My grandma's dying of breast cancer.
I found out over text the week of prom, my Junior year of high school. It was Stage 4 and things were going downhill fast. Pretty soon my family life became hearing about appointments, blood counts, levels, side effects, and lots of crying.
Do you wanna know the scariest part? She was originally diagnosed and underwent treatments back when I was little, the late 90's. She underwent radiation then and has the little tattoos to show it.
After living in remission, the cancer came back and metastasized to her bones. Instead of breast cancer cells living only in breast tissue, the cells had now attached themselves to her spine and collar bone, and radiation wasn't an option anymore. She was going to be a chemo patient.
The spring of my Junior year, I remember being so thankful that it was prom week, and I got to go get my nails done with some friends to distract myself. The fall of my senior year, I remember going on a college visit - then hearing that Grandma would be starting serious chemo treatments and spending the entire drive home researching places to help her find a wig. My graduation day, I remember bringing her a rose, crying because it meant the world to me that she was still there.
And it's still not over. Four years later, my Grandma is still fighting, going to doctor appointments, and now wearing a wig - and I'm still praying she will be there for my college graduation.
There's a lot of things I'd like to ask my Grandma. Like, how do you just stare death in the face? And what does it feel like to have your life depend on a drug, one that makes you feel awful? And what does it take to stay hopeful and to be happy?
To me, Breast Cancer Awareness is about knowing that 1 in 8 women, and their families, will be affected by this disease. A disease that they haven't yet found a cure for. But there's hope in the battle.
My grandma was recently one of the first patients to receive a new chemo drug, one that's giving her little to no side effects. She can go out to concerts, spend days with my grandpa, and only has to drive two hours to the cancer center once a week now. My grandparents even took a spur-of-the-moment road trip to Colorado this summer.
It's not easy to live in the shadow of a life-threatening disease, and we don't have to. All the medical research done has helped millions of people, and prolonged my grandma's life, but they still haven't found a cure. But like I said, there's hope in the battle, and the first step to solving a problem is to be aware that it exists.
So sometime this month, please use Breast Cancer Awareness Month as an excuse to wear pink, and help spread awareness for the cause. Help make the world a cancer-free place.
