Imagine you were told you have cancer. Maybe you do; and if that’s so, my regards to you and your family. But if you don’t, I want you to just take a moment to imagine you do. Take a second to think about if you had cancer what your life would be like. Losing your hair, your energy, feeling like the world is against you. Just imagine.
Now, that you have, how do you feel? Are you depressed, saddened, maybe weak? I personally can’t tell you what it would be like or what it is like because I have never had cancer. But, over the past three years I have experienced what it is like to have someone close to you battling this disease, and after imaging what it would be like, I have discovered that imagining has always lead me down a negative path. Until now.
In the summer of 2012, my mother, Lori Zarycki, 52 years strong, was diagnosed with Stage 3 Gastric Cancer. She has been through 3 serious surgical procedures and is currently going through chemotherapy treatment at Abramson Cancer Center, the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in addition to treatments at our local medical center.
Since 2012, life for my mother, my family; it’s been no walk in the park. Currently, as I type, I’m sitting in the waiting room for radiology, surrounded by distraught faces, all longing for what I assume may be hope. But again, I don’t know what they are feeling, and may I be so fortunate to never know. Watching my mother during these past three years has been hard enough, so again, I can only imagine what it is like.
I can tell you this, though, I don’t have to imagine what this experience would be like without hope. I’m not going to lie to you all, that’s not my cup of tea, but I use to be very angry with the world because of this; faith was non-existent. However, after reevaluating my life and my situation, I discovered that being negative did nothing but bring not only myself but everyone around me down. Even though I wasn’t happy with my situation, I had to come to the realization that I can’t change things that happen. It took me a while to realize this, but nowadays positive vibes are all that I will allow to surround me.
The point of this article is not to call cancer a b*tch, even though it is, or ramble to you all about the depressing factors affecting my life, but rather to express to you all that if you are going through something like me, maybe personal, maybe family orientated, the key is this. STAY POSITIVE. If you can imagine your life in a positive view, then trust me when I say this, things will fall into place. As I am still sitting here, waiting for my mother to return from radiology, I shall leave you all by saying this:
Attitudes change everything.
Love Always,
Lex Paige
