My Children’s Heritage
This is my story of how cancer has affected my children's lives up until today. When they were born, they only had two grandparents left.
Their dad’s mom was diagnosed at the age of 40 with breast cancer and told it was untreatable, and this was only after she went to the doctor for 6 months telling him there was something wrong. She finally saw a new doctor from Stanford who did the right diagnostic tests and found out there really was something wrong with her. She lived for another 2 years after the diagnosis. If this had been caught early, with today’s medical care, she might have had a chance to survive it. Their dad was only 17 years old when he lost his mom, something no child should ever go through.
My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 47; the lump had a circumference of 10 centimeters. The doctors did not have a lot of hope but she underwent extensive chemo and radiation treatments for the next 6 months. At her checkup, the lump had decreased in size enough so that they could do surgery and hopefully remove all the cancer tissue. Surgery went well and she was cancer “free” for the next 2 years. After that is returned with a vengeance, but at least she had gotten that extra two years to enjoy her family and traveling. She passed away before suffering too long and still believing she could conquer the disease.
My dad was always a smoker and always coughing. Once his doctor had him go through tests to make sure his lungs were all right and they were. But 20 years later, and after having quit smoking for 5 years, he was still coughing. He started having really bad pain in his leg and they found out he had stage IV lung cancer that had spread to his bones and brain. He lived another 6 months and passed away 18 months ago.
I keep reminding my kids that they are very lucky they got to know their grandfather and that they need to remember all the fun things they did with him. We often talk about their grandmothers, too, and how much they would have loved to get to know them.
They do make sure that both my husband and I go for our regular checkups and screenings, which is a good thing. They could have had a completely different life had things been different, but I also believe that we should be grateful for what we have had and the people we have known in our lives, and I try to pass that on to my kids, too.
BK
Their dad’s mom was diagnosed at the age of 40 with breast cancer and told it was untreatable, and this was only after she went to the doctor for 6 months telling him there was something wrong. She finally saw a new doctor from Stanford who did the right diagnostic tests and found out there really was something wrong with her. She lived for another 2 years after the diagnosis. If this had been caught early, with today’s medical care, she might have had a chance to survive it. Their dad was only 17 years old when he lost his mom, something no child should ever go through.
My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 47; the lump had a circumference of 10 centimeters. The doctors did not have a lot of hope but she underwent extensive chemo and radiation treatments for the next 6 months. At her checkup, the lump had decreased in size enough so that they could do surgery and hopefully remove all the cancer tissue. Surgery went well and she was cancer “free” for the next 2 years. After that is returned with a vengeance, but at least she had gotten that extra two years to enjoy her family and traveling. She passed away before suffering too long and still believing she could conquer the disease.
My dad was always a smoker and always coughing. Once his doctor had him go through tests to make sure his lungs were all right and they were. But 20 years later, and after having quit smoking for 5 years, he was still coughing. He started having really bad pain in his leg and they found out he had stage IV lung cancer that had spread to his bones and brain. He lived another 6 months and passed away 18 months ago.
I keep reminding my kids that they are very lucky they got to know their grandfather and that they need to remember all the fun things they did with him. We often talk about their grandmothers, too, and how much they would have loved to get to know them.
They do make sure that both my husband and I go for our regular checkups and screenings, which is a good thing. They could have had a completely different life had things been different, but I also believe that we should be grateful for what we have had and the people we have known in our lives, and I try to pass that on to my kids, too.
BK