Today's the day.

Well today's the day. Today is the one year anniversary of the day I found out my mom had brain cancer. The day that everything in my life changed.

I don't want to seem like I'm dramatizing too much about how hard it is to be me. But being in a situation like this is really hard. Not just for me, for everyone who has a parent with a terminal illness. Trust me, it’s fucking hard.

I mean, imagine having left for college 2,000 miles away from home. And having planned the next four years of your life expecting to be at that school. And then one day during your freshman year, only one week into your second semester, you get a phone call telling you that your mom, the mom you had just saw one week earlier and seemed entirely healthy, had brain cancer.

And not just any brain cancer, stage four terminal brain cancer.

Imagine that your mom was one of healthiest people you knew, and now a doctor you've never met before is telling you that she probably only has 12 to 18 months left.

And as of today, it has been 12 months.

It’s been 12 months and I have hope. Tremendous amounts of hope.

I have hope that my mom will be part of the lucky 4% of Glioblastoma patients who survive past 5 years.

Four more years from today. That’s my greatest hope.

Four more years and my mom would see me graduate college. She’d see my sister graduate high school.

Four more years and she could help my sister get ready for her senior prom.

Four more years and there could be a cure.

Welcome

Hi everyone. Welcome to my blog, Coming Home To Cancer.

I titled it Coming Home To Cancer because I was away at college when I found out my mom had been diagnosed with cancer. And because of her, I decided to move back home.

She was diagnosed with stage IV Brain Cancer in January of 2011.

She was first diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), the most common type of Brain Cancer. Months later she was rediagnosed with Gliosarcoma, a type of GBM. Gliosarcoma is an extremely rare form of Brain Cancer, and researchers haven’t found any significant differences between GBM and Gliosarcoma. So for now, Gliosarcoma and GBM are treated identically.

The prognosis for GBM, and therefore Gliosarcoma as well, is only 1 – 2 years. It is extremely rare for a patient to live beyond 5 years.

Today marks the one year anniversary of my mom’s diagnosis.


One year ago, I was a freshman at DePaul University in Chicago. I had just gotten back to school to start winter quarter after a very long 6 week winter break. One week into classes, I got a call from my dad telling me that my mom had a brain tumor. A few days later they performed surgery and found out that the tumor was malignant. I knew I couldn't continue to go to school in Chicago while my mom was in California. I decided to move back home so that I could closer to her.

Let’s just say it’s been an extremely difficult year. 

With all the stress that came with having a parent with terminal cancer and being a college student, I began searching for other people my age who were going through something similar. Everything I found online was for young children or teenagers. College-age children of terminal cancer patients seem to be a forgotten topic.

I’ve created this blog, Coming Home To Cancer, so that other people in similar situations will know that I’m going through it too. I think just knowing that you’re not the only person dealing with the stress of having a parent with terminal cancer and being in college will hopefully be a great help.