Over the weekend I went north to visit some family. My aunt has been battling cancer for quite some time and has been in the hospital for a little more than a month. I was hoping to talk to my aunt while I was there but it wasn’t meant to be. Earlier last week she took a turn for the worse. By the time I had arrived she only woke when the pain killers stopped. During the times she was awake she was delirious. She didn’t recognize her own family. She didn’t know where she was or what was happening.
They had to make a choice. Her tumor was inoperable and surgery wasn’t an option. She was far too sick for chemo and radiation. She was bleeding internally. She had an infection near the tumor and was on antibiotics – if it cleared the outlook was still grim. I watched them make the decision to end her suffering. They told the doctors to give her the medication required to stop the pain. There would be no going back.
Never in my life have I seen something so heartbreaking. It was the only choice they could make and it was the hardest decision I’ve ever seen anyone make.
Life is fragile and we never know when someone we love could be taken away from us.
In my lifetime I want to see a cure. Too many people I know have been affected by it: my father, my father-in-law, my grandmother, my co-workers, and my extended family.
I never want to see anyone suffer like that again. Cancer sucks.
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