Personal Narrative: How Cancer Changed My Life

Sometimes I ask myself how I overcame my disease. Many people with lupus experience fatigue, memory loss, loss of appetite. Usually younger African, white, and Asian men and woman develop that disease in their teens. It all started that night when I was laying in my mom bed. At that time I felt like it was my time to leave this earth. When I turn 15 years old I saw so many changes. . I experience so many symptoms while I was in my second semester. All the symptoms that I experience were hallucinations, fever, nausea, and nose bleeds. At that time I seen myself getting really sick. I caught strep throat and it was hard to focus in school because I missed so many days.

Everyone hears the word “Cancer” and automatically thinks death? Imagine being told you have cancer a month before Christmas and having to start chemotherapy right away. That was me at age 16 barely a junior in High School, they say high school is supposed to be a great experience. And it was at the beginning which was my freshman and sophomore year. I was that girl athlete with lots of friends who went day by day not caring about my health I would eat lots of junk food and stay up late at night. I come from a Hispanic family single parent my mom and 4 siblings 3 girls and one boy. Two had already gotten married and there was only 3 left at home including me. My mom would work out in the fields so sometimes she 'd come home late, therefore

“Sarah has cancer,” is a phrase that changed my life. I was barely ten years old when my dad picked me up from volleyball practice to explain why my little sister had been in the hospital so much. At the time, Sarah was eight and had been in and out of hospitals and various doctor’s appointments over the past two months to try and figure out what was going on. Learning she had cancer was both a relief and burden. The feeling of relief occurred because now we finally knew what was wrong, but it was a burden because you hear about cancer in the elderly, not in eight year-old girls that love sports.

There is nothing anyone could have done. My sister didn’t mean to get cancer, and she couldn’t have stopped it from growing. I just wish things had happened differently and that my entire family wouldn’t be turned away from me now.

When I was in 6th grade my Aunt Dana was fighting cancer, and had been for 3 ½ years, I supported her all the way through it. So we held a rally in Thompsonville to support her and show her how much she meant to all of us, and that if she could fight cancer and get up every morning knowing it could be her last than we can get up and fight our battles. She was my light in a very dark tunnel.

Have you ever felt so broken and lost that you believed you simply couldn’t keep going on in life, as if the barriers of your life caved in and suffocated the very existence in which you lived? This pain was all that I knew in the months following my grandfather’s loss to cancer in July of 2008. Fighting until his dying breath, it was a moment in my life that rocked and shattered my heart like fragile glass. His death required me to adapt to and appreciate life and showed me that no obstacle is to big overcome if you maintain hope and a positive outlook.

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

Everything in life can be associated with a color, happiness is a bright and inviting yellow, while sadness could be a dull and dismal grey. One afternoon, my twin brother, Chris, and I were sitting on the couch, smiling and laughing with one another. Vibrant shades of yellows and oranges surrounded us and made me feel safe and at ease. Our parents walked into the living room with somber looks on their faces, my mother looked upset. That was the day I found out my mother had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The Russell’s lifestyle was challenged now with a horrible plague my mother was burdened with. The prominent color present in the house went from a warm red to a darker shade, a color I associate with the threat of death. Something about that didn’t sit well with me.

I went in to go get a physical check up as I have been a mud obstacle course that raises funds for those with breast cancer. They have them every year. Two years ago, when I went in tor my physical a hard lump was found in my left breast. My primary care doctor sent me to get a mammogram. All I could think about how those in the past said it will hurt as your breast is being squeeze to death between two plastic plates. I had to answer a long questionnaire about my life. The breast care center wanted to know if I led some wild lifestyle involving alcohol or drugs plus more.

The topic of my mom’s cancer causes a crack in my voice and tears to develop in my eyes. Naturally, I would want to avoid the subject at all costs, especially in front of a large group. When my friend approached me about a Grief Camp she needed help with, I was hesitant to agree. She explained that we would be teaching music therapy to kids who have recently lost someone. It would entail me talking about my personal story, and helping kids handle their grief. After considering whether I should enlist in the camp, I realised that it would be completely hypocritical for me to volunteer with every other societal issue, and not the one that affected me the most.

I was born on November 15th, 2001 at 11:15am, I always thought it was cool how my birthday and the time I was born match. I barely remember much of my childhood. My earliest memory was smashing my head into a concrete flower pot, I was a toddler and the path I was walking on was cobblestone. A deadly combination. My mom said the bump on my head looked identical to the ones you see in cartoons and she jokes about how that accident totally messed up my brain. We’ve always been close, back in 2010 she was diagnosed with Leukemia and the way I found out wasn’t exactly ideal, it’s alright though because I really didn’t know what any of it meant at the time, I didn’t cry and went about my normal 8 year old life, she’s in remission now which is unbelievable

What’s one word that changed my life forever? Cancer. I never thought I would learn so much from what has happened to me. I found out how much you can learn from cancer, how it effected me and all the people around me and I what learned from being in this situation. My dads name is Daniel Kooima, but most people call him Dan for short. He works at Lems Auto Recyclers, in Doon, Iowa, as the bookkeeper. He loves working out in our garage on wood projects, fixing his Camaro and keeping up with NASCAR and local sprint car racing.

I am thankful to share that the PET scan indicated that my lymphoma is in remission. Going forward, I will need to see the doctor every few months and be scanned every six. We are praying that I will be cured from this and for continued direction, how does God want us to use what we learned during these past 6 months? God allowed this to happen for a reason and we do not want to forget the lessons He taught us or what He may be calling us to do as a result.

The world is full of unsolvable problems with undiscovered solutions. There are small problems in the world as well as big problems in the world. A big problem that everyone has been affected by is cancer. Cancer affects the lives of many but, still has no cure. My goal is help others find a cure for cancer even if I play a little part in helping researchers find a cure.

The whole trip I didn’t know what I was doing he had taken me to the hospital and I knew something was wrong. We walked in and we checked in. We went to room 231. When we walked in I saw a familiar face. It was my mother . I wondered in my why was she here and was had happened. We waited there for a while then my mother broke the silence by saying “son I just found out that I pancreatic cancer.” I was speechless... my mind went blank and I couldn’t think of anything to say. I left the room a little while later and waited. I could hear my mom and my father arguing, and the word I kept hear from my father was ‘money.’ I hated that my father cared more about money than my mom's life. Also while I thought about all of the good time that I had with my mom. It made me think of this time where I was scared in my room because the wind would blow the tree outside my window. The tree would scratch the window and my mind would think of the worst thing that might be outside even though I knew it was the tree. I got scared and my mom came and acted as if we were flying in a plane and the scratching of the tree was just an old man hearing aids.Another time was the thunder and lightning and I wasn’t able to sleep. See told me thunder was just a big clap and the lighting was someone turning on and off a really big light.