Cancer is something that unfortunately most everyone knows at least someone who has been affected by it in some way or another, but for Linda Adams it has been a part of her world for much of her life.
So much so that she decided to write a short story about her journey in hopes of inspiring others to find the positives in life even when facing adversity is a daily experience.
It started with her mom, who had been a strong career-driven woman but found out that she had polycystic kidney disease and had to eventually stop working because the dialysis treatments she was on became too taxing on her.
“My mother was sick for most of my life,” Adams said. “It got to the point where she would sneeze and break ribs.”
Her mom died at 59 years old and shortly after Adams went in for a routine physical and that is when she found out that form of kidney disease was hereditary and had been passed down to her and eventually her brother as well.
“They estimated that at 40 years old my kidneys would fail, and it didn’t matter what I did,” Adams said.
She was put on a kidney transplant list and in 2009 she underwent surgery that seemed to be successful but months later her body began eventually resisting the new kidney but after taking certain medicine the process became a success once again.
Although she had been somewhat familiar with the disease from her mom’s battle with it all those years, it was still an emotional shock to the system.
But she also remembered witnessing the strength her mom showed amid it all and strived to show that same resolve.
“I quickly realized that PKD was not just a burden to bear but a challenge to overcome,” Adams said.
However, the adversity has not stopped there for Adams as on top of the polycystic kidney disease and kidney dialysis she has been faced with, she has also developed three forms of skin cancer; melanoma, Basel cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma since her kidney treatments began, as well as B and T cell lyabout hermphoma and Waldenstrom Syndrome, which is a rare type of blood cancer.
Most recently she started oral chemotherapy to help with the T cell lyabout hermphoma and she lives in a state of fatigue and nauseousness.
“I take it on Monday and don’t feel good at all, and by the end of the week I’m starting to feel a little better by the weekend but then it’s time to do it all over again,” Adams said.
With all the waves of adversity she has dealt with for some time now she has also developed depression, and it is something that she fights with on a daily basis on top of everything else.
“I’m very honest and open about it in the book,” she said. “I used to e a very social person, but now my life is more comfortable at home, and I don’t go out except to go to doctor’s offices.”
She has started making it a point to spend time working out in her home garage because she used to be big into fitness and it allows her to rediscover the things she enjoyed doing prior to cancer forcing its way into her life.
The book is called Live the dream-Battle the nightmare: My personal journey fighting 3 non-curable cancers, kidney transplant and depression.
It can be purchased on www.Amazon.com and is available in Kindle and paperback editions. Adams hopes to donate all the proceeds she makes from the book sales to nonprofit organizations aimed at helping those with cancer.
A GoFundMe account was created by her husband Thomas Hayes so that anyone in the community can donate to help the cause by going to www.gofund.me and searching "Linda's Health Battles: A Tale of Giving Back."
