Like many people, something terrible happened to me. I had cancer...but I did not give up. I believe that every human being was created by God for a purpose. At that point in my life, I felt as if I had not fulfilled my purpose. I had to live in order to find out.
It was not easy. Those days that I spent at the hospital were torture. It seemed as if one day lasted a week, and a week lasted a month. I was trapped in this room, hooked on IV after IV, and my arms and hands were poked a million times. But that was not the worse part. What I hated the most were my chemotherapy and radiation treatments. I know that without the treatments I would not had a chance, but they made me feel so sick.
The first side effect was hair loss. As soon as my hair began to fall, I shaved my head. I just could not stand waking up in the morning and seeing hair on my pillow. Also, I was afraid to brush my hair. My sister helped me to decide to shave my head. She said that I would feel a little bit better. After she shaved my head, I did feel better. Then, a couple of days later, I was completely bald. For the longest time, I had long hair, so it was difficult looking in the mirror and seeing a bald head. For boys it may not be a big deal, but for girls it is, especially when you are a teenager.
The second side effect was nausea followed by vomiting. Because my treatments were so strong, I was always nauseous. I could not eat anything because I would always feel sick afterwords. Even the smell of food alone would make me feel sick. I lost about 20 lbs. I was already skinny, and losing all that weight did not help at all. I became a walking stick.
On top of that, all of the vomiting irritated my throat. There were days that I could not swallow food or water. My oncologist explained to me that if eating was too painful for me, I could have a feeding tube implemented in my stomach. I thought about it for a while, and I decided to go ahead with the surgery. My parents were against it at first, but after seeing what the feeding tube did for me, they were glad that I went forth with the surgery. Little by little, I gained most of my weight back, and I did not look like a walking stick anymore.
The third side effect was a low immune system. Chemotherapy did not only destroy my cancer cells, but it also destroyed my good cells, which included hemoglobin, white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. My blood counts were so low at times that I needed multiple blood transfusions. Since my blood type is O Rh negative, I can only get blood from an O Rh negative donor. Sometimes, they did not have my blood type available, so I had to wait hours before I could get a blood transfusion.
There were many more side effects involved, but the three side effects that I mentioned above were the most common. Those were the ones that were difficult to get used to.
Even though everything that I went through was a nightmare, I was in good hands. I received my treatments at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, and I do not regret being a patient there. The doctors and the nurses at the Goryeb Children's Hospital and at the Valerie Center were amazing. They always knew how to take good care of me and how to make me smile. For a cancer patient, being able to smile is the best thing in the world.
2 comments:
you are welcome......i can do it again if you like :P
your sister!
No, thanks! Once was enough :)
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