Wednesday, February 28, 2018

The Struggle to Stay Present When Coping With Cancer

Is it possible to grieve for someone who is still alive? 


PUBLISHED February 28, 2018

Kim is a nursing student who is hoping to find her place amongst the phenomenal oncology nurses and doctors who cared for her sister. She loves reading, volunteering and enjoying the outdoors of Colorado.
Most people associate grief with loss. When you have somebody you love going through cancer, sometimes that grief happens even when that person is still very much alive. When my sister was going through cancer, my grief came from thinking about what the future might look like without her in it.

She was diagnosed on July 11, 2014. People ask if I still remember that day, and the answer is a resounding yes. I have filed it away in my brain, but that doesn't make it any less memorable. I can still see the different shades of white that filled the hospital. I can hear the sounds that, in the course of 3 years, became all too familiar. I can smell the unique mix of Clorox and perfume that is most clinical settings. And I can still feel what it was like to be breathless and heartbroken when we were told my 27-year-old sister was sick with stage 4 cancer.



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