“My aunt and grandma went with me to talk to my doctor to try to get further understanding, but to be honest, I didn’t hear a thing she said. My doctor was in tears because she couldn’t understand either.”
‘I went to the appointment, and my life changed. Was I about to die? No, I can’t. I’m not ready! This doesn’t run in my family, and I live a healthy lifestyle.’
‘I had my first alcoholic drink at the age of 10. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2015. I drank to calm my nerves. The drinking kept escalating.’
“I returned to the States. I started drinking even more. My marriage was falling apart. When I woke up from the coma, I was still hallucinating. The VA had no inpatient treatment facility spot open for me.”
‘He had been diagnosed with cancer and wouldn’t make it to her wedding. She immediately made a decision to fly down there – wedding dress in tow – for his first chemo session.’
“I got the text, ‘My dad passed away this evening. I will treasure these forever.’ I couldn’t move. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING compared to the way her dad looked at her in that dress.”
‘At 18, it was traumatic to be told I was not going to carry my own child’: Cancer survivor, military spouse beats infertility odds to get pregnant with ‘miracle baby’
“Knowing cancer cells were multiplying in my body was a helpless feeling. She is a fighter already just like her momma, she is our miracle baby.”
‘It was a complete shock how a healthy 2-year-old, never injured, never had anything wrong, can go from being happy and energetic to diagnosed with cancer.’
“With his strength, I will continue to stand back up a million times over again, because he will beat this, and he is going to make a difference in this world.”
‘Our doctors have told us to go home and make memories’: Dad’s desperate plea for terminally ill daughter whose cancer treatments stopped working
“Nothing could actually be wrong with my child right? That just happens to other people’s children; not mine.”
What I want to say to my mom, who ‘drugged’ me
“Thank you for ignoring the people who judged you.”
‘There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for’: Mother, daughter bond through treatments for rare disease
“She is, by far, the bravest person I know. She is a warrior! She has had to push herself in ways she didn’t feel her body was physically capable of doing.”
