I transferred to the University of Southern California, August of 2016. I was super excited for this opportunity to achieve my Business goals at such a great school. During April of 2015, my mother, was diagnosed with Stage 2 Lymphoma. In January of 2016, I decided to finish the few credits that I had at Santa Monica Community College. This was due to getting an internship at Warner Bros. Records, in their digital marketing department. Moving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, was a very hard move, as you can imagine. Not only was I dealing with my mothers cancer, but in January, was when she had her first bone marrow transplant. From February to April 2016, she got a bit better, but in May she was diagnosed again and told that she need another …show more content…
I started USC with this stress of knowing that my mother was going to have another bone marrow transplant in the September. I emailed all my professors, introducing myself and letting them know my current situations. Most of them seemed supportive, so that took some stress away. On my first day of class I also introduced myself to my professors. When September came, I told them that I might have to miss one or two classes to to a bone marrow transplant. All, but one, were not supportive. One specifically, told me that I had to be in class, because class is much more important. I ended up still going to my moms transplant, because that is a life threatening procedure. Two of my teacher ended up becoming very hard on me. I am glad I am not the only one who saw it, as a few of my peers did. Two of the professors were Seda Durguner for Econ and Adel Javanard for Statistics. Not saying that they had to make this class easy or work around my schedule, but whenever I would talk to them, it is like it was a big deal or they wouldn't believe in the efforts that I had. Being in these two classes, especially Durguner’s burnt me out more that I have ever been. The amount of stress …show more content…
I was excited to start fresh and being able to recover from last fall. At this time my mother was cancer free, but had check ups and few treatments to do. Come late February, she was diagnosed yet again. At this time I was much more scared for her. My mom was a tiny lady and has been dealing with this for 2 years. Fast forward to spring break, where I went back home to be with my inspiration and fighter my mom. I was home for 3 days and came back to Los Angeles with my mom and my dad for 2 days, until they left. A few days later, I get a call from my dad saying that my mom was very sick. My mom was taken to the emergency room, as her bone marrow transplant was attacking her immune system (Host vs Graph). She was very weak, not due to that, but the chemo was giving her bad side effects. She had ulcers in her mouth, which causes and pneumonia and infection, which caused her not to eat. My mom was taken to emergency which led to the cardiac floor, which that Sunday led to the ICU. In the meantime, I was driving to the bay area, only knowing that a huge part of me was in the hospital. By the time I got to the hospital my mom was in the ICU. My mom was perfect a few days ago, so this was very hard to see. I am not going into too many details, it is really hard to talk/type about it. My mom, my life, my best friend, passed away April 10th. Due to this, I did
Living our busy lives no one else in the family could travel to Houston. Grandma was a strong woman. She could overcome anything and cancer was not going to defeat her. When she arrived at the hospital the doctors took a cat scan and figured out that she had stage four melanoma skin cancer. While my mother and grandma were at M.D. Anderson I was at home living a normal life just starting my first high school basketball season. Every night I worried about how she was doing not thinking about my school work or my athletics. A couple weeks later I called grandma and asked her how she was doing and she assured me that everything was going to be okay and that I should not worry about her. That’s how she lived. She never put herself first in any situation and family and friends were her main focus. Grandma would do anything to make her grandkids happy. I told my grandma I loved her and hung up the phone. The next day at school I looked up the percentage of people killed by melanoma skin cancer and the results were not good. One person dies of melanoma every 54 minutes. When I got home that evening I told my dad that I needed to be in Houston with my grandma. He said he didn’t think that he could make it happen with his busy schedule. I called my mom upset realizing that
A few months ago, she was diagnosed with leukemia and has been receiving Chemotherapy. The doctors have confessed that the Chemo has not had any impact, and found a donor match for a bone marrow transplant.
In December of 2010, my grandmother was diagnosed with a severe case of Mesothelioma. This news was incredibly overwhelming for my family because the oncologist said that the cancer had proliferated, and there was not much he could actually do. Later on, we found out she only had three more month to live. My grandma underwent chemotherapy for almost two months, but her condition worsened significantly. The oncologist demanded how her treatment plan would carry on, and never offered my grandma any choices. I wondered why my grandma was getting worse as the days went by. My fam...
