Thyroid Cancer - Personal Case Study

Saydee Wheeler

September 8, 2015

Period E

Reflection

When I was ten years old my grandmother was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. At that age I had heard of cancer a lot and heard that it was a bad disease that can sometimes kill you but I didn’t know to what extent. My grandmother is 56 and living a healthy life today.

It was scary for a while and I didn’t understand all of the medical terms and what was happening when she was going to her doctor’s appointments. I just knew that my grandmother was sick and there was a possibly terrible outcome. Every night I prayed that she would get better even though she looked fine I knew internally she was not.

I was there during her surgery in the waiting room.  She was in there longer than expected and, I will never forget that feeling of sitting in the waiting room worrying. The doctor came out and said that they removed most of the cancer but there were so many nodules that they couldn’t get them all and that they were going to have to watch it and see if it spreads before they go back in.

A few weeks later I went with my mom and grandmother back to the hospital to see if the nodules had spread. The doctors said they didn’t. If the nodules had spread my grandmother possibly could have had to undergo chemotherapy and other treatments, which happened to another family member just recently. At that very moment hearing that my grandmother no longer had cancer, I experienced God. I felt that God was on our side.

I wasn’t very religious until that time because I never thought about it. My mom would pray and tell me to pray and I would go to church and hear about the stories in the Bible but I never truly understood. I knew that it was in God’s plan for my grandmother to keep living her life and I knew that God was with us that day and God is with us everyday helping us overcome the challenges we face