{"id":275,"date":"2019-12-31T17:19:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T21:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/?p=275"},"modified":"2020-04-30T20:18:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T00:18:36","slug":"my-journey-with-cancer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/31\/my-journey-with-cancer-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Giorgia Nicolaou"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>2011.<br \/>\nI was nine.<br \/>\nLife was fun.<\/p>\n<p>Ballet, gymnastics, ice skating &#8211; an activity everyday of the week. My right leg began swelling gradually. In a month it was twice its normal size.<\/p>\n<p>Tennis was first to go: then hip-hop.<br \/>\nSoon, doctor appointments ran my life.<\/p>\n<p>Consultations.<br \/>\nTests.<br \/>\nBiopsies.<br \/>\nThen more consultations, tests, and biopsies.<\/p>\n<p>One day a stranger separated me from my parents. The brunette led me into a circular room and handed me a book about children with cancer. &#8220;You have a big word called cancer,&#8221; she said. That single ugly term exploded like a bomb inside my nine-year-old mind, slamming my sensibilities as jolts of shivering fear racked my body.<\/p>\n<p>And so it began.<\/p>\n<p>One chemotherapy after the next.\u00a0 Within a week I needed help with simple tasks like eating and walking to the bathroom.\u00a0 I began losing hair in clumps; my arms shrank to the size of my bones.<\/p>\n<p>Osteosarcoma defined who i was for the next two years of my life.<\/p>\n<p>The catheter in my chest became a part of me.\u00a0 Vomiting was a daily ritual.\u00a0 The severed nerves in my right leg &#8211; surgery that narrowly prevented amputation &#8211; left me permanently disabled.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the tumor was shrinking.<\/p>\n<p>Then, my CT scan showed the osteosarcoma had spread to my lungs.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next year, I underwent nineteen additional treatments and two surgeries.<\/p>\n<p>My perception of eternity changed &#8211; it now marked the time when a nurse drew my blood until my doctor walked in to tell me my\u00a0 scans were clear.<\/p>\n<p>December 24th, 2012, marked the last day of treatment.\u00a0 Finally, it might be over.\u00a0 I could breathe again.<\/p>\n<p>On June 6th, 2013, I was invited to my friend Melanie&#8217;s birthday party, but my parents would not let me go.\u00a0 My immune system was weak.\u00a0 I did not care.\u00a0 I started yelling at my dad, begging him to let me go.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t I just die,&#8221; I screamed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t talk like that,&#8221; Dad shouted back.\u00a0 He strode into the house and started crying.\u00a0 I had never seen him do that before.\u00a0 Suddenly, I realized how serious my situation was and how much my parents suffered with me.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Nine months later I set out to visit Rady Children&#8217;s Hospital.\u00a0 Walking the aisles of the cancer ward, glancing into rooms &#8211; some full, others empty &#8211; I witnessed a new sea of faces caught in the fight for survival.<\/p>\n<p>I sat next to a patient as she laid her pale face on her pillow, sharing with her the support of positivity that helped me survive.\u00a0 I sat with many patients that day.\u00a0 Their spirits high, their will to persevere unwavering, inspiring me, reminding me of my own battle with cancer.<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect, cancer took a great deal from me&#8211;it left me disabled, yet it gave so much in return.\u00a0 Now I am strong, confident, driven to succeed and socially instep with peers ad adults alike.\u00a0 Now I welcome life&#8217;s challenges.\u00a0 I am a survivor.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>~~<em>Giorgia Nicolaou<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; 2011. I was nine. Life was fun. Ballet, gymnastics, ice skating &#8211; an activity everyday of the week. My right leg began swelling gradually. In a month it was twice its normal size. Tennis was first to go: then hip-hop. Soon, doctor appointments ran my life. Consultations. Tests. Biopsies. Then more consultations, tests, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithhopeandlovejesus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}