The Osteosarcoma Took My Pelvis, I’d Steadied Myself with My Artwork

the young woman, working on her art, photo from online…

Nothing can and will deter her from her dreams of creating artwork! The story of how this young woman, overcome her cancer diagnosis, from the Newspapers, translated…

“Change a thought, this world won’t change, but, your world will!”, at the age of 21, as she was becoming a senior in college, her right knee started aching for no apparent reason, it hurt so bad she couldn’t sleep through the nights, and in just one month, she’d lost 22 pounds, and her legs became, uneven too. She’d gone to the oncologist, and the health exams showed that her right pelvis was gone, and the diagnosis of osteosarcoma was given, it was in the third stages, and she’d needed to have chemotherapy right away.

So young, and with a cancer diagnosis, I didn’t panic, because I didn’t know, that malignant tumor was equivalent to cancer yet, until the oncologists told me, that my tumor was on my pelvis, and that I would be forever wheelchair bound, and that, was when it all, hit me. During the treatment phases, I’d gone through this aching that got into the depth of my heart constantly, relied on morphine to kill the pains. Did I feel upset? I was in so much pain, that I’d, forgotten, how to complain.

After more than ten times of high-level dosages of chemotherapy, eleven hours of surgical removal of my tumor in my pelvis, and because I’d dislocated my pelvic, it’d caused me to not be able to use my right leg anymore, and needed a cane and a wheelchair to get around. Those days of hardship, what supported me were my best friends, who’d come down south to Kaohsiung to visit with me every weekend, and I’d received a postcard with encouragements by the week from my best friends.

After I fell ill, I’d originally refused to see any and everybody who’d come to visit me, because I didn’t want anybody to see me so sickly, without my hair, but my friends told me, “We won’t laugh at you, if you don’t feel well, then, we’ll all leave, don’t need to worry about any of us.” It’d slowly, helped me let go.

My family was also, my sturdiest support, my parents took turns looking after me, prepared the meals, helped me with daily living. Although it’d been trying, but, they’d carried that very positive attitude in front of me. My father told me, “you can’t give up without a fight”, and I’d taken his words to heart, back then, as the oncologists in Kaohsiung stated, “We’d never seen such a serious condition like this” when they diagnosed me, but my father never gave up on me, just kept seeking out treatment, to keep the hopes going.

Until I entered into the Taipei VMH, checked into Ward 93, as my primary surgeon, Dr. Wei-Ming Chen just operated on me, he’d visited me at 11:30 at night. He’d once told me, “Everybody is on your side”, hearing this, I’d felt, that surge of warmth, because we weren’t related, and he was willing, to spend so much time looking after me.

I saw other patients in the ward, some, after being diagnosed with cancer for over a decade, are still paralyzed in bed, and for some children who were diagnosed, they’d still laughed a lot, I’d learned from everybody I’d encountered, to “be thankful for what I’m given, and accept my own destiny”, only through accepting my current conditions, will I be able to find my own bliss.

Before I fell ill, I was in the arts and designs major, I’d only drawn for the sake of assignments, I drew what the professors asked me to draw; but after I fell ill, I’d started thinking about the contents of what I was creating, and slowly, my artwork had more soul. I loved my art right now, it’d captured how I’d felt, and made my life thicker, and so, as I left the hospital, I’d taken on cases of art and sketches, so long as my body allows me to, I’d gone to the hospitals, taught children art, to publishing my book, to put on an exhibit.

her artwork, so bright with the colors, from online…

It’d been five years since I got diagnosed, looking back, my illness had, changed what I drew, my styles, completely changed, my illness had also, affected my views of life, I can still see the world in a positive note. Now, I’m fulfilled, living this life of mine, I hope, that even if in the future, I couldn’t give back to my parents, I can use my own skills, to make a living, to support myself.

So, this, is the story of how a woman had, overcome the trials of her life, she’s still taking it a step at a time, but, her life was changed, by the cancer diagnosis, and, she’s expressing the hope she’d found through the trials in her own artwork now.