My Saddest Moment
That is the title that my daughter chose, as she was assigned to write a story of her saddest moment.
My Saddest Moment
by; Kamari S
It was a sunny afternoon on February 5, 2016. My mom had bad news, she said…let me start from the beginning.
It was a beautiful afternoon, I was watching TV when my mom had something terrible to tell me. She said “I have been diagnosed with breast cancer.” I was shocked. I had nothing to say. I was extremely sad and I did not know if my mom would make it or not because I’ve heard that people die from breast cancer. So that got me scared and sad.
3-4 weeks later she started chemo. Chemo made her lose her hair so my granny went ahead and shaved my moms hair off. During chemo she had little pain, so we just had to adjust to this and everything was normal again. A week later things got better, and then I knew that I will still have her with me.
When my mom went in for her first surgery, the nurse had to cut off her whole entire breast. Out of nowhere I broke down crying (this was at school).
After school my aunt took me to see my mom. She was still alive. 1 week later everything was getting better by the minute. Now I’m happy to have my mom back.
Resilience
Children are resilient and it was interesting to read my daughter’s perception of this time period. With children things are so temporary, and in this case that turned out to be a good thing. Talk to your children about your health and theirs as well. Because of my journey, my 10 year old daughter now knows how to perform a self breast exam and the importance thereof. Don’t assume children are too young or that they won’t understand. As you can read from my daughter’s essay, they understand more than we think. Their perception may be different, but it is their reality. We did our best to shelter my children from the really bad days of treatment, all the while praying that they would be over soon. In my daughter’s eyes everything happened quickly, but in reality there were weeks of testing, multiple doctors appointments, and unlimited tears shed.
As I embark on reconstruction surgeries, I have continued to be open with her. Fortunately, these surgeries don’t scare her as much as my mastectomy did. I am sure it is because I am free of cancer and on my way to being made whole again.
