Cancer, whats Cancer? Well, at the age of 6 all I knew was it making my father very sick and made many things stressful. I was in first grade and I know many people say they have a hard time remembering what they did in first grade but I remember this part of my life very well. My father was diagnose with testicular cancer in 1992 and I cannot exactly remember how my parents went about telling me but as things occurred they would sit me down and try their best to explain to me what was going on. All I understood was my father would be gone every other week to “get better”, aka chemo, he would lose his hair, we wouldn’t be able to play sports as often as we use to, and mom and me would be driving into Boston, MA a couple times a week.
At first my father had surgery to remove what they could and then that following October he started his 8 to 9 months of chemo. At the age of 6, it was hard for me to take in and understand why my dad had to be away from me/home for a whole week, every other week. The first couple of times my father came home after his week of treatments, he would be very tired, he would try his best to keep me company and play games with me while trying to help my mom with what he could around the house. His treatments took place at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, MA. Treatments would start on a Saturday and his last treatment of the week ending on Friday. When my mother and I would drop him off on Saturday, we would stay with family that live in the area so that we could spend the weekend days with him. His treatments ran through the nights and end in the mornings, so he would have the day to walk around and do whatever. During the week when my father had treatments, my mom and I would go visit a couple times a week and pick him up the on Friday nights or Saturday mornings. I can still picture some of the drives down with my mom, bright lights, bridges, LOTS of traffic, and always making my mom stop for bathroom breaks, haha.
.... to be continued....
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