My Aunt, My Hero

Last year my aunt was diagnosed with Lymphoma of the Brain. For all of you out there who don't know what it is here is a break down of it:

Cancers of the Brain may be of the Lymphoma type. Primary lymphomas arise from lymphatic cells found within the brain. Secondary lymphomas arise from outside the central nervous system and deposit within the CNS as a metastatic process. 

The brain is the control centre for the body. It is comprised of millions of individual nerve cells, which are all interconnected. It is located at the top of the spinal cord and is encased in hard bone. Individual nerves emerge from the brain to work the muscles and organs contained within the head. These are called cranial nerves.

The brain itself is divided into 2 sides and each side contains a number of lobes. The frontal lobes control some functions such as memory and learned behavior, together with some speech functions. The parietal and temporal lobes contain the control centre for movement and sensation on the opposite side of the body. The occipital, located at the back, interprets visual signals from the eyes and is therefore responsible for sight. Located underneath the occipital lobes is the cerebellum, which controls balance and coordination on the same side of the body.

This women has been through so much in the last year that it would make your head spin. Between countless blood test, MRI's and hospital visits you would think she would be a VIP in the Cancer center. Let me also throw out at you that my aunt  had Breast Cancer and had a double mastectomy.  I look at her and think to myself that I can't believe she is still here, that she is still fighting every single day of her life but yet Cancer hasn't stopped her. Is she the same person she was before the Breast Cancer. No. Will she ever be the same person she was. No. You know what though? I'll take it. I'll take the fact that she gets tired quickly or that sometimes she gets things confused and she already told you three times what she had for breakfast. I'll take it.  I'll take all of it, every last drop because she's still here. 

She makes me look at my life and think "Life is too short to worry about the small things" and she's right. I do tend to worry about the bullshit, the drama, the negative things, the stupid things that down the road really don't matter anyway. 

She'll be here for a month starting on July 8th and I'll tell you what. I'm going to spend as much time with her as I possibly can because I don't know how long she will be here and I don't want to have any regrets as to why I didn't get to see her. 

So like my title says: My Aunt, My Hero