It's everywhere. You hear about it in the news, you probably know several people who suffer from it. It is that thing that most women either have, or know someone who has it. As for me, I live with that person.
People who live with breast cancer are some of the strongest people on Earth. And some of you who know from prior experience, it sometimes doesn't come alone.
My mom has breast cancer. She first got it when I was five. She was in the hospital for a few weeks, and I had to live with the story that my mom had the flu, because I wasn't old enough to understand it. When I was 10, my mom's cancer came back. It was still breast cancer, but it had spread to her liver. It was recognized when she had her stroke. Having a stroke is just as painful as breast cancer, it makes you very weak. My mom is the strongest person I know. She went through a stroke and cancer all at the same time. She has been fighting for two years straight. She is also very smart, but now her brain works slower than before she had her stroke.
Since my mom had a stroke, she had to go to rehab. It's nothing like drug rehab you hear people saying celebrities have to get. This rehab, the patient has to stay the the rehabilitation center. So I couldn't come home to see my mom everyday. The rehab place isn't much better than a hospital.
When someone close to you has cancer, it impacts your life. Every adult is asking you, "How's your mom?". The kids, in my case, notice your mom walking around using a walker, well at least for the first three weeks after rehab. But then your mom is sometimes woosy from her chemotherapy, or she is too weak to go outside and play catch and what not. I realized that until a few weeks ago, I hadn't played outside with my mom since it happened.
But it's not all bad. For a while my mom was only working part time and would pick me up from school everyday. My friends liked it too, because they then got rides home instead of walking or riding the bus. And of course you learn to adjust. The only thing I hate is when my dad pulls me aside to talk and one time, he told me my mom only had a month to live. Well look now, it has been six months since he said that. Another thing my dad said was that the doctors can't do anything else; it's time for God to step in. I think he is right there. Sometimes He is the only one who can help you.
But it seemed that all of my Elementary School teachers knew. They were always asking me how my mom was. And it seems that partially made it to Middle School with me. When our previous principal there died, I was called to the guidance room a few days later. I was trying to figure out why I was there, and realized it was because my mom had cancer, and that is what our previous principal died from; brain cancer. Yesterday morning my sister's boyfriend's mother died of breast cancer; three days after my sister's birthday. So we have to keep putting off her birthday dinner. We won't be having it until a week after her actual birthday.
So as you can see knowing someone with breast cancer can change your life some. But we always adjust. No one knows what it's like to go through that, until it actually happens. Honestly, I'm worried I will get cancer. My mom has it, and her mom had lung cancer. I think that having a parent who went through cancer makes your stronger for what happens in the future, and also makes you a little more prepared for if something similar happens to you.
All the good endings are taken.
Nolegirl6
