SHELBY N. CHANEY

Overcoming

Stage four. As those dreaded words reverberated in my ears, I knew that my life was possibly going to change forever. I was entering finals season of my master’s program when my father got the diagnosis. Stage four Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was the name. The name of the beast that seemed to claw at my very core. Dad hadn’t been feeling well and was in and out of the hospital. He was burdened with violent pain and trembling hands. At first, the doctors couldn’t quite pinpoint the issue. I boarded a bus to Detroit from Chicago to visit my dad in the hospital. As I was in commute, a wave of relief enveloped my body as I was told the doctors identified it as mono. How he got it, unknown, but we were just happy to know that it was something that he could fight off. My dad was so happy to see me home, the family was together and we just knew that everything would be ok. In reality, all of our lives were about to take a turn for the worse.