HEALTH
Healing is a matter of timeBY EMMY BARCELONA ON MAY 17, 2014
Walking through the halls of Rose, students come across different types of people. While they can see what’s on the outside, they can’t see the hardships others have experienced. Some people have had to endure health related, life threatening situations. Rose students might even be surprised to know that that person may be sitting next to them.
One of those students is junior Webster Bland. Bland was diagnosed with Lymphoma in the fourth grade and went through four months of chemo, fourteen months of radiation treatments and then was put in remission. Bland was required to go back to the hospital once a month in order to have scans taken. Late in his sophomore year, he was declared cancer free. He admits that although the physical experience was rough, the psychological experience was the worst. He says he was always terrified of the future and what it may bring. “[The experience] made me realize not to take things for granted and to always be thankful for what I have,” Bland said. “My friends were out there worrying about whether they were going to get the new iPhone, and I was worrying about whether I was going to live or die. I wasn’t supposed to live long enough to get a driver’s license, let alone be a starting lacrosse varsity player, and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.” His battle with cancer lead to a tradition that he now has with his family. Every year around Christmas, the Blands buy around 100 toys from Toys R Us to deliver to kids at the Oncology Department to cheer them up. “Just the smallest helping hand can really make a difference,” Bland said. “When I finished my first chemo treatment and was really sick, the nurses were really nice to me and helped me get through the day. This caused me to start my tradition with my family.” Another student who is no stranger to pain is senior Azelin Buttitta. During her junior year, a deer jumped in front of her car while she was driving down Dickinson Avenue. When the deer hit her car, it came through the windshield and hit her in her face, causing the right side of her face to shatter. She had to have facial reconstruction surgery, which included three metal plates in her face to reconstruct her cheek and eye socket and her mouth was wired shut for a month, making it difficult for her to get the nutrients her body needed. Buttitta is still feeling some negative effects from her accident. She is unable to play lacrosse, has random migraines and pain in her face, and feels insecure regarding her face after undergoing facial reconstruction. However, she also faces positives that she confesses she can’t neglect. “Being in the hospital showed me how interesting the medical field was and gave me a passion for figuring out what I wanted to do in [that field],” Buttitta said. “I began an internship in the ER and now have decided to be a nurse and hopefully work in the ER one day. Having something like that really makes you take your actions more seriously and makes you want to make a difference while you’re here.” While Bland and Buttitta had to deal with a life changing situation partway through their lives, freshman Anna-Gray Anderson has had to deal with her illness her whole life. Anderson was born without one of the bottom chambers of her heart. She has had five surgeries, four of which were open heart and three were fontan procedures. Fontan procedures involve diverting blood from the right atrium of the heart to the pulmonary arteries. She had the procedure at a few months old, one year old and four years old. Her fourth surgery was when she was given a pacemaker to help regulate her heart rhythm. Her fifth surgery, which was her only closed heart surgery, was when her pacemaker was replaced for a new one at the age of twelve. “The physical pain from it all was really frustrating because I couldn’t do everything my friends were doing,” Anderson said. “But it has made me stronger as a person.” There are many ways to deal with pain and some Rose students have chosen to learn from their experiences. “It has given me a purpose and drive like never before,” Buttitta said. “Since then, I believe my grades, relationships, actions and everyday words have changed for the better.” HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
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