Leukemia. What that words means to me is probably not what it means to you. Many of you are probably turning to your computer or dictionary to look it up. I'll give you a few seconds before I say this; don't waste your time. Because I'm going to tell you. It's cancer. And if you STILL don't know what it is, you're both very stupid and very lucky. But seriously, if you don't, please put this down and go get a life. Oh, and I wouldn't TELL anybody about that. But for those of you who do know what it is, Leukemia is the worst possible thing that can ever happen to a person. How do I know? Because it happened to me. I was ten at the time, and I didn't really understand what was happening to my body, except that whatever it was, REALLY hurt. It started when I got bruises from nothing in particular, and they hurt. But not like normal bruises do, but like someone was sticking a knife into them every time I touched them. My Mother poked and prodded at me until I'd beg her to stop, trying to find a logical explanation for them. I have never had so many needles poked and prodded into my body as I did on February 19, 2000. I had a total of fifteen needles poked various places throughout my body. Once the final needle had been removed, the doctors determined that I had a form of blood cancer called leukemia, therefore every single bruise on my body was cancerous and needed to be removed. There was an all-around total of 25 bruises that we were told needed to be removed a.s.a.p.. We started with the smallest and worked up to the biggest one on my back that was three inches long. It was a centimeter away from my backbone, so they'd have to break my backbone to get it out so I wasn't permanently paralyzed. It couldn't be left, because if it grew to touch my backbone, I'd be paralyzed for life. The surgery was the most painful experience of all my ten years. But little did I know, it was just the beginning of s much pain, I couldn't even imagine it then. I was transferred to St. Jude's Children's research hospital at the age of eleven, and was omitted at age twelve. Two months later, I was back in the hospital, and then I managed to stay out for four years, until I got sick again,which is where our story begins.
"Did you talk to Adam?" I asked my parents. Adam is my boyfriend of four years. "Oh, yeah, he says he doesn't want to see you anymore." my other told me, reaching for my hand. I pulled my hand away from her grasp. "He said that?" I felt my heart break. "Yes. I'm sorry." she smiled at me. "Please go away. I told her, my sister Leslie, and my little brother Adam. They left the room in silence. I slipped his class ring off my finger and threw it out the opened window. Then I took the television remote and threw it out with it. And then, just to seal the deal, I threw the television out too. I listened for the crash as it hit the ground, and somehow, it made it all better. "What was that?" my Mother burst into my room. "Sorry." I tried. "No, sorry doesn't cut it." she grabbed my arm and squeezed it as hard as she could. "Ow! Mom!" I tried to pull my arm away, but she held fast. "OW!" i yelled and my nurse came in. "Ms. Robertson, please!" she took my Mom's hand and led her out of the room. I sighed. My parents aren't ones o yell at me. They say I have enough stress in my life. When they do, I know I'm in trouble. My Mother grounded me off television for a month. I decided it wasn't a good time to point three things out to her; a-I'm stuck in the hospital for the next three months no matter what, b- I just threw the ONLY television I'm EVER going to get out the window, and c can be summed up in one word. You-tube. So her 'grounding' really wasn't as effective as she'd planned. We were going to to my all time favorite hospital, and the one I'd been in the longest, St. Jude's Children research hospital, for our yearly reunion. We left them next day, and I was already excited to see my two best friends, Summer, who has leukemia like me, and Brooke, who is lucky enough to be healthy. Their twin brother, Jacob, has diabetes. But that doesn't stop him from being the cutest, nicest guy that ever walked the planet. I've had a crush on him as long as I'd been dating Adam, and now that I was single, it was considered 'ok' for me to go all out flirting with him. When we got to the hospital, I did a quick run through and said hi to everybody. Brenda, the Secretary, my nurse, Jessica, and my doctor,Amanda Anderson. Then I went to find my friends. I found them sitting at