Girl on a Mission's Personal Experience Narative

                     Hey guys! This is Girl on a Mission! So sorry about the delay on publishing this post. I had it partially done, but my grandparents were visiting from out of state. They left today, and I wanted to spend time with them yesterday. Thanks for understanding :-)

                   My Family's  Battle With Cancer 

 Valentines Day, 2013. It starts off as a normal day.  
  Dad goes to work like normal. 
  I do my school work.
  Then, I get a special treat! Mom and I get to go on a field trip to a candy, peanut, and popcorn factory! There was a boat load of tasty samples, a demonstration on how to make cotton candy, a lesson on popcorn varieties, and a behind the scenes tour. I was in my glory! When we were all finished and had gone to the car, my mom checked her phone ( it was noisy on the tour and she didn't hear it ring). She had a voice mail from her doctor.
  Let me back up a little. She had just hit the age mark where doctors recommend getting yearly mammograms. So, just out of precaution, she decided to get the mammogram done right away. A lot of people even wait a few years after the recommended age to start testing. Some people never even get them done! But my mom always errs on the side of caution. She had her mammogram done, and when the images came back, they said that there was something that they wanted to look at. The doctor told her that there was a good chance that the lump was just benign, but that they still were going to do a biopsy to make sure. It was scheduled for a few days later. The procedure consisted of the doctors taking another mammogram, but this time they made an incision and took a small tissue sample of the lump. Also, they inserted clips and wires marking the area of the lump in question. The tissue sample was sent to a lab, and my family spent an anxious week waiting for the results.
  Back to the voice mail. The nurse told mom that she should call her back as soon as she had the chance so they could give her the results. My mom knew as soon as she listened to the voice mail. Something was wrong. Why else wouldn't they have just told her the results through the message?
  We arrived at our house, and I went up stairs and played in the tent that I had recently built. It was huge, covering our entire bonus room. The sheet, chair, clothes-pin labyrinth had multiple chambers, with a rather intricate tunnel system in between. While I was enjoying what I thought at the time to be an architectural wonder, my mom was in her closet talking on the phone to the doctor.
  When she came upstairs, I knew that something was wrong. I asked her, and her reply was, "It's cancer." 
  When you hear news like that, you expect yourself to cry, to feel like your whole world has fallen apart. But it was strange. My mom and I just kind of looked at each other. We were both shocked, but really, that was it. Mom called my dad and he came home from work. We all just crawled in the tent that my dad and I had built and looked and each other. The three of us dug into the candy and popcorn that we had bought that day and then my mom said, "Well, at least we don't have to wait for the results any more!" We all giggled and decided that we would just have to get used to the word. If you were a fly on the wall, you probably would have thought that we were all insane: we were just saying it over and over "cancer" "I have cancer" "my mom has cancer." There was a weird peace that came over us. At the time, I don't think any of us really knew what it was or why we weren't all freaking out, but I believe that it was God's peace that brought us through those first few days of realizing what the road ahead looked like.
  My mom's doctor scheduled an appointment with an oncologist. He made a treatment plan, and told her that the next step was a lumpectomy. She was referred to a surgeon that specialized in breast cancer. They also lined up appointments with a radiologist that would begin after her first surgery.
  We couldn't have been blessed with better doctors. They would all get  together weekly and discus how the treatment plan was working and if any changes needed to be made.
  The lumpectomy was scheduled about a week later. The tumor was larger than they expected; it had grown all the way to the muscle wall of her chest. Luckily, however, it had not spread to her lymph nodes. She recovered as well as could be expected, and after her incision was healed, she began radiation. Mom went every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for a total of 37 treatments. I think that God has a definite sense of humor, because mom ( who was about as much of a morning lover as a troll ) had been praying that she would wake up earlier and be cheerful in the morning for a long time. What time was her appointment? 7:30 in the morning, fifteen minutes away from our house! We all had a laugh over that one!
   After radiation, she had a test to see if her margins (areas around where the lump was) were clear. They were!
   She was put on medication (Tamoxifen) to decrease the return rate, and went to the oncologist every three months.  Now she only has to go every six months, and will be on her medication for seven more years.
   Her response when asked if she would take back her cancer (if she could ) is, "I have grown so much from the experience, and I would never take it back. God granted us a peace that truly surpasses all understanding.  I used to worry about everything, but once you come so close to losing it all, you realize just how unimportant the little things are. We are never truly in control, God is. "
 I know that without the prayers of our family and friends and the mighty, loving God that answered them, our family would have never made it through.
   
     Until Next Time,
               Anna Palazzolo,
               Girl on a Mission