My Grandmother's Battle

In the summer of 1999, when I was 13 years old, my life changed forever. When my grandmother began to not act like herself. I knew something wasn't right when I asked her what was wrong, she began to explain that she felt exhausted, and she couldn't eat without becoming sick and losing whatever she ate. She couldn't sleep because the pain in her right shoulder and right arm made her very uncomfortable. The family thought nothing of the pain in her body, we just thought that she had worked too hard and pulled a muscle. She began going to the chiropractor for the pain, but that didn't work so he sent her to the hospital for blood tests and x-rays, the results were devastating; it was cancer.

        She had a lump on her back the size of a large egg. A couple days later she went to see an oncologist, who gave her many exhausting tests. She took pills for the pain and to stop the vomiting, she was a different person from then on. She would just lie around the house, never cooked, and did not want to do anything.

        She did not want to tell the family until the doctors knew exactly what was going to be the outcome of this sickness. The doctors told her that she had a rare cancer, and by rare I mean that muscle tumors very rarely turn into cancer, hers did.

        Because of this my grandmother went through extensive blood tests and chemo treatments. While going through this she experienced vomiting, headaches, and times that she could not get out of bed.

        Finally the doctors told her that this cancer could be put into remission for years; she was very happy, thankful for God, and modern technology.

        My grandmother finally told...