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A gift from Mom After my Mother's diagnosis with uterine cancer I decided to do everything I could to prevent my own future children from living the nightmare I was living and the one my mother had also lived with her mother, without the happy ending. The last 3 months of 2010 were some of the most painful times I've ever had to live through. My Mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Although she assured me that it was diagnosed early and the outlook was good for her, I still couldn't help but feel completely helpless. I couldn't imagine my life without her, and couldn't imagine her missing the important milestones of my life such as graduating from University, getting married and the birth of her grandchildren. On top of all these terrifying thoughts was the additional thought that this could happen to me too. My grandmother died from cancer when my mother was about my age, so there is a good chance I may be genetically predisposed to cancer. So I decided to learn as much as I could about cancer to make myself more knowledgeable about what my mother would be going through and how I could help prevent myself from going through it as well.A turning point for me was attending a screening for the documentary "Living Downstream" at my University. This documentary is about Sandra Steingraber a biologist who was diagnosed with bladder cancer and her goal to find all the environmental contributions to the cause of cancer and to educate the public on how we can stop cancer by eliminating the chemicals in our environment that contribute to it. After watching this film (which I recently learned was originally a book) I did more research on different chemicals that I could avoid and control in my own life. I now buy organic, paraben, artificial fragrance, petrolatum free beauty products, and just use less products in general. I make all my own cleaning products (I found tons of recipes online) and I avoid consuming commercially produced food products (frozen, prepared, and preserved). It is a complete life change and is a pain sometimes having to carefully read each label before buying something and finding the time to mix together some nice cleaning products (when I'm lazy I just use vinegar on everything), but in the end it makes me feel good knowing I am doing something that will benefit me forever. I have also got my Mom to follow and to stop using products with these chemicals in them. Now 7 months after her diagnosis she has undergone a hysterectomy, and 6 chemo treatments. And we all got the greatest news ever last week when her post-chemo scan came back cancer free! All she has left are her radiation treatments and this nightmare will hopefully be over! I know that my family is incredibly fortunate to have all of this come to a positive ending so quickly, and it is a hope that I share with the world that someday soon no one will ever have to go through this at all. |
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