Once I knew I
would be coming home to tend to the collective needs of the family I was keen
to discover what my role would be. While
discussing the plan of action, I was struck by how long dad was going to have
to be down in Rochester receiving treatments for his cancer. I instantly imagined that I could be of
service during this period of convalescence for my family.
Per my father's
treatment plan, he would receive treatments and spend time in recovery at the
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Looking
ahead at this period of time worried my parents since they would both be away
from their home in Eden Prairie. This
situation was especially untenable for my mother who was going to have to take
off open-ended periods of time from work.
The only solution available to them was finding an additional care-giver
to lighten the burden of care on my mother.
This was especially necessary since the length of recovery time is dependent
on many uncontrollable factors.
Fortunately for everyone my re-appearance at home would solve this
solution for the group.
After I started
to get accustomed to my daily routine of life back at home I soon became aware
of the need to help out my mother as much as possible. Initially, I was the most concerned with helping
out my father since he was the one going through the treatments; however, it
did not take me too long to realize that my mother was equally experiencing
psychologically side-effects from my father's cancer as well.
Admittedly,
those who are physically going through treatments are those who will bear the
immediate effects of the disease. One
thing I did learn though while going through my father's treatments was that those
around the patient can also experience side-effects from stress related to
going through the disease with your loved ones.
As humans we are
innately aware of the manifestation of pain in those around us. I have found that our awareness of pain is
quite heightened when signs of it show up in a loved one. Truly, I can now understand why family members
assisting loved ones in cancer treatments can feel at times like they too are experiencing
a life-and-death struggle for survival. This
empathy should not be seen as an un-necessary burden on those assisting loved-ones. Love felt and lost is much better than love
never experienced at all, and as humans we all must come to terms with our own
mortal state of existence.
Science and
technology has given humans so many innovative treatments, medicines, and tools
for fighting common illnesses today. In some
ways, I think that the advent of modern medicine has had the unintended
consequence of creating a false sense of mortality. Those fortunate enough to have access to
these types of medical miracles can sometimes falsely believe that their
longevity can be prolonged for an indefinite amount of time due miracle drugs.
Though modern
medicine can provide miracles to those of us who receive modern treatments we
are still bound by the laws of our anatomy.
No matter how great our science and technology progresses in the future
humans will never be able to completely disregard their evolutionary limits. In my opinion, the only solution to our own
mortality should be to live life to the fullest. No matter what miracles modern medicine presently
has to offer us we have to realize that one day our time will come. That is the way it always has been and always
will be.
Being able to
lend a hand to my parents was one of the most rewarding things that I have done
in my life. I found in some ways that my
benefice atoned for years of apathy and neglect for their efficacy. Only through the gaining of wisdom and the
maturation of years was I able to learn truly how lucky I was to have been born
into the life I had in Eden Prairie.
Thankfully, God gave me the opportunity to come back home and share in
the love of my family at least one more time.
Each time we get an opportunity to do anything we must appreciate it; no
one knows when the next one will be our last...
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