The world as we know it is full of giants: people, corporations, or diseases that stand looming and ominous over our lives. They may appear incredibly intimidating, but this is only at an immediate glance. Look past the rough and horrifying exterior of these giants, and you can see that they can be beaten with a combination of skill and cunning. For some people, this giant is cancer. This unforgiving disease ruins and takes millions of lives every single year, despite the countless dollars and hours that go into finding a cure. The thought of having cancer, or a loved one having cancer is absolutely devastating, as it is a very hard giant to defeat. However, with lots of effort and strive, it sometimes can be taken down. One person who learned this was my “aunt”, Lorraine Frankel. At the age of 38, my Aunt Lorraine discovered that she unfortunately had stage one colon cancer. At first, she followed normal protocol to eliminate the insidious disease, having the tumor, as well as some lymph nodes to prevent spreading, removed. Despite the fact that this treatment alone …show more content…
After four long years of more-or-less good news, the doctor was happy to announce that Lorraine was officially cancer free. She was still unconvinced; she begged and pleaded for more tests and scans to make sure that she truly had beaten this horrible giant. But the doctor still did not comply; he wholly believed that she was free from this disease. Suddenly, my aunt had remembered a specific cyst of interest on her liver that was found on some of her first scans. The fact that it had not changed told the doctors it was of no concern, but using this as a point of persuasion, the doctor agreed to run another scan. The results of this were devastating, her colon cancer had spread into her liver, but if it wasn’t for her incessant pleading, who knows how late it would’ve been
Cancer is a deadly disease that has some very serious effects on a person both physically and mentally. Cancer can result in a simple surgery that may take only a couple days, or a life-long struggle that leaves someone so fatigued and tired that it makes them want to give up. It will put fear in anyone's eyes and will devastate even the strongest of people, but cancer can bring out the courageousness in a person to fight this disease and not give up. It can be a fatal disease but it can also bring out the strength in someone which is an amazing thing. Cancer has many serious effects on a person's body and their mental health and others, but can also inspire a person to dig deep and fight this disease
Cancer doesn’t win. Cancer isn’t the victor, it’s the loser. Cancer’s purpose it to test our strengths, to see how far it can take us before we quit, its all a battle, and how it turns out in the end is completely by our view. People don’t lose to cancer, it losses to us. It’s all about how we fought it off. It should be about how we won it. For only four years in my life I have been able to speak to my grandma Judy, she died when I was only a child, so meeting her is only a few memories of many years ago. My Grandma was short, red curly hair, and a woman of many victories. I know that she was a true hero, victor, and a winner of many things, but most importantly, she was influential in life. She realized it wasn’t about winning it all, but overcoming her problems and adversities to reach her goals.
“Lets not call cancer patients as patients, they are cancer fighters. They are brave hearts” - Vikrmn, Gura. Nowadays, you hear more and more people getting cancer(13). It is a stress that many people worry about. You worry if one of your parents will get it. You pray your children don't’ get it. It’s a constant worry. You watch television and you can get this horrible monster from microwaving your food, drinking bottled water, carrying your phone in your pocket, using deodorant, coloring your hair and much more. Finding a cure for cancer would be a prayer answered for many.
As the cause of a painful death for six hundred thousand people annually, cancer affects nearly everyone in some way. Oncologist Vincent T. DeVita Jr., M.D. shares his journey while on, “the front lines of medicine,” and ,”reveals why the war on cancer is winnable- and how we can get there,”(front cover). Most think they know of the hardships cancer patients face, however, DeVita reaches knew depths to further the understanding of the disease to his readers by incorporating vast amounts of pathos and logos. Through over fifty years of extraordinary work in oncology, DeVita shares personal relationships with patients of his who survived and those not as fortunate. Since the fifties, survival rates of this disease lower every year, though
Just four years ago Emily Dumler was living a happy and healthy life with her husband and three kids. Until one summer afternoon when Emily started to feel unwell, her sickness indeed up getting so bad that she checked into urgent care. From there no one could figure out what was wrong with her, and Emily had to stay in the hospital for forty three days, before it was realized that she indeed had cancer. Emily says, “Scott (her husband) and I were actually relieved to find out I had cancer because what I had been going through for the last forty three days was so rough and we wanted to find a treatment that could help me.
The primary care physician referred Patient A to a medical oncologist. The medical oncologist examined Patient A cancer conditions and found out that the cancer is still in stage one. The oncologist clarified to Patient A and Patient A’s husband that chemotherapy is not necessary. He gave her a clear explanation of the risk that the cancer cells could spread to her lymph nodes if she did not start her treatment immediately. The oncologist answered Patient A questions with sympathy and respect.
Mia, a widow of the age of thirty-eight, knew something was wrong when her doctor, not the nurse practitioner, called her to set up an appointment for later in the week. The day of her appointment had arrived and she walked into the room that smelt of cleaner and sadness. The mere minutes she was alone her mind began to race with fear and anticipation. Once her the doctor closed the door behind him, her world froze. He was holding a clipboard that could hold one of two things, a death certificate or the greatest news she has ever heard. When the doctor began to apologize with a voice laced with pity she discovered which it was… The cat scan results had returned and it was not good, the cat scan showed that she has stage four pancreatic cancer
Imagine that within the snap of your finger the very tumor in your body, that was once rapidly dividing and taking over your organs is now gone. All because of a “cure”. Well, snap your fingers right back into reality. Although a cure is very much wanted, there is not one. The only “cure” is within ourselves, a simple lifestyle change. According to the Cancer Center, next to heart disease, the largest cause of death today in the United States is cancer.
“’So what’s your story?’” she then then replies “’I already told you my story. I was diagnosed when-‘” He interrupts and says “’No, not your cancer story. Your story. Interests, hobbies, passions, etcetera… Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who becomes their disease. I know so many people like that. It’s disheartening. Like cancer is in the growth business, right? The taking-people-over business. But surely you haven’t let it succeed prematurely’” (Green, 32).
My mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer stage IV last July. “I could believe what was happening to me, at the age of 44 I considered myself a healthy person, I was never sick, I never smoked, I was highly active and had a healthy diet. I couldn't find a possible explanation that justified this illness.” she said. It was really though for my family, we couldn't even say the word “cancer” for a few months. We became angry because we thought that my mom didn’t deserved that. The doctors were confident, even though stage IV of pancreatic cancer has 1% of survival rate in the US. In addition to that, my mom’s tumor couldn't be removed because the cancer spread to distant organs.
In September of my junior year of high school, my mom told me for the third time that she had cancer. She had spent the entire summer coughing. It was a bad summer cold or maybe a stubborn case of bronchitis. No one could seem to figure out what was causing the cough. A late summer bronchoscopy finally solved the case. It was cancer. Calmly, she reassured me on that September day, “It’s an early stage cancer. They say it’s very treatable. We’ve been down this road before.” The next nine months was a road that no one in my family had traveled. Frequent doctor visits, chemotherapy treatments, and hospitalizations became our new normal. We painstakingly watched as each round of chemo treatments devastated and weakened her. Through everything, my mom was resilient, tough, and determined to live.
When I was a kid, I always wondered why it took so long for an ill person to become well again. I always thought that if the ill person went to the doctor they would be back to normal the next day, but that’s not the case. For some people it took several days, weeks, months, and even years to conquer an illness but as a child I never could understand that. I don’t know how many times I’ve asked my mom or dad how come the doctors don’t get together and make a “miracle” drug that could heal anything and everything. It wasn’t until the age of 15 when my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer that I understood why it took so long for others to heal and the process that they had to endure in order to be healthy again. Shortly after my grandmother’s diagnosis, I started looking into what it would take to get a drug that would cure cancer through the approval process on the shelf to save some many others just like my grandmother. But I kept running into a dead end. Everything seemed to keep pointing towards chemotherapy and radiation. Although I wanted something to heal my grandmother fast, chemotherapy and radiation was the only solution if I had wish to see her watch me graduate high school. I went to almost every appointment with her to watch how it helped strengthen but also watch as it drained her energy. A month of chemotherapy and a few weeks of radiation and my
Cancer is figured to be the second leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. With approximately 14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer related deaths in 2012, alone .Why are so many people stuck suffering with this deadly disease? Millions of dollars have been invested into cancer research, yet there is no cure. Are these pharmaceutical companies focus on finding a cure for cancer or concentrating on elongated treatments in order to lengthen their pockets? We must first understand that cancer is big business earning huge profits. Nonetheless, the cancer industry is spending virtually zilch of its multi-billion dollar resources on effective prevention strategies, like dietary guidelines, exercise, natural remedies and herbs proven to cure cancer. Instead, it pours its money into treating cancer, not preventing or allaying it.
Cancer. We all know someone who has suffered from it or has passed away because of it. Cancer now affects one in every three people, and is the second highest cause of death in the United States. For decades, the medical community has been on the hunt for a cure for cancer, and have been subjected to intense ridicule from the public because of a lack of progression toward a possible cure. In recent years, many scientists, doctors, researchers, and the general public have come to believe that the cure for cancer is being suppressed because of this lack of progress. Those who say it is suppressed claim that the drugs used to treat cancer actually cause cancer, making a patient sicker and sicker. As a result, the patients are forced to spend
One of the many of the world's problems is sickness, but some diseases have no cure which can result in death. Cancer is a code we just can’t seem to crack and it has taken hundreds of thousands of lives. Everyone knows of someone who has died of or had cancer in their life. It’s a hard sickness to beat but many strong people do beat it, some being children. I have personally seen my family members go through this and of course, some didn’t make it out alive. If you have seen anyone who has cancer, you’ll see how it can take over your body, how that person doesn’t even look like themselves anymore.