Transformative Speech: My Mom's Cancer

I have heard several stories of my parents’ relatives, close friends or associates who lost their lives in accidents to illness. These stories could have had different, happier endings, I often concluded. I know of an eleven-year-old girl diagnosed with Alopecia Areata, laughing uncontrollably after watching her doctor make funny faces. For a moment, not only did this little girl forget that she was losing hair, but her smile expressed joy and the beauty of being alive. At this point I thought that a doctor would not only work on treating the physical condition of the patient but would have a big role in bringing joy in spite of their hopeless condition.

Why do I want to become a nurse? Nursing, the one job everyone says that is so fulling, and will change your perspective on the world forever. I wanted to be a nurse since the time I was 10 years old, because I saw what they do for others every day. Becoming a nurse was so important to me because, I wanted to do something in my career that is interesting, challenging, and makes a difference in people's lives on a daily basis. The one person who always told me I can do whatever I wanted in life was my mom.

She was diagnosed with dementia but received treatment for leukemia. Once again she was taken advantage of because she could not defend for herself, but her son took care of it and she still fought for her career. She then was in her final stages of leukemia. She then died of Alzheirmer’s disease on January 20, 2012. Etta james was considered as one of the dynamic singers and is still well known today.

Florence Nightingale and Catherine McCauley are inspirational figures that many people look up to, even until this day. Both women have made a huge difference in changing lives by nursing patients back to health. Their work focused primarily on physically heal those who were injured, as well as maintaining their mental health by providing emotional support. These strong powerful women had the common goal of assisting the poor and putting their own lives at risk just to save lives of many other innocent civilians. ENDING SENTENCE Primarily, national news channels explain poverty around the world almost every week, and this problem has not been solved due to economic concerns.

My parents allowed me to grieve anything I needed to – loss of friendships, breakups, bad grades, moving, leaving home to go to college, etc. My sister got diagnosed with scoliosis and was given a back brace at the same time she got braces for her teeth. So, I remember my parents helping her through the grieving process of those changes. They listened to her and allowed her to cope with it however she needed to without trying to tell her what to do but they also tried to help her see the positives of it all. In chapter 6, Gutman says, “It I important to surround ourselves with positive people – people who are both respectful of our desire to enact change and who understand how to offer the emotional support we need” (Gutman, 2005, p. 90).

Now we come to the day that has totally changed my life. The day that my therapist had told me that whenever I was ready that I would be able to start hormones. My mom and I then went to my doctor and told her that I wanted to be recommend to and endocrinologist. Which we ended up finding a doctor his name was Dr. Newell he reminded me a mixture of Spook and Yoda which I really enjoyed. I would spend the next week waiting and waiting for the paperwork to go through.

She was soon transported to another hospital, Sheltering Arms. She was scared and did not want to leave Mr. Bevis. However, once she transferred she made not only new friends but girls who were as close as sisters. All girls were between the ages of 12 and 14. Over the next approximately 6 months, Peg made an amazing recovery and though she was the last of the 4 other girls to get to Sheltering Arms she was the first to be discharged to go home.

When she soon got all of the people’s attention on this subject, she got on the subject of woman suffrage. Many of these subjects caught people’s attention and expanded their eyes as well. In the 1920’s Helen and Anne traveled around the world on “fundraising tours for the American Foundation for the Blind, an agency Helen supported until her death” (Williams, Donna Glee). Helen Keller spent most of her life writing, lecturing, studying and traveling. Although Anne found the love of her life, Helen never found the love of her life, but She was once engaged to Peter Fagan but her family disapproved of this man.

I decided to talk to my mom about it, and afterwards I was glad I did. My mom told me that she also dealt with anxiety for a long time when she was younger. She gave me advice and really helped me out. And although my mom was very helpful about everything; my anxiety just got worse over time. I continued having anxiety attacks and they were escalating quickly.

Whenever I got there I walked in the door of my grandmothers house with a smile on my face because I was so happy to see everyone but when I was greeted at the door by my grandmother crying I knew something was wrong because she never cried at least not in front of me. I asked what was wrong but all she could say was go put your stuff down and and come back to the table there is something we need to talk about. For a second I thought I had done something wrong but it wasn’t me it was my aunt. She had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and was going to need a lot of

I asked my Grandmother, when you finally went for your scan and the results came out positive what was your first reaction? She answered in tears and said i immediately fell to the ground in shock, “I suffered through the treatment and ended up in breast conserving surgery were i got my left side breast removed, over a 2 months of healing after being in hospital for 1 week after my surgery, after a couple of months after my surgery i went for my weekly check up and the Doctor then informed me that i had to get a mastectomy done on my right breast because the cancer cells had spread too and also a bit just by armpit , i am now 77 and finally recovered from the removal of both my breast and now i am proud to say i am Cancer free but in saying that i will never again hesitate getting a check up to insure I’m well. Because my grandmother was a victim to this disease me and my 5 sisters have a great chance of also getting breast cancer. My grandmother asked me to research some of the symptoms that could possible indicate that i may have breast

We showed our support for breast cancer month by wearing pink jerseys, hair bows, socks, shoelaces, and sparkly monogrammed sweatpants. This reminded me of the importance of supporting the people you care about. I had to miss the team picture day to take the act and even though she was disappointed, Coach Jones still gave me so many words of encouragement, telling me that she knew I would do well. She would even periodically ask me how my college prep activities were going. Her sweet, uplifting nature made such a wonderful impact on me and I feel so blessed to have been a part of her volleyball team.

The results came back. My eleven year old sister, my Riley had juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma. This is a rare type of childhood brain cancer. My gorgeous little sister with long brown hair, and beautiful blue eyes that anyone can get lost in might not have children, get married, or even wake up tomorrow morning. My mother and I started noticing that she was having trouble walking, seeing and she was throwing up.

Unlike Jill, her mother was there every step of the way to nurse her back to good health. Many people who suffers any kind of health issues or accidents may not be so lucky to go home and recover well. It takes lots of motivation and dedication from others to completely heal. After reading this book, it paved the way of understanding the different areas of the brain affected after a stroke. The different OT Jill required during therapy treatments with the maximum assistants because the Broca’s of the brain was affected during her stroke.

Lauren Brooksby is Resident Assistant for 2nd floor New Heritage building 29. Not only is she a beautiful person inside out but she is also a great RA- someone that us residents greatly respect and love. Last month Lauren with other RAs and hall advisors organized a spa night for the whole building. Understanding that the residents have to deal with so much stress from midterms, she organized the program so that girls can have a fun night with friends and take care of themselves. It took Laurent and her coworkers 3 weeks to plan and organize the event.