The first time I realized something was going on was a couple of weeks before I got to know about it.
It was about six in the morning and Acha, my dad, walked into my room to wake me up to go to school. He gave me a kiss and as he was walking out of my room, I heard him sniffling.
At that time, I did not think much of it because my dad never cries.
As the days passed, I realized that my dad wasn’t himself. He wasn’t as happy and energetic as he usually was. That kept going for many weeks.
The truth finally came out one day.
We were at a park for my sister’s soccer practice. My mom and I were walking by a pond and we were just talking. Silence fell upon us and then she said it. “So, I have breast cancer and it is advanced.”
So after she told me about breast cancer she said, “I have been going to the doctors and have been getting the treatments that I need to get better. We also have all the support from friends and family that are going to help me during this time.”
It hit me so fast, I didn’t even know how to react. She looked at me with a small smile. She said, “You can cry, you know.”
I was so shocked, I just looked at her, my mouth agape. I could not even process what I was hearing.
We kinda ignored it, but that night I remember bawling my eyes out. I was so devastated. I was thinking about everything that could go wrong with cancer.
My mom started going to doctor’s appointments and started taking different medicines. This kept going for a couple of months until it was time for my mom’s surgery. I remember being so nervous that day. I was at school and I couldn’t focus on anything. My mom came home really groggy and tired. I was so happy to see her. Then, she kept going to doctor’s appointments and taking her medications.
During this time, my mom drastically changed her lifestyle. She stopped eating rice and stopped drinking milk. She started drinking healthy kale smoothies. Besides, every morning she did yoga. The result was instantaneous. She lost so much weight and the medicine wasn’t taking much of a toll on her.
During my mother’s surgery, she got her lymph nodes removed in one arm. That caused major swelling in that one arm. The yoga that she did helped reduce the swelling and pain in her arm.
Finally, the time for her PET-CT scan came. After the scan, we were all very anxious when the email came, I was with my mom. As she read it, a smile glided across my face. “There are no signs of visible cancer,” my mom read. We were all ecstatic. The appointments and medications continued. Our life continued not normal, however.
My mom still powered through her condition and she still gives us her love and affection. She is the strongest person I know.
At the beginning of this journey, I wish I had known that everything is going to be okay.
Featured Picture Credit: Pixabay, Geralt