Personal Narrative: My Personal Experience Of Dealing With Cancer

Imagine the tragedy you had brain cancer with tumors coming left and right in your head causing untreatable headaches, or imagine you had terminal lung cancer where you are gasping for air and feel as if your chest is caving in, or what about stomach cancer in which you are unable to take a bite of food without vomiting uncontrollably…well these things are undeniable awful, but what if someone were to make you live each day of life this way? How bad would that be? Well this is something people in America go through each and every day.

African American history is filled with a plethora of contributions in the music, acting, and sport industries, but some young adults fail to recognize the African American contributions to the science field. For decades, minority women have been the most underrepresented individuals in science, engineering, and medicine. Being one of less than 100 African American women physicists in the United States, Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green has been an inspiration to me to pursue a degree in Chemistry. She once said, “It’s important to know that our brains are capable of more.” It is important for African American women to further their skills and know that they are a valuable part of the workplace and that their contributions to STEM is essential.

I really didn 't understand why the people in my life started to treat me way better now that they knew i had cancer. If only they had cared about me like this when i wasnt sick.

In the 1800’s, a cancer diagnosis was viewed as the equivalent of death (Holland, 2002). In this day and age, there was no known cause or cure, and it was considered inhumane to reveal the diagnosis to the patient. In a constantly changing and advancing society, this ideology was transformed as the result of an accumulation of technological advances, education, and research initiative. This led to the acceptance of the notion of cancer worldwide. As cancer continued to become more prevalent, health care providers and researchers were forced to further investigate the biology, development, and treatment of cancer. The interaction of cancer outside the realm of molecular and cellular biology became apparent in the mid 1900’s and has since found importance in the fields of psychology, neuropsychology, and psychosocial oncology (Holland, 2002).

Cancer is usually a terrifying word. Those who have never been told "you have cancer", will never really understand the weight of those words. Even if there is hope, being diagnosed with cancer can completely transform someone 's life. The intent of this article is to help you go through those changes with less turbulence and more balance.

Can you imagine going through long battle with a disease only to be told that you have only 6 more months to live. All of these thoughts and questions start running through your head and you feel like you’re dreaming or having some sort of out of body experience. Being diagnosed with a terminal illness is unimaginable, emotional and physically trying. Cancer is the number one leading cause of terminal death in the United States, to put that into a better perspective one out of every four deaths is cancer related. That’s about 564,000 deaths annually and 1,500 deaths per day. With that shocking statistic comes the thought of losing to this terrible disease that you’ve let define you for so long. That’s what Brittany Maynard thought until she came across the Death

The transition from eighth grade to ninth grade is one of the most difficult but unforgettable things a student must do in his adolescence. For me, it was filled with new opportunities of taking Ap classes and joining clubs. One of these cubs was Youth and Government (Y&G). For as long as I can remember my brother, Riad, has boasted about how amazing Y&G is and how it has changed his life. My brother is three years older then me, so as a freshman he was a senior in Y&G. I was so excited for the year due to the fact that i got to experience Y&G with my brother. Little did I know that senior year changed my brother.

For every one hundred thousand men, approximately thirty-six thousand and nine hundred will be diagnosed with some form of cancer and two hundred and eight of those cases will be completely fatal (National Cancer Institute). The statistics of cancer to many are terrifying, especially those affected in some way. Reactions vary from person to person when presented with such a murderer 's disease, whether they themselves are suffering or someone they care about is suffering. Many ideas are shared about cancer and much research is done but in simplicity, cancer is “any evil condition or thing that spreads destructively” (Dictionary.com). Although it is not only the sufferers of the disease suffering horribly but the loved ones in their lives too,

It could never actually happen to me, could it? A routine day as cliche as a 90’s sitcom, with the innocence of a young child, suddenly turns into a world of hell. No, it could not happen to me, maybe you, but not me. That was the thought of an ignorant and self-absorbed 16-year-old Charles Butler. Until one day, after a regular day of school, I am told by my mom that my father is sick. Okay, everyone gets sick, that is just a part of being human. As my mother continued to explain, she mentioned that my father will be starting chemotherapy this week to treat his lymphoma. As any teenage boy would do, I acted as though I was strong and unaffected, when in reality, I was confused. I’ve always heard about chemotherapy and other treatments, but

My body is my love letter and I am the author of my ownhealth !!

Each and every time my mother responded either by doing what I asked, like cuddling with me, or by answering my questions and saying, “You were deathly allergic to an antibiotic they gave you. You can’t leave just yet. Who’s Brunner? You missed the volleyball game last night and the girls are worried about you. Today’s Friday Jocey. You missed two days of school. Ryan had to go home because he had school today. He wanted to stay, but he knew you would be angry if he didn’t go to school.”

Why are there no lines? Why are there no goals? Why were the benches not moved? Just some of the things that went wrong on 9/12/15. That is the day my soccer team won 8-0 at our first home soccer game. The tensions were high and we were stressed no lines or goals. We had to move the benches all while trying to get prepared for the game. Coach Troy was running late as usual coach Nick was late for the first time and we were trying to warm up without him and get a handle on what to do about the field.

Warm salty tears rolled down my melancholy face onto my black dress, as I spaced out at my white sandals my grandmother had bought me. The ten-year-old mindset was to gaze around the room at all the faces overtaken with grief, constantly asking myself "Why do bad things happen to good people?" As a child not knowing the answer to this question was hard to understand the point of this lesson in life that has been thrown at me. Not able to bring my grandmother back to life was absolutely painful to watch as she was lowered into her grave. In 1996, my grandmother, Teresa was diagnosed with lung cancer, and she took her last breath April 30th, 2010.

Stood at the foot of a bed, on a sunny late July afternoon, I watched someone die.

Ron was a young school going boy, whose family was living the American dream. His dad had retired from army and had a life assured income. His mom left the job to be with her family. They moved on to Canada, US. They bought a house which had a pool. Dad started a second career in an information technology company. Mom got another job. Little Ron was soon enrolled at Little Whingin Academy. Ron looked excited to go to school. However, Ron, was becoming increasingly easily fatigued, and had fine bruises that had nothing to do with ordinary playground activities. In, 1999, May, he was diagnosed with the most advanced stage of neuroblastoma which is a rare form of childhood cancer, with very little time left to live. The Dream of happy life was