When he got down on one knee…

Victoria Barrasso

Dr. Marlen Harrison

English 202

18 February 2010

An Investigation of Colon Cancer: My Father’s Story

For years, people have struggled with the successes and failures of disease and turmoil; however more times than not, no one explains how the victim’s family strains through these harsh times. Through research, I would like to discover the reasoning for and battles with cancer and how families attempt to stay strong through these times. Personally, my connection with this topic stands strong because my father survived a stressful battle with colon cancer that affected not only him, but my family and those who supported us through this time and after. Sharing my father and my family’s story with the public may help people to realize the agonizing pain we and other families have to endure during this enslaving disease. Also, I would like to talk to other researchers and survivors or understanding families about their opinions and stories and compare them to mine. In all, I want to complete a full autoethnography on my father and my family’s struggle with this horrible disease: the before, during, and aftermath of colon cancer.

For this article, most of my research will come from my own experience and what I gathered during this time in my life. I want to show the reader that cancer does not only affect the body but it also affects you on every other aspect of daily life. Furthermore, it affects those who support and surround the victim just as much as the actual cancer patient themselves. It is important for people to understand these struggles so that they can fully support a patient or survivor whenever they can. Moreover, it is important to understand how a family struggles through this period of time and how to acknowledge their problems in order to help them whenever needed. My story explains the before, during, and after affects of the cancer on my father and my family. Not only is this story about a fight against cancer, but also it answers many unanswered questions I have about this illness and why it left my family the way it did.

The colon cancer, cancer of the rectal or colon area, in my father’s case, was metastatic cancer, meaning that the cancer spread from one area to another, very quickly, and this caused many complications for my father. He had to undergo a colonoscopy, an examination of the colon and rectal area with a tiny camera called a scope, monthly and he had extensive twenty-four hour chemotherapy and radiation treatments. There were also complications involving a staph infection of his open wounds which led to a six week stay in the local hospital, even though he was only supposed to be hospitalized for a little over a week at most. His dressings, the bandages used for his surgery incision, needed to be changed 3 times a day until they began to heal quicker and my mother had to learn how to do this for when the nurses were not available to him at home. He had to endure 3 months bed-rest and 6 months of light duty work after; financially our family was struggling.

For this paper, I will have to interview my family members on this time in our lives. I would also like to interview a few of my peers and use their outlooks on cancer and illness in family members to compare to my thoughts. I have talked to a girl already who says her mother is bed-ridden for the rest of her life and is mostly limited to one hour a day movements out of bed. Talking to her is going to help me to understand how other families’ may have struggled or are struggling with illness in the family. Comparing and contrasting stories with others and reading more information on the start and growth of colon cancer will also help to explain my story.

I hope to achieve comments and concerns from my family and peers that will help me develop a more detailed journal. Mostly, I would like to help others to understand what it would be like if they were in a tough situation, such as a family member going through a battle with cancer and how not only the victim feels, but how the family reacts to the illness. I hope to, in detail, paint a meaningful picture in someone’s eyes of the tragic events that led up to this horrible slump my family is still in because of such a horrible disease.