Personal Narrative: My Mom With Stage Three Breast Cancer

Through all of the challenging things that took place while my father was fighting cancer, I learned many valuable lessons. My parents decided that my father would undergo chemotherapy and radiation at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Newnan, Georgia. Normally, they would be gone for about two weeks at a time, but there were a couple occasions that my parents were forced to stay there for months due to major surgeries. Home alone in Florida, my brother and I had very different schedules. So, I was alone most of the time. I was only a sophomore in high school, and I found myself having to do pretty much everything on my own. Even though it was onerous, this time in my life is very meaningful to me. It taught me that I will not always have someone to rely on. Even if it was a little earlier than normal, I am thankful that I was forced to become as independent as I am today. I value this chapter in my life, because I believe that being strong and independent is very critical to being able to survive in the world we live in

Continually, my father would come home from work weaker and disable sometimes he could barely stand up. He started getting blurry purple spots on him and that's when I figured something wasn't the same about my father. He used to always carry himself with energy and laughter but, now he couldn’t get out of bed. We took him to the hospital and they told us he had stage 2 cancer. This experience has not only changed me as a person but changed the way I had to live for a while. When my father had to be on around the clock care at the hospital me and my older sister had to help out around the house. While most 4th graders were outside playing with their friends, I was inside everyday helping my mom cook, clean, and feed the dogs. I had to step up a lot and do more thing that i'm not used to because my dad wasn't around to help us out. We would go up to the hospital about every other night and stay up there and spend the night watching over my dad at night. My dad’s cancer taught me that life is too short to be wasting my time on the little things that aren't even important! I’ve realized l I need to make every minute and every moment

In September of my junior year of high school, my mom told me for the third time that she had cancer. She had spent the entire summer coughing. It was a bad summer cold or maybe a stubborn case of bronchitis. No one could seem to figure out what was causing the cough. A late summer bronchoscopy finally solved the case. It was cancer. Calmly, she reassured me on that September day, “It’s an early stage cancer. They say it’s very treatable. We’ve been down this road before.” The next nine months was a road that no one in my family had traveled. Frequent doctor visits, chemotherapy treatments, and hospitalizations became our new normal. We painstakingly watched as each round of chemo treatments devastated and weakened her. Through everything, my mom was resilient, tough, and determined to live.

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.

For my mom, the last six months has been a fierce battle against cancer which was discovered in her breast. First there was the mastectomy to remove the tumorous breast and then the chemotherapy

After many intensive surgeries, chemo, and radiation, my mother was left to tend to my father. She spent every day either in the hospital or taking care of my father. She did everything from changing his dressing to putting his socks on. After going bankrupt, losing her father, watching her son leave, to taking care of her husband as he laid on a hospital bed fighting for his life, I have never seen anyone more strong in my lifetime to this

The summer of 2015 brought many memorable events for me including celebrating my sweet sixteenth birthday and passing my drivers test. However, my mother’s diagnosis of breast cancer and her journey fighting that awful disease was the event that most marked my transition from childhood to adulthood. I have a very close knit family and before my mother’s diagnosis, everyone had been very healthy. I guess I took a lot for granted including my family’s health, and I didn’t realize or consider what really was important in life. Prior to my mother’s illness I was a typical self centered teenager, not really concerned with anyone else but myself. I had always seen my mother, a full-time nurse, as a strong person who took good care of herself and her family. When I first learned that my healthy 48 year old mom had breast cancer, I was so scared. The thought of losing my mom made me feel very vulnerable. However, I soon found an inner strength and courage that I never knew I was capable of possessing.

This was even worse to watch. I wanted to help but I could never help with that. I was alway interested in what people would call, the gross and grimy stuff, but I thought this stuff was interesting.This gross and grimy stuff was stuff like her scars. She had to change her bandages at least twice a day so my step-dad was a huge help with that. My step dad was an such an amazing person. I am so thankful for him and everything that he has done for us, especially in this time. It was really hard not worry about my mom. But her surgery wasn't the worst of it, she had chemo every two weeks. This is what I think was the hardest for her. She had to go back to work and please everyone when she was still sick. She would have poison injected into her for about 3 hours. She lost all her hair, this included eyelashes and eyebrows. She would always say look how ugly I am or bash on herself and we would always respond that is not true or give her words of encouragement because i could see her falling. I could see her loving herself less and less, I could see her not being the happy person she usually is. Knowing her situation anyone would have probably acted this way but it was hard to watch for

I never thought I would be affected so deeply by one word. Cancer tore my whole world apart in what felt like an instant. When my mother was diagnosed, never did I imagine it would take her away from me. I was essentially just a child who never thought about death. Let alone, the death of the one person who is responsible for bringing me into this world. I went through a lot during the course of a couple months. From the doctor’s appointments, to multiple hospital environments, then finally getting the call I never thought would come. One thing that I will carry with me is not having my mom there to witness all the important things happening in my life as I get older. The most difficult thing I had to cope with was I had to grow from a child

A few years back, life threw a curve ball at my family. My mom had been diagnosed with cancer. Skin cancer to be more exact. She was diagnosed with Melanoma which is the only skin cancer that is deadly. This experience taught me to always help others and when one faces a challenge, never back down.

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.

My Mom had Breast Cancer. She was a funny, brave, and loved dogs, heck! She is still like that to this day! But she was mostly brave I love my Mom and I never will stop and the thought of losing her back then was scary, I probably would have died too. That’s why it was a very tough and scary time for me and my family, but we pulled through this together as a family. I was six years old and my brother was either four or five. Because I was so young I don’t remember everything. Today my mom is a survivor and is cancer free.

This time, my mother pulled me aside to tell me she too had developed cancer. However, this time was different. With all the new information on cancer, they had the ability to find my mother’s tumor before it progressed to a dangerous proportion like my grandmother’s tumor had. Diagnosed as stage 0, my mother’s treatment was straightforward, and I was not worried at all because I knew her cancer was treatable. This feeling of security I experienced was due to the research conducted by the thousands of scientists trying to discover a cure. My gratitude is owed to them.

When my mother told me about her diagnosis, I was in disbelief. No one thought a frail old women could possibly survive more than a few months on the rigorous treatment that is chemotherapy. The doctors were not optimistic, my parents were not optimistic. Even I imagined saying goodbye to one of the people I love most in a few months. I expected her to lose. I expected her die. The first few months

When I was 8 years old my Mother got diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  The hospital soon became my home, every day after school my Dad would pick me up and take me to the hospital to see my Mom.  I sat there and she helped me with my homework, I went trick or treating in the hospital, I had dinner there every day, the nurses became my friends, when I was sick the nurses would bring me a popsicle and a sticker and I always felt much better when I saw them, it was my home and I adored it.  I loved the busy-ness, I loved my extended family visiting, I loved all of the blinking lights, I loved seeing the doctors and nurses running around, I loved sneaking off with my brother and exploring other wings of the hospital, our favorite was going to the