Reflective Essay On Brain Cancer

It’s astonishing how one diagnosis can completely alter the life of a family. One day you’re looking to move into the fancy houses along the coast, and the next you’re forced to consider if you would be able to afford the same home with one income. When I was three years old my mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer. I was too young to know what was happening, but at the age of seven, when my mom was diagnosed for the second time, I began to notice a change in my family’s daily life. I was told not to sit on my mom’s lap and that she could not play with me as much as usual due to her Chemotherapy, but it was not until her third time contracting cancer that I noticed the pain she was in. I was fourteen when I finally learned about the very thing I had been trying to figure out for nearly my entire life. This burden has solely shaped the way I act and how I handle life’s many challenges, but how it accomplished this was not always a joyous experience.

The brain is made up of millions upon millions of cells. These cells are formed from before birth, up until about 7 years old. Once these brain cells stop dividing, they are never meant to divide again. You can see that the division of brain cells is under strict regulation and control. When this control is lost in a single cell, then it starts dividing in an uncontrolled manner. All of the data obtained through research on cancer shows that this disease is caused by a rapidly dividing cell, with no regulators to stop it from dividing. As the cell makes more and more copies of itself, it grows to form a tumor. This is known as cancer.

Everyone knows the disastrous effects cancer has on a person and their loved ones. Knowing that my mom was misdiagnosed, there could've been a moment when she may have still been here on Earth. During 2005, my mom noticed that something was wrong with her. This realization lead her to go seek a doctor at Lincoln hospital. During her examination, the doctors didn't noticed anything was wrong. After three years she went back again, and Dr. Max Ann examined my mother a second time,but this time he discovered that she had cancer. This

The American cancer society estimated that 18,500 people would be diagnosed with brain tumor and those 12,760 men and women would die of brain cancer in 2005.The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimated that 22,070 new cases of brain and other central nervous system (CNS) cancers would be diagnosed in the United States in 2009. The American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) clarifies this statistic further by estimating that 62,930 new cases of primary brain tumors would be diagnosed in 2010. By the year 2030, there will be 26 million new cases, and the death toll will reach to around 1.7 million people. According to World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 120 types of brain tumors.

James Hosmer was a fisherman, a hunter, a gardener, and an office worker. He thought he was healthy most of his life. He couldn’t wait to retire soon. He had worked his whole life to get to this point. Then tragedy struck, he went to his doctor one day because he was having pain all over his body. That pain ended up being cancer. The cancer would stop him from planting his garden, the cancer would stop him from getting that big fish, and spending time with grandchildren. The cancer would also stop him from his lifelong dream of seeing his daughter Susana Nwosu graduate from nursing school. It was a slow and painful death. The person that was once full of life, happiness, and energy was gone. There was just a shell of a person left. He

Each year, approximately 12.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer and unfortunately that number is not decreasing. My sister, Caitlin, was a part of that statistic 12 years ago, and to say her Ewing’s Sarcoma changed not only her life, but also my family’s would be an understatement. As a child, witnessing the deterioration of my sister’s health and the my family’s normalcy ultimately shaped me into the person I am today; a person that welcomes change with a resilient nature built on a foundation to never quit. I am blessed to say that my sister is flourishing and her cancer has been in remission and upon meeting her today, one would have no idea she ever endured such a relentless disease. Nevertheless in the past two years, my mother

When I was twelve years old, a close family friend of mine named Evan (who was my age) was diagnosed with brain cancer. At that age, I hadn’t been introduced to death and nor did I really know or understand what cancer was or that it was possible for people so young to die. Before his death at age thirteen, my sister and I would spend a lot of time with him playing videogames, watching movies and swimming in his backyard pool. We watched the process of Evan losing his hair, having cancer treatments, doing physiotherapy and becoming very weak and fragile and rejecting treatments.

While I was finishing up my freshman year in college, my father went through a major surgery in which he had to remove almost a third of his internal organs due to the visceral metastasis. His attending physician thoroughly but carefully explained to my family about his condition which equipped us with a greater understanding of cancer pathology. Although my father’s condition did not seem promising at that time, my family was touched by the empathetic physician who made my father’s condition sound very manageable and hopeful. I believe that my father’s quick recovery after a total of eight chemotherapy treatments was a miracle. Through his recovery, I became more appreciative of what the medicine could offer to the patients and their families that help them alleviate both physical and emotional

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 was a kid, I always wondered why it took so long for an ill person to become well again. I always thought that if the ill person went to the doctor they would be back to normal the next day, but that’s not the case. For some people it took several days, weeks, months, and even years to conquer an illness but as a child I never could understand that. I don’t know how many times I’ve asked my mom or dad how come the doctors don’t get together and make a “miracle” drug that could heal anything and everything. It wasn’t until the age of 15 when my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer that I understood why it took so long for others to heal and the process that they had to endure in order to be healthy again. Shortly after my grandmother’s diagnosis, I started looking into what it would take to get a drug that would cure cancer through the approval process on the shelf to save some many others just like my grandmother. But I kept running into a dead end. Everything seemed to keep pointing towards chemotherapy and radiation. Although I wanted something to heal my grandmother fast, chemotherapy and radiation was the only solution if I had wish to see her watch me graduate high school. I went to almost every appointment with her to watch how it helped strengthen but also watch as it drained her energy. A month of chemotherapy and a few weeks of radiation and my

Cancer has played an immeasurable role in why I want to pursue a career in nursing. It is by far the main factor, the second would be all the remarkable nurses that have touched the lives of both my family and myself.

“My mother was ninety- four at that time and if she had lived until August of 2013 she would have been ninety- five. She requested no life support or heroic measures at her time of death.”

I cannot describe what I felt when my mom told me she had cancer. I was sad, I was scared; I did not even know if I felt anything. My mom, however, stayed positive and hopeful while I stayed quiet and seemingly apathetic. There was an obvious ironic contrast between the emotional state of me and the woman who actually had cancer.

Brain cancer is a type of cancer that is located in the brain. First, the cancer starts out as a cell and then it progresses into a larger, more compacted bunch of cells which is called a tumor. Ultimately, cancer can start in different parts of the body and move to the brain or vice versa. Not to mention, cancer can take over any cell without any warning. Therefore there are many symptoms of brain cancer which include headaches, memory loss, vision problems, difficulty with balance, speech difficulty, personality changes or irritability, and seizures. The cause of brain cancer is unknown but there are many risk factors some of which are age, exposure to radiation, and family history .

We know that many face limited access to healthcare specialists. We know that there is a lack of information about promising new treatments. We know that so many face inadequate or no insurance. We know there are struggles with finding employment. And we know all about the physical, emotional, spiritual, and social struggles cancer survivors face. That’s why we are here. Join us this month as NOU provides great features for and by cancer survivors as we always do. And get ready for our inaugural print edition in July, that includes specially selected features from women survivors who are ready to share their stories, thoughts, hopes and dreams as well as struggles, and most of all, their courage and