the non-alcoholic bar. I approached them, we hugged, and Summer handed me a water. Part of leukemia is that we can't have soda because we have issues with pH. Too much alcohol in our blood can kill us very easily, so we usually just avoid it all together. "Excuse us, would you mind telling us where the bathroom is?" a voice said from behind behind me. I turned to face a tall blond and a redhead. I recognized them immediately, but Brooke didn't. "Who are you?" she asked them. " Oh, sorry. I'm Natasha Richardson, and this is is J.K. Rowling. Author of the Harry Potter books" she didn't have to tell Brooke who J.K Rowling was. she shrieked in delight. "And this is Taylor." Taylor Swift came up behind them. Now it was my turn to squeal. "It's down the hall to the left." Jacob told them coming up behind us. They turned to walk away as Summer asked, "Are you the only ones here this year?" "Oh, no. Robert Pattinson and Sandra Bullock are here too." she smiled at us. Summer and I squealed simultaneously. She is Robert Pattinson's biggest fan and I am definitely Sandra Bullocks biggest fan. "Do you want to meet them?" the blond asked us. "Oh, no thanks." I replied. The thing is, I've met so many stars in my life, that none of them mean much to me anymore. Over my six years at St. Jude's I've met, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, Adam Sandler, Martina McBride, Hilary Duff, Lindsey Lohan, Daniel Radclift, Rubert Grint, Emma Watson, Taylor Lautner, Paula Abdul, Meryl Streep, Kellie Pickler, and David Archuletta. Who, fyi, is the second hottest creature that ever walked the planet after Jacob. So this year we had my all time favorite actress. Yeah, so what? The speeches were starting, so we turned on the t.v. and watched. Not that we couldn't turn around and see the person talking but we had learned from previous experience that we can see almost 100% better on the t.v. then we can in person. Natasha Richardson went first, "Hi, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Natasha Richardson. My three year old son was diagnosed with autism at 19 months. Our doctor suggested he be moved to St. Jude five months later. We agreed, and he is perfectly healthy today. I know many of you don't come her for treatments anymore, but I also know that many of you WOULDN'T be standing here today if it weren't for the amazing doctors and nurses here at St. Jude. Never take anyone or anything you have for granted, because in the blink of an eye, everything can easily change. Thank you so much for inviting me here today, everybody have a nice day!" I screamed as a agonizing pain shot through my head and as everyone crowded around me, they all got blurry, and then the sky went black.
I woke up in my old hospital room at St. Jude's. I pushed my pager and my nurse, Jessica came in. "What happened?" I asked her. "Doctor Andreson says you have a tumor in your heart." she told me. "Can, can I stay here?" I asked, scared. "As long as you can benefit from our treatments." she replied. "Meaning what?" I questioned. "Meaning that's up to your parents." she replied with tears in her eyes. "Jess, what's going on?" I asked suspiciously. "I'm not entitled to tell you that." she walked out of the room. Summer, Jacob, and Brooke came in. "Hey Tor." Summer and Brooke sta down, while I flicked on the tv and turned to the news channel. The reunion was on, so I turned it up to watch the speeches. Sandra Bullock was just starting her speech as we tuned in. "Hello everyone! I choose to talk to you today because cancer is is a topic I truly feel strongly about." she began. "Yeah sure she does. She only cares about how much publicity she's getting from SAYING she cares." Summer said. " I have three children. All boys. I did have a daughter, but she died of cancer at age three." she continued, and Brooke and I gasped. "She was my life for those three short years. The doctors told us she was healed, but in the middle of the night on October 8, a day I will never forget, her heart filed. By the time we got her to the hospital, she was already gone. I know many of you are saying to yourselves, 'yeah so what?' you are just having fun today! But there was a girl here with you today, whose heart failed. She has a tumor on her heart, and therefore about a month to live. What does this mean to you? Cherish every moment you have because in a blink of an eye, your life can change forever." I flicked off the telivision and as I looked around, every eye in the room was turned towards me.