Ninfa

Tia Ninfa’s Story

A mom, sister, and my aunt

Ninfa was born July 23, 1938. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 28, had a partial hysterectomy performed at St. Joseph’s Hospital by Dr. Joseph Lucci on May of 1967. As a result, was cancer free for 31 years, until April of 1998 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer on the right breast. Breast Cancer occurs when a malignant tumor spreads to surrounding tissue lining the breast. At that time she elected to have a lumpectomy on June of 1998 at St. Luke’s Hospital, operated by Dr. Peters. Her treatment consisted of 3-4 months of chemo therapy by Dr. Taobada, her oncologist. My strong willed and heroic Tia, was cancer free for 9 years. But unfortunately cancer returned on September 2007, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer on the right breast once more. This time Dr. Baker removed her entire right breast, at St. Luke’s Hospital on January 20, 2008. Her treatment was continued with radiation during June and July of 2008, by Dr. Carpenter.

Tia continues her battle against cancer with the help of her oncologist Dr. Ramshech. Her current treatment consists of Tykerb and Xeloda, two types of anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs, which she takes 6 times a day. Though her battle has been a long one, my beautiful Tia is determined to be victorious in her battle. Fortunately she is surrounded with tremendous family support; including her daughter, sons, daughter-in-laws, grandchildren, and my grandmother, her sister Francis Luera. I love you very much Tia.

In Honor

This is to inform people about different cancers. 'Cancer' is the name for a group of diseases in which the body's cells are changed in appearance and function. Such abnormal cells can grow out of control and form a mass or 'tumor. These tumors can be benign or malignant. Unfortunately this horrible disease does not target any certain gender, race, or age. Therefore, we are all at risk of this monstrous disease. I would like to remind everyone the importance of being tested early. This can determine the outcome of your prognosis. These stories are to help anyone who might be going through something similar, giving them a reason to keep fighting.

I chose to write about 5 different lives of people affected by cancer. In doing so I would like to honor these courageous individuals on their battle to survive.

Ninfa Luera Gutierrez

Nelly Echeverry

Eusebio Figueroa

Manuel V. Murillo

Katherine “Katie” Murillo Meza

Charms

*CHARMS*

Today I had to hang with my dad's side of the family. My dad and I don't exactly enjoy that very much. Lucky for my dad it was an all girls thing so he didn't have to go. It was a party for my birthday (which was 17 days ago) and they were going to do something special. My grandma had this idea to give me a charm bracelet with 13 charms. We ended up with 15 charms instead which i didn't mind because I'm not sure when I'll wear the bracelet. (my favorite charm was the boxing glove given to me by my favorite Tia. It represents my mom's dad and his favorite thing he loved to do before he passed.)

Don't you hate it when people give you something you don't exactly need or want? That's what I felt today when I thought about this great idea I noticed I don't need a charm bracelet. But after today when I saw how happy everyone was when they saw what charms I got. I decided it wasn't so bad after all. So in the end I laughed with my Tia's, my cousin and my mother just about how the day turned out to be.

Halloween of 09

Who doesn't love Halloween? Halloween to me is the best holiday ever. I think its so cool to dress up and go ask for candy. Some of us claim we don't go Trick' or 'Treating but instead we take are younger siblings, nieces, or nephews. I'm actually not afraid to admit that I like going with my family and seeing how other people go to the extreme with their costumes. I also enjoy getting candy, and scared by people who just randomly come behind and scare you.

This year i did something that's not what I would usually do. I had to watch my sister so i wasn't exactly having fun. So my friend told me, "If your bored take pictures." So that gave me the idea to go up to random people whose costume I thought was cool or scary and ask if I could take a picture with them. My goal was to take 5 pictures with random people I ended up taking 9 or 10 pictures. I can definitely say this Halloween was the best.