Personal Narrative: My Case Of Cancer

Most people will experience something horrible in their lives. As a young child, I was ignorant to the idea that bad things could happen in my life. One cold day in November, my Mom said that she was feeling a little sick and had some pain in her neck. After some tests, the doctors came up with a diagnosis, it was devastating. Even after the evidence from X-Rays and MRI scans, my family was trying to find any reason to deny the truth. My Mom, Gricelda Martinez Ozuna, the strongest and most determined person I knew was fading away and I knew my time with her was shortening every passing moment.

I’ve never been the one that has liked people trailing their fingers through my tangled mess of hair, but seeing how Serra admired my long locks when her hair was invisible made me realize that these are the moments that are going to count on the day that no one wants to visit. If someone was listening to our conversations that night, they would have never thought that this girl was going through something so terrible. Out of all the topics we came across that night, one in particular still stays with me. Serra met a boy. A boy with a beautiful soul and deep brown eyes; however, he was also a boy fighting cancer. His name was Austin, and thankfully, he was going through his last round of Chemo. Serra thought the world of Austin. She told me how they would talk through all hours of the night, and how he escorted her for homecoming. When I told her to pursue the relationship, she quickly informed me that dying and having a boyfriend would be like oil and water. Not able to mix. I understood her point of view, but seeing the sparkle in her eyes and the way she always smiled when she talked about him made me realize even more that the cards of her life were not exactly played in her favor. Even while her body was slowly deteriorating, she was still looking out for others feelings and not her

Little Bella was born with a terminal disease, and she was not expected to live for long. As her parents make the painful decision to remove her from life support, they give her a final kiss only to be stunningly surprised by what happens next.

When my dad came home that evening he sat me down and asked me if I knew what cancer was. I had an idea so I just nodded my head, he went on to tried to explain to me how bad the cancer was that my mom had been diagnosed with. Seeing my dad so afraid scared me. The fear I felt then led me to realize that I needed to try and hide it because it would only hurt my dad more to see his children so upset. I did my best to help, I tucked my little sisters into bed while my mom was away at the hospital, read them stories and did the best I could at preparing snacks to comfort them. After my mom arrived home and she recovered from the surgery she started chemotherapy. The miserable treatment that attacks the cancer also makes her very ill. Every other week she was sick. Before every bad week I wanted to cry, but that wouldn’t help anyone. Lane and Kenna already were crying, if I cried it could only hurt my parents

It’s strange really, both me and Bella experienced the same loss, but somehow it’s different. Sure, it’s sad, and I feel like shit, yeah. But looking at her now, as rough as she’s taking it; I feel relieved.

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.

During the 2007 I got great news, I was accepted at UNC-Charlotte. Meanwhile, I had no idea 2007 my world would be turned upside down with bad news. My mother’s broth and sister were both diagnosis with Cancer. What’s most painful both siblings pasted away six months apart? Meanwhile, more bad news came my way when I mother was diagnosis with Cancer and Renal failure. I talked to my mother’s medical team, they voice they never seen where three siblings having cancer all at once in the same year, just months apart. Consequently, my mother survived her cancer just after two chemo treatments. I came home every weekend to help with her care. One promise to my mother I made was not to drop out of school, it was important to her that I finished

My husband and I were married for less than eleven months when our world collapsed around us. I’ll never forget what the doctor said, “Much to our surprise, it was cancer.” Seven words that changed our lives forever.

When I found out that my mother had cancer, I was in shock and did not know how to take everything in. She decided that her being diagnosed with cancer will be the best thing that ever happened to her, not the worst. At 37 years old my mother was diagnosed with stage I breast cancer. She discovered the cancer at a very early stage, which was very lucky and satisfying to hear. The way my mother discovered she had, it was an insane experience for the both of us. She started having pain in November of 2016 in her left armpit; she did not think of it as such a vast deal so she just ignored it. Nevertheless the pain got worse over time and eventually she went to see a doctor.

After a while of sitting in my grandparents living room mindlessly playing with my toys I decided to get up. I walked towards the commotion going on in the small hallway connecting the living room to the kitchen. The gathering of people consisted of my mom, dad, grandpa, and grandma. Curious about what was going on I walked over to the group. I reached my mom and looked up to see that her eyes were bloodshot, as if she had been crying. I looked over to my dad and his face, like everyone else's, was grim. During this time I kept hearing one repeating word, cancer. I started to listen more closely to the conversation going on around me because even at the age of seven I knew that cancer was bad news. I listened intently and heard my mom explain how she had colon cancer.

In February 2012, my junior year of high school, my mom succumbed to breast cancer. During her fight with breast cancer and after her passing, I made sacrifices on behalf on my family. I wasn’t involved in afterschool programs because I was cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and grocery shopping while helping my dad take care of my younger brother. Throughout my junior and senior years in high school, college was one of the last things on my mind. However my family and friends helped me realize that grades nor finances were holding me back from attending college but I was holding myself back.

At fifteen, all I cared about was hanging out with my friends after school, practicing softball, and admiring boys. Like most high school students, the most exceedingly awful piece of my day was school and homework. That was all spot-on until the day I found out my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer. My world came slamming down around me. Facing a disease, particularly an incurable one, leads to an emotional experience that is potentially life changing.

One day, I was on facebook and had stumbled upon a shared video about a cancer patient, who is now in remission, talking about her story. But as the video progressed, I noticed that the point of the video wasn’t to share her cancer story; she was actually introducing the idea that there’s an existing cure for cancer.

We took her to the vet and the doctor said she had lymphoma cancer. She acted totally fine at first, but as the weeks went on, she got worse and worse. Bella’s birthday is September 29th, but we knew she probably wouldn’t make it that long, so we decided to through her a happy birthday/goodbye party on August 20, with her best friends, our neighbor’s dogs. She had so much

She told me that she remembered doctors in white coats constantly hovered over us as they gazed with concern and made every attempt to mitigate the illnesses that my sister and I couldn’t overcome on our own. It was the toughest time for my parents and family but also my older sister who experience everything at the age of five. My mom spent nearly an entire month in the hospital with my sister and I. She shared, that with each passing moment, she could feel me getting stronger but could feel Madeleny slipping away. Every day since our birth, my mom looked into the eyes of her daughters and watched, with each breath, how our chest rose and fell in complete unison. She even told me, I once held hands with my twin and felt the strength of our bond. Now I was laying in the crib alone, waiting for her little hand to reconnect with mine; in the same way that we’d embraced one another in our mother’s womb. Her little hand never returned and it is something that has influenced every part of my life. On January 23, just a month and a half after our birth, my twin sister stopped breathing.