The Treatment Of Breast Cancer Essay

Breast cancer is something that has personally touched my family and more than once. I have more than one immediate family member that is currently diagnosed with breast cancer. This alone,

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.

Cancer is Chronic disease in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems (NCI, 2013). Breast cancer in particular affects both women and men, though our focus is on Ella Miller who is the heart of the Miller family. Ella has been battling cancer for years now and even though she went into remission, the cancer has returned. This Situation is affecting her view on life and well as her family view on life with and without her. The purpose of this paper is to inform and introduce factual background of breast cancer, medical treatment options, suggestions of coping with this illness for the family and Ella as well as an outlook regarding the micro, macro and mezzo influences of the patient and family. This paper will educate Ella and her family on lifespan development and outcomes pertaining to breast cancer.

This past summer, I, along with my mother and father, travelled to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. My mom had been invited to participate in the St. Jude For Life Study because when she was around six to eight years old, she had a form of leukemia called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This particular study is to help all present and future St. Jude patients and help to research for a cure. While there, I saw first-hand how cancer can affect a family. You can just see all of the stress, the worry, the exhaustion, the tiredness, the fear, and the tears on the families’ and the patients’ faces.

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

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

It all started with our family sitting at the dinner table with my mom crying, holding crumpled up tissues with black streaks of mascara on it. My dad nervous enough to say, “Your mom has stage four breast cancer.” Those words have stuck in my head clear as a bell for the last eight years. Our faces of curiosity soon turned into fear. As an eight year old I didn’t understand a lot of words grownups said, but those burning words were sharp knifes on my throat.

Mrs. Sheena a 69-year-old religious Jewish lady, admitted in internal medicine ward with abdominal pain and intestinal obstruction. She was diagnosed with breast cancer that had metastasized to the liver and bone. She was treated with a combination of anticancer drugs without response. Her family consisted of five children, four of whom were married with children and grandchildren. One of the patient's daughters, a 37-year-old single woman, had been diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. After a lumpectomy, she refused chemotherapy because of her desire to have a child. She only told her oldest brother about her illness; it was their secret. Mrs. Sheena’s mother and two of her sisters died because of breast cancer.

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.

Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer almost 4 years ago, just a few months after her divorce was legalized. The diagnosis was devastated for her, she was terrified what will happen to her children and how she will be able to support them. Sarah said she didn’t think about herself, everything else was more urgent and important, especially because she didn’t have insurance and she was struggling financially.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among the world. Cancer affects almost every family in the United States and if it hasn’t then you should consider yourself lucky! I know that this terrible disease has affected my family tremendously. When I say that it has affected my family, I mean that it tore our world apart! Breast Cancer is something that I hold dear to my heart and will almost always be involved with in some way, shape, or form.

“No one can prepare a woman for the confusion of feelings that accompanies a breast cancer diagnosis. In one sense, women lose their entire identity as they make changes necessary to live with this disease. One of the realities of dealing with cancer is the grief process. According to Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, “You cannot short-circuit the grief process. It’s

In 2012 my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, for the following year and a half I watched my mother undergo multiple surgeries, daily radiation, and a variety of other intensive treatments. Throughout the entire process I watched my mother physically and mentally deteriorate. At the time my knowledge of the disease was minimal and not only was I fearful of my mothers future, but I was also unaware of the physiological functions that would overcome my mothers body eternally. Following a year and a half of agonizing and aggressive treatments my family received the news that my mother was officially in complete remission. Throughout my mothers battle with breast cancer my family and I met countless individuals who were

Breast Cancer affects one in eight of American women, and is the second most common cause of cancer death in America. I chose to write my term paper on breast cancer because it is a disease that has effected some members of my family. Due to this possibly inherited condition, I felt that researching the topic would help me learn ways to prevent the disease and educate myself to perform self-exams that may result in early detection.

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.