Having a family member with breast cancer can be one of the hardest things to deal with. Every day that goes by you are wondering when it could be the last day with them. There are many stages of breast cancer. There are 5 stages of breast cancer: stage 0, stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, and stage 4. I had a grandmother with stage four and a cousin’s mom with stage two. My grandmother passed away when I was three due to the breast cancer. My cousins mom is a survivor of breast cancer ever since 2016. Even though I was young when my grandmother passed away, I still remember the day that my mom told me about it. My cousin found out that she had cancer a couple weeks before her sons (my cousin) 17th birthday. He used to play football and baseball, but everything had changed for him and his sister after that day. The days that she had to have surgery, he would skip school and always be there for her. Some of the days of the surgeries I would go to the hospital to just sit with my cousins and go get them food or with them. My cousin’s mom got diagnosed in November 2015 and had her last treatment in late 2016. During the year of many treatments, my parents and I would take them food to their house or I would take my cousin’s sister home from school or to any sports practices. After she won her battled cancer, my cousin went back to playing baseball for one year. My mom also had a breast lump removed when she was 19 and haven’t had anything since then. Even though my cousin beat her first battle of cancer and my mom had gotten the lump removed, you live every day wondering if it could show back up.

Having a family member with diabetes can be difficult. There are many things that could happen when their blood sugar goes high or low. Also, you must make sure that they eat the right things to help keep the blood sugar level. My mom has had type 1 diabetes since she was 5 years old, insulin shots since age 5 (1980), and started on the pump in 2001. After having a baby, low blood sugars can sneak up faster so being on the pump can be easier and safer especially having dangerous lows with a baby around. Ever since I was old enough to notice the symptoms of low or high blood sugar, I have been able to help her and keep her safe and healthy. Some of the symptoms can be: not remembering where she is, asking where a dog is that passed away 7 years ago, or just talking and slurring her words. Some things that I did to help my mom were: making sure she was sitting down and not having any of our dogs around, getting her a Capri-Sun or a caffeine drink to help get her some sugar if it is low, find the tablets for her to take, and making sure my dad knows so we can keep track of them. Being home with my mom by ourselves while my dad is at work was hard when I was younger, she had an incident and I didn’t know what to do, so I called my grandfather. He had called the police and ambulance service, they didn’t show up but called to make sure that they didn’t need to. With knowing how to help control blood sugars can save someone’s life. It is also good to know about the symptoms when you’re in class or out and about because you could help the person who is having a low or high blood sugar and you might be one of the only ones to notice it faster than the ones around you.