Early last December I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Yes it was quite a shock. I was at the time only 21 and had never heard of anyone my age that had cancer. It took the whole month for them to find out exactly what kind of cancer it was and how far it had spread, or what the best approach would be to treat it. I am not going to go into full detail here for times sake, but just wanted to put onto paper some thoughts. I will though give a brief background of how things went.
I was diagnosed out here in Utah, and in January had to move home back to California. The cancer had spread to my lungs so I had to undergo chemotherapy. Chemo lasted for 9 weeks and was one of the most intense treatments out there. Needless to say that it wasn't the funnest time of my life. To be honest, it wasn't as bad as everyone thinks it is. Yeah, you get sick, but I wasn't on my death-bed.
When the chemo treatments were done in late March, the tests showed that the cancer was gone, so I moved back out here to Utah to go back to school for the Spring/Summer terms. Now understand that before I moved out to California to do treatments, I was financially stable. I had a job that covered all my expenses and even earned me enough to have some spending cash. Chemo changed all that. I gave all my money to my parents because for four months I was going to be unemployed and would need them to support me. Now that I am back out here, I am starting from scratch with my finances and trying to get back to financial stability as soon as I can. I now have a job, but am still relying on my parents to cover my bills until I start getting paychecks.
From this I am learning that I hate depending on others for support. I can't wait to free my parents of the responsibility of paying for things that they don't have the money to pay for. It makes me sick to have to make that phone call to Mom telling her that my tuition is almost late. I am forcing myself to live within my means and even hate calling to say that I have no food or gas and am at my ropes end. I love my parents for helping me, but can't wait and am working hard so I can live off of my own money and they can enjoy theirs.
I was diagnosed out here in Utah, and in January had to move home back to California. The cancer had spread to my lungs so I had to undergo chemotherapy. Chemo lasted for 9 weeks and was one of the most intense treatments out there. Needless to say that it wasn't the funnest time of my life. To be honest, it wasn't as bad as everyone thinks it is. Yeah, you get sick, but I wasn't on my death-bed.
When the chemo treatments were done in late March, the tests showed that the cancer was gone, so I moved back out here to Utah to go back to school for the Spring/Summer terms. Now understand that before I moved out to California to do treatments, I was financially stable. I had a job that covered all my expenses and even earned me enough to have some spending cash. Chemo changed all that. I gave all my money to my parents because for four months I was going to be unemployed and would need them to support me. Now that I am back out here, I am starting from scratch with my finances and trying to get back to financial stability as soon as I can. I now have a job, but am still relying on my parents to cover my bills until I start getting paychecks.
From this I am learning that I hate depending on others for support. I can't wait to free my parents of the responsibility of paying for things that they don't have the money to pay for. It makes me sick to have to make that phone call to Mom telling her that my tuition is almost late. I am forcing myself to live within my means and even hate calling to say that I have no food or gas and am at my ropes end. I love my parents for helping me, but can't wait and am working hard so I can live off of my own money and they can enjoy theirs.
posted by Mark at 3:56 PM
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