much better these last few years would have been if I had. I could

Two years ago, my mother was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer. During this time there were countless visits to the hospital. Typically, a visit would consist of shed tears and painful discussions about the next steps, but not this one. Before I set foot into my mother's room I heard the laughter of my oldest sister, Jojo, and chuckles

Sitting across from the doctor’s desk, listening to him say the last three words no one ever imagined. You have cancer. The hard plastic chair and the atmosphere in the room suddenly feel colder as your body and mind go still. The doctor rambles on about the state of the condition, but nothing is absorbed. There is only one thing that needs answering. Is this curable? Cancer is a truly devastating verdict to be given and something no one is ready for. Every city, state, country, and continent in the world experiences great loss due to deaths from cancer. It does not discriminate between men and women, young or old, black or white. Dying from cancer is not how anyone would want

My outlook on life before this diagnosis is vastly different from my perspective today. From this incident, I realized that if I approach every situation with hesitancy, I would not be able to accomplish anything. Instead, I learned that sometimes, one needs to be bold enough to take a risk. Now that I look back, I am proud to have taken this big leap. With this experience, I believe that I will have the courage to handle future challenges with a strong outlook.

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have." Battling any kind of Cancer is rough. One of the most common cancer there are is a brain tumor. Brain tumors can change a persons life upside down because you have to battle something that inside of your own body.

Imagine for a second. In the midst of your 30’s enjoying what life has to offer. After all those years of being in school and putting in the hard work, a dream job was finally achieved. Along with that, a spouse and a loving family is also given. Life may be challenging but it brings many rewards. It seems like a rollercoaster that never stops going up, life couldn’t get any better. However, happily ever afters aren’t always as they seem. At a regular doctor checkup, horrifying news is told. A brain tumor has been growing for who knows how many months and terminal brain cancer is diagnosed. The doctors say that life will end abruptly in 2-4 years, the process is slow and extremely painful. What are the options? People who are

One fateful day at the end of June in 1998 when I was spending some time at home; my mother came to me with the bad news: my parent's best friend, Tommy, had been diagnosed with brain cancer. He had been sick for some time and we all had anxiously been awaiting a prognosis. But none of us were ready for the bumpy roads that lay ahead: testing, surgery, chemotherapy, nausea, headaches, and fatigue. Even loud music would induce vomiting. He just felt all around lousy.

I was born May 14th, 1993. However, my story really began on April 3rd 2011. On this day, late in the afternoon I was told I had Brain Cancer. After years and years of fighting senseless medical problems an audiologist located the source of it all; a strawberry sized tumor located at the base of my spinal cord, attached to the balance/coordination part of my brain. As a small child, I had rampant nosebleeds that would often cause me to pass out. At thirteen my eyes stopped being able to focus and the doctors all told my parents I must be lying, that my vision was perfect. At fourteen I started to lose my hand eye coordination, and a Carpal Tunnel surgery was performed. Even though I was never officially diagnosed