Sarah Costa was nine years old when her father, Emanuel Costa, was diagnosed with stage 4 peritoneal mesothelioma in October 2007. Emanuel was 35 years old at the time. Sarah’s mother,Gina, quit her job and became a full-time caregiver for him. Despite such changes in their family, Gina and Emanuel kept things as normal as possible for Sarah and her five-year-old brother.
“When we were kids, for about two years, we never really knew what was happening,” Sarah recently told Mesothelioma.com. “It was pushed to the side and hidden for some time to make it seem like it wasn’t so serious and to keep us strong for our dad. We were never negative and always did the things we would usually do, like go on vacation, play outside and go out as a family.”
“My mom was the only one who really knew what was going on,” Sarah continued. “After some time, I caught on. I just brushed it over the best I could to hide the pain of thinking something could go wrong. But as the years went by, that’s when all the emotions came in.”
应对诊断和治疗
有了这样的晚期疾病，莎拉的父亲最初被赋予预后六个月. Doctors treated him with multiple rounds of chemotherapy, and Emanuel was eventually eligible for a debulking surgery to remove tumors. However, the mesothelioma continued to spread, and theside effects of the treatments对伊曼纽尔和整个家庭造成了损失。
莎拉回忆说：“一旦情况开始恶化，我的生活发生了很大变化。”“放学后每天都在医院看我父亲躺在床上，变得更苗条，失去头发，无法独自行走，今天仍然会给我带来倒叙。”
随着父亲的间皮瘤癌症的发展万博专业版，莎拉还记