Personal Narrative
Nathan's Growth
I really enjoyed writting this paper because it ment so much too me. My brother's story has been a true insperation for me and that really was the driving force of this paper. I am so proud of my brother and look up to him as one of my heroes. this paper was easy as well as difficult at the exact same time. The easy part of this paper was initially knowing what to talk about and how easy it was to find information because I lived through the events myself. The difficult part was my fear of trying to do my brother's story justice and putting my emotions into words. This subject is ectremely important to me and many times i choked up while writting this paper.
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Kendall Godwin
Nathan’s Growth
Professor Duffus
Comp 1
9/13/2012
My name is Kendall Godwin and this story is about my older brother. His name is Nathan Godwin; he’s 21 years old and a senior at Davidson College. He is one of the funniest people you could ever meet and he was always there for me when I needed him. He is a really special guy, but there is another reason some people may see him as special.
6 years ago Nathan noticed a strange wart forming onto his right thumb. He kept it a secret for a couple months until it continued to grow at an alarming rate. He was taken to see a doctor who just labeled it an unusual wart. He was put through the routine treatments for warts but the growth never left. Over a span of 4 years we visited 4 different doctors who all diagnosed his thumb as having a strange wart. Going back and forth with these doctors really began to take a toll on Nathan as well as the rest of the family. About 3 months after my brother’s original realization of the growth our father had lost his job. We now had no way of receiving an income that could pay for all of these doctors a appointments. My father and I began working odd jobs like mowing lawns and pressure washing to help pay for his bills. Those 4 years were some of the most stressful years of our lives. All of the uncertainty and confusion corrupted everything we did. Then one day my parents decided to talk to Nathan about having the wart surgically removed. Nathan agreed to go through surgery to rid himself of the growth. After Nathan’s surgery the thumb began to show signs of healing but then 3 months the growth grew back even larger and more disgusting than before. It looked like a giant open, oozing wound on his thumb. It looked as if someone tried to drill a hole through his hand. Everywhere he went it smelt like rotten flesh. He was so embarrassed that he would spray febreeze around him before he would go out and would always use his left hand. We then rushed Nathan too Duke University where doctors took a look at his thumb. They observed the wart with many different types of procedures and they discovered that this growth on my older brother’s hand was no wart, it was cancer. They diagnosed the growth as a cancer known as epithelioid sarcoma. Epitheliod sarcoma is an aggressive and fatal form of cancer. It is also one of the most rare and mysterious diseases known. The current procedure when faced with epithelioid sarcoma is amputation. After much research the doctors could not give us very good odds of survival even after amputation. This devastated our family. At that point my brother had lost all hope. He had already lost the things he used to be able to do and the comfort of being able to wake up every day without agonizing pain shooting through his hand. But after hearing that news he just felt like giving up. He fell into deep depression and began to turn into almost a completely different person. He stopped taking care of himself and he shut himself off from the rest of the world. We had to do something to help him but we barely had enough money to just sustain let alone find help for Nathan. I could not bear to see my brother in the state that he was in. I began to organized fundraisers to help provide some kind of means to help Nathan. It took me about a year to raise the money but I did. We immediately got Nathan counseling for his depression and we began to look for some way to treat this disease. About seven months ago we found that there was a doctor working in charlotte who was using alternative ways to treat disease. We went to him and found that maybe this treatment could help Nathan. After a few weeks of treatment we began to see major improvements on Nathan’s thumb. When Nathan realized that he was beginning to recover his whole attitude changed. He began to again take care of himself and he returned back to the fun loving and funny guy I used to know.
Nathan has yet to fully recover and we still struggle to pay for all of his expenses but I believe that it will get better. Every time I look at my older brother I see someone who almost gave up but never gave in. He kept fighting and will still continue to fight. This experience has shown me that no matter what, Nathan’s growth as a person will always overcome Nathan’s growth on his hand.
Nathan’s Growth
Professor Duffus
Comp 1
9/13/2012
My name is Kendall Godwin and this story is about my older brother. His name is Nathan Godwin; he’s 21 years old and a senior at Davidson College. He is one of the funniest people you could ever meet and he was always there for me when I needed him. He is a really special guy, but there is another reason some people may see him as special.
6 years ago Nathan noticed a strange wart forming onto his right thumb. He kept it a secret for a couple months until it continued to grow at an alarming rate. He was taken to see a doctor who just labeled it an unusual wart. He was put through the routine treatments for warts but the growth never left. Over a span of 4 years we visited 4 different doctors who all diagnosed his thumb as having a strange wart. Going back and forth with these doctors really began to take a toll on Nathan as well as the rest of the family. About 3 months after my brother’s original realization of the growth our father had lost his job. We now had no way of receiving an income that could pay for all of these doctors a appointments. My father and I began working odd jobs like mowing lawns and pressure washing to help pay for his bills. Those 4 years were some of the most stressful years of our lives. All of the uncertainty and confusion corrupted everything we did. Then one day my parents decided to talk to Nathan about having the wart surgically removed. Nathan agreed to go through surgery to rid himself of the growth. After Nathan’s surgery the thumb began to show signs of healing but then 3 months the growth grew back even larger and more disgusting than before. It looked like a giant open, oozing wound on his thumb. It looked as if someone tried to drill a hole through his hand. Everywhere he went it smelt like rotten flesh. He was so embarrassed that he would spray febreeze around him before he would go out and would always use his left hand. We then rushed Nathan too Duke University where doctors took a look at his thumb. They observed the wart with many different types of procedures and they discovered that this growth on my older brother’s hand was no wart, it was cancer. They diagnosed the growth as a cancer known as epithelioid sarcoma. Epitheliod sarcoma is an aggressive and fatal form of cancer. It is also one of the most rare and mysterious diseases known. The current procedure when faced with epithelioid sarcoma is amputation. After much research the doctors could not give us very good odds of survival even after amputation. This devastated our family. At that point my brother had lost all hope. He had already lost the things he used to be able to do and the comfort of being able to wake up every day without agonizing pain shooting through his hand. But after hearing that news he just felt like giving up. He fell into deep depression and began to turn into almost a completely different person. He stopped taking care of himself and he shut himself off from the rest of the world. We had to do something to help him but we barely had enough money to just sustain let alone find help for Nathan. I could not bear to see my brother in the state that he was in. I began to organized fundraisers to help provide some kind of means to help Nathan. It took me about a year to raise the money but I did. We immediately got Nathan counseling for his depression and we began to look for some way to treat this disease. About seven months ago we found that there was a doctor working in charlotte who was using alternative ways to treat disease. We went to him and found that maybe this treatment could help Nathan. After a few weeks of treatment we began to see major improvements on Nathan’s thumb. When Nathan realized that he was beginning to recover his whole attitude changed. He began to again take care of himself and he returned back to the fun loving and funny guy I used to know.
Nathan has yet to fully recover and we still struggle to pay for all of his expenses but I believe that it will get better. Every time I look at my older brother I see someone who almost gave up but never gave in. He kept fighting and will still continue to fight. This experience has shown me that no matter what, Nathan’s growth as a person will always overcome Nathan’s growth on his hand.