The
Strongest Woman I Know
It was the
spring of 2012; Me, my mom, and our friends were on a week’s vacation in
Florida. We were having the time of our lives down there. Although, we soon
would be getting a call that would change our lives quite quickly. My Nana had
called my mother on a Thursday morning, to tell her the results of a doctor’s
visit from a few days before. I was
sitting beside my mother during the call, waiting to hear that everything was
fine, but her face told me otherwise. Her eyes fled with tears and the look on
her face became blank and worried. I knew that something had to be very wrong,
but what I didn’t know was how it would affect my Nana, the people around me,
and myself.
Nana is not
a typical Grandmother; I have become closer to her than I have my own mother.
There are things I can tell her that my family members, and even my friends,
don’t know about me. She is my true best friend. My Nana has always had ways of
making others feel better. She truly knows how to make you smile or laugh. The
first time you meet her you soon realize there will never be a dull moment. She
has been through a lot of hardships throughout her life. She lost her husband,
about 17 years ago, she’s had to deal with my mother’s bipolar disorder, my
aunt’s addictions, my uncle’s grudges, and way more. Although, no matter what,
she was always able to stay strong and she refused to let any of her loved-ones
see these issues, emotionally affect her. Nana gets along with everybody she
comes in contact with as well. She has been a Certified Nursing Assistant at
plenty of different nursing homes. She always made friends very easily. I have
yet to meet anybody who doesn’t get along with her. My Nana copes with humor as
well, she could be going through a terrible situation and yet she is just
trying to make others laugh. I believe this was to be sure that no one saw her
upset, because she hates when people see her that way.
Breast
cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissue of the
breasts. One in eight women is diagnosed with breast cancer, and my Nana was
one of them. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in both of her breasts, stage
4 in one breast and stage 2 in the other. I had never seen her sick before;
this was the first time in my 18 years of life that I had seen her gone through
any pain or distress. Once she was diagnosed, she had decided to get a
bilateral mastectomy; to get both of her breasts removed, so there would not be
a chance the cancer would return. I remember being at the hospital for that
surgery, I waited for seven long hours to hear from the doctor to tell us how
she was doing. I paced back and forth the hospital waiting room, assuming the
worst, when I should have been assuming the best. The surgery ended up going
well, as planned. After her surgery, she had a very long recovery process. She
had to take all kinds of different pills, and she had 5 drainage bags where her
breasts were removed. These drainage bags had to be emptied every few hours, we
had to measure the fluid when we emptied them as well. The bags made her
uncomfortable, and she was in a lot of pain for a long time. But, she pushed
through every bump on this long road she was facing. After her incisions healed
up, and the drainage bags were removed, she had to encounter 7-8 months of
chemotherapy. This was to be sure the doctors could kill all the cancer cells.
The chemo made her weak, nauseous, and very tired. It also caused her to lose
her hair. I wanted to take the pain away; I would have rather gone through this
for her.
Each year, an estimated 220,000
women get diagnosed with breast cancer, and about 40,000 will die. My Nana was one of the 180,000 women who
lived through this specific type of cancer. I am very thankful and glad that
she made it through this. She has officially finished all of her chemo. She is
starting to grow her hair back and she is gaining back all of her strength. She
is still weak, but slowly she will go back to how she used to be. Nana
eventually had healed up after all of that chemotherapy, and decided she wanted
to go through one more surgery to get new breasts. She went through the
surgery, and currently has new breasts. They look great and she loves them.
After the breasts she just received, have totally healed, she plans to
creatively go get tattoos for nipples rather than go get another surgery. My
Nana made it through breast cancer; she won this long and difficult battle. She
never gave up, she kept on fighting. I decided to go get a tattoo for my Nana,
it is a breast cancer ribbon in the shape of an infinity symbol and it says
‘Hope’. I got this because, my family and I never gave up hope on my Nana, and
we knew she would make it through this.
To conclude, getting that phone
call on my spring vacation in 2012 was the absolute scariest thing that I have
ever had to hear. When I found out my Nana had breast cancer I thought of all
the worst case scenarios possible. I should have thought of how strong she is,
because I knew deep down that she was able to overcome anything, even cancer. I
am so glad that she did. My Nana being sick has taught me to never take my own
life for granted. You never know how your life could turn out from one day to
the next. One minute you are out on the beach enjoying the summer air, and the
next you are getting a phone call from a doctor telling you that you are
potentially going to die. You really should live every day as if it was your
last. I also learned that I need to make sure I keep up on doctor’s visits. My
Nana skipped her mammogram and that year that she skipped it, was when she
developed the cancer. I need to be sure to get checked often, because if they
catch whatever is wrong with me, early, I have a better chance. My Nana is the
strongest woman I have ever come into contact with. Everyone has a hero,
whether its Superman or Batman. But mine is my Nana, she is my superhero. The
that she was able to overcome the surgeries, the chemotherapy, the stress, the
heart ache, the weakness, and all of the hardships that come with having cancer,
proves that miracles are able to happen. No matter what, there is always a way
through the bad times!
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