Personal Narrative: My Mom's Recovery Stage 4 Breast Cancer

She was not the most perfect person but her personality and the way she talked made everyone want to be like her. Anyone she talks to can hear her talk for hours. Growing up she did not have an easy life style. She struggled often but she always made the best out of everything. She cherished her life and all the little things that came with it. She always worked hard for everything she wanted and needed and I looked up to her because of that. I yearned for her life. Middle age women living in the big beautiful city of opportunity and working for the department of health in New York. That was everything I wanted.

It all started when I received a phone call from my mother in 1998. She had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. I was grief stricken, and prayed she would get through this terrible ordeal. Nineteen years later, and she is in remission and doing great. Fast forward to 2007. I was active duty military and had not been getting my mammograms as recommended because of the high risk of breast cancer, or any cancer for that matter. I was stationed in Colorado Springs, at the Air Force Academy. I scheduled the mammogram due to soreness and an unusual lump in my left breast. (Teresa Harris).

Being a cancer survivor presents many persistent challenges. Despite those challenges, I graduated high school with honors. Hope for an uncertain future comes in part from the salvation I find in being a college student.

Living with cancer is an enormous challenge, and most of us are encouraged to try coping skills like yoga, meditation and patient support groups. While I have found several techniques helpful, expressive writing has been surprisingly therapeutic for me. This seemed to come out of nowhere. I had published journal articles, book chapters and scientific papers during my career. I had even written a few simple rhymes for social occasions and business functions, but I had never considered doing any creative writing before cancer struck. My cancer adventure began early in 2014 when a large tumor was discovered in my head and neck. This explained my recent hearing loss and the jaw pain I had felt for some time. It was an advanced, high-grade cancer,

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.

It is incredibly difficult for a nine year old to fully understand the severity of stage four inflammatory breast cancer, but it’s nearly impossible when a doctor tells you that your mother only has six weeks to live. However, I can still remember the exact moment when I realized my mother was sick: I walked into the hospital room to find her tied up to machines and in excruciating pain. I froze. I wanted to help her, but how could I? The next few years were difficult. Between numerous surgeries and treatments, I spent my days in the hospital—doing my schoolwork and watching people run through the halls. It was there that I realized the incredible impact nurses have on their patients. To this day, my mother believes that without the help of

She was my inspiration to study abroad. That experience changed the path of my college career and I would not be where I am now if it were not for her. When I need someone to talk to about the anxieties of my heavy workload, she is there to fill me with words of wisdom and ambition.

My first encounter with death took place when I was seven years old. I remember hearing my grandma over the phone talking to my mom and hearing that my great aunt Linda had passed away. At the time, I thought nothing about her death, I didn’t have the best relationship with her and it didn’t really hit me that she was dead. Everyone in my family seemed shocked because she had good health and had just passed away in her sleep. When I went to the wake, I remember reaching in and feeling her skin and thought how it didn’t really feel like normal skin. The most important thing I can recall is feeling that I felt like she wasn’t really dead that she was going to wake up.

Being a divorcee, she devoted her life to raising me and giving me everything I needed to succeed, starting with a strong Christian environment and education. One of my fondest memories was of her taking me to Sunday school then going to her class. Guess what.... her Sunday School Teacher was my 1st grade teacher. I felt so good on Monday mornings when I walked into school, seeing my teacher's smiling face and, knowing she was my Mom's teacher too.

My mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer when I was in the seventh grade. School just ended and I remember running towards the playground, throwing down my backpack, eager to get on one of the swings. At the same time as I stepped foot on the playground I saw my brother getting out of the car and walking towards me. As I picked up my bag and got closer, I noticed tears in his eyes. I shifted my eyes towards the car and spotted my family all sitting anxiously waiting for me to get in. During the ride home, I kept asking my brother, two sisters and father what was wrong but they would not say a word till we got home. This is when I turned to ask my mother. Although she was smiling, telling me everything will be okay, I saw pain and sadness in her eyes.

Accordingly, Raising Hope sincerely thanks to benefactors for trusting and making us became a bridge to link donors with difficult people. We absolutely hope she could keep believing in herself, get optimistic spirit to fight and overcome the cancer

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

My mother has always been my best friend, someone that I can always talk to no matter what. It’s been hard being distant from my mother these past couple of weeks. Things aren't like they used to be. Looking back every

I always have a picture of her with me. Sometimes I doze off staring at it for twenty minutes. Losing my mom at a young age shaped my identity. I am who I am because of her. I have pushed through pain. I am strong and independent. I refuse to get knocked down. If I do, I will come back even stronger. Moving on doesn't mean forgetting; it means living life without the “what if’s”. I’ve grown to accept and value my life. You must appreciate even the little things in life because no one knows what tomorrow's events will bring. Everyone has baggage. Mine is just pushing me up instead of holding me down. I know now, that my mom is watching over my family and her legacy that I carry with me.

She was always there for me when it came to me and my dreams. At this part of my life singing was my saver, was my healer, was my joy and was my only hope. This part of my life was when I lost my childhood, my grandmother died she was my heart and when no one was there for me music was. When she died I lost hope in everything, to me the world took everything from me. I guess everyone thought I would be okay because I was still a child. But no one knew about the bond that me and her obtained, there came many times in my life when I thought about ending it all because I had no one by my side to help me. But thank god I had music, when Mariah Carey made the song “Bye Bye” it got me through a lot of the hard