Living with Skin Cancer

My name is Riki and I am 15 years old and my aunt is fighting terminal cancer….my aunt is 38 yrs. old and has a wonderful family. A loving husband and a 13 yr old daughter. She was diagnosed with Skin cancer 2 years ago and was told she had 2 years to live. She went to many doctors appt. and was told many diff. results between each doctor. She had a surgery that removed the two very large lumps that she had beneath her skin. They then told her that the cancer was gone and mentioned that she should get her lymph nodes removed just incase because of the microscopic cancer cells. To her that didn’t seem necessary because they had told her that the cancer was gone. So she figured why pay alot of money and have a surgery that wasn’t needed? About a month ago she went back into the doctor for a follow up appt. and for questioning about a few more lumps that developed on her upper back. She was then told the skin cancer had spread again from those microscopic cancer cells and she now had stage 4 skin cancer that was at stage 2, two years ago. She was devasted, she didn’t know what to think. She then started getting tests done and getting blood drawn daily. I went to visit her with my mom and brother when we had found about the stage 4 cancer. Her mom died when my aunt was 7 yrs old and my mom was 9. So she was very prone to cancer and didn’t realize how serious it could be. After all the tests were complete she had an appt. with her oncologist which all the family attended. As we were sitting in the room the doctor started telling us what was found in the tests. We all sat there quiet anxiously to hear what she had to say. As she informed us about where the skin cancer was and the ways to treat it, towards the end of the visit she shocked us with the terrible news. It had already got to her brain. My mom and her brother started to cry and I tried as hard as I could to be strong and fight back my tears but I just couldn’t for much longer…As I glanced over at my uncle(my aunts husband) I saw him blinking as fast as possible holding back the tears. My aunt looked over at him and said ” I love you.” And right there is when reality hit and I didn’t know what to think. The oncologist told us that she would have 2 yrs. if she did go through with the chemotherapy and 6 months if she didn’t…..She hasn’t started Chemo yet but is starting in a couple weeks. My mom doesn’t believe that she should go through with the therapy because she said that after her mom did chemotherapy that she was in bed everyday very sick, until she passed away..
A friend of my moms passed away lastnight in his sleep from struggling with lung cancer…
I pray everynight for everyone in this world struggling with cancer…I feel that’s as much as I can do to help. I wish we could find a cure.
God bless