While I wish finding my way around the school was my only problem, I was faced with some internal challenges. As the school year started, my friends slowly started to leave to these “big shot” colleges or simply move away to other community colleges. I, too, wanted the complete “college experience” somewhere in Arizona or across the country; yet I felt stuck and unaccomplished. I also felt jealousy which could have been because I did not get to decorate my dorm room.While talking about dedicating hard work to your education, Gina Rodriguez said “Just remember, during those times of fear and doubt, that you are right now discovering your true strength.” And in those times of doubt, I reminded myself why I could not just move and leave everything behind. The root of my challenges and concerns are my family. As I enrolled as a full time student, my family was fighting some financial problems which created marriage troubles for my parents. I could not leave at a time like this. I knew it was not the first time my parents were talking divorce but somehow I knew it was best to stay. I got financial aid from the school which saved me the fuss of asking my parents for money. It really meant so much to not put another worry on their
A cancer diagnosis can significantly change your life and the lives of your family in various ways. Hearing the news “you’ve been diagnosed with cancer” leave patients and their families in a whirlwind of emotions. The initial shock of this diagnosis leaves feelings of sadness, denial, frustration, confusion, fear, anger, and often times the “why me?” feeling. Thoughts start going through your head regarding how this affects yourself, your family, and your everyday life.
She’s been struggling everyday of her life for the past 10 years; battling and fighting this horrible disease has made it hard on her and her family. The cancer has now metastasized, making it difficult for her to take care of everyday responsibilities and participate in daily activities. Her 13-year-old daughter is watching as her mother suffers and becomes brittle and weak.
She had surgery to remove her gallbladder and remained healthy for the next few years. Although, her body can never seem to heal, because ever since my parents married my mom spend numerous weeks in and out of hospitals. One doctor performed surgery to see if she could even get pregnant not realizing she was already pregnant with my older brother. Both of my mother's pregnancies were difficult for her body, with severe migraine headaches, high blood pressure and serious issues with dehydration, which caused my brother and I to be born a month
My mother began to mention how she was feeling minor pain with in her pelvic area with occasional fatigue. Not wanting to take any risks, we set up an appointment with her doctor to get this checked out. After performing a biopsy, my mother was diagnosed with stage 2 endometrial cancer. With my immediate response being denial, my family and I began to freeze and slowly but surely found ourselves in a state of shock. It was the peak time in my academic year; I had to suddenly manage new and terrifying realities in my personal life along with my already challenging academic courses at school.
It has been about 2 weeks that she had got diagnosed and my family decided to take a trip up to Pennsylvania because we lived in Rhode Island at the time. After a long, exhausting five and a half hour car ride we finally arrived to my grandmother's apartment! We stayed with her for the next week or so taking turns to taking her to the doctor's office and going to the grocery store and running errands for her. One day she came back from the doctor’s office with more devastating news, she had told my family and I that her cancer had gotten worse and had bumped up to stage four which is the highest stage that you can get. She told us that the doctors said that she had about a year of life left to live.
I was diagnosed around 6 months after I was born. My parents were told I wouldn’t live to be 3 years old. Then after going
Some survivors of cancer are still scared about it coming back, leading that to a fear of recurrence, and even larger percent getting cancer again. Losing hope for a better life or even enjoying it can affect the present life. Basically they are afraid to trust themselves or those who are trying to help them. Sharing story with people that you care about most and talk about your problems with the doctor. Annis said “Being able to remember that fear like it was yesterday has helped me to be compassionate and understanding toward the newly diagnosed” showing her feeling after experienced it (18).
My dad entered remission long enough for his hair to grow back and to walk me down the aisle. Looking like is old self with his dark brown hair and mustache. He looked so handsome in his suite. I remember being so very thankful and happy that he was “ok” for my wedding. Little did I know that would not last. My dad’s remission only lasted 6 months before it came back with the news that it has spread to his
She began to suffer from hair and weight loss as well as the color change of her skin. My mind began to intersect with thoughts of her dying from cancer. I decided negativity would no longer control my thoughts; I had a grandmother who needed me to be strong and think positive about her condition, regardless of the situation and her physical changes. During the time of my grandmother chemotherapy treatments, I would miss school to attend her appointments. As a sophomore in high school, I could only miss a small amount of days before any negative effects displayed toward my grades. Therefore, I would miss school every Tuesday and Thursday for the next four months of my first semester of tenth grade. I didn’t mind because my grandmother meant the world to me and I would have done it a thousand times, if I was given the
I don’t think that biology played a large piece in my thoughts, feelings, or actions after this event. I felt fine when I was coming home from school, so I wasn’t sick. I wasn’t in a fight or flight situation, I just wasn’t expecting to come home to bad news like this. When they told me I was not totally shocked because I knew she wasn’t doing that well, but I had still hoped she would be okay. I think that the thoughts, feelings, and actions were more important than biology for this.
My professors and family will continue to support and encourage me along the way I will never be alone in this journey. There is no challenge I will face that I can’t overcome. I have learned in the last year and half of Community college how to