Hey, I'm Jess and I'm 17. My parents are divorced but my mum is re-married to her current husband. In October 2006, my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. She went for chemotherapy, radiation and was in hospital for a long time but she beat it.
There was a lot of support for her in her breast cancer journey. She had my stepdad with her all the way.
Her friends were also very supportive and were helpful with practical things like cooking. (My stepdad was always at the hospital with her so coming home to a freezer full of already cooked meals helped him out a lot.)
"After that Mum always went to the doctor regularly for check ups."
When she came back from a holiday, she went to the doctor for her usual check up. But something wasn’t right and the doctor told Mum to go the hospital.
I was out with friends when my aunty called me. She said that Mum was in hospital and that I was to go home to pack because I was staying with her for the night.
I went home and I had to get my siblings ready to go as well. After my aunty had finished calling family members, she came to collect us.
"On the 14th of February 2009, after a very rough sleep, Mum was diagnosed with Myeloid Leukaemia."
We decided that I should stay with my uncle, and my other brothers and sister should stay together somewhere else. I had to sleep on the floor for about a month with regular visits to the hospital to see Mum.
She then dropped a bombshell and told us that she had to move to Sydney for extra treatment, which meant having a bone marrow transplant. Mum’s bone marrow was infected with cancerous cells and all of it had to be removed.
Her brother and sister were both tested for compatibility to be donors. They were both matches which is excellent as Mum had a better survival rate if the marrow came from a sibling rather than a complete stranger.
"My uncle was the one that was chosen for the transplant."
Mum spent 3 months in Sydney with my stepdad in intensive care. They told us the odds were good that the transplant would work. Once her immune system had recovered enough, she was allowed to come home.
I used to think whenever I saw ads about cancer, that I have no idea what living with cancer is really like. Now I do. It's impossible to imagine how hard it is before you've actually gone through it yourself.
"Luckily, I have a great support group made up of my closest friends."
They do a great job of taking my mind off Mum. I really appreciate it because while she was going through treatment, I was stressing out way too much.
My stress was causing my family more pain, which was in turn causing Mum to stress out. And it was our job to keep her calm and get her to focus on getting better!
Trust me when I say, always tell the ones you love that you love them or one day it will be too late.
sourced by http://www.stupidcancer.com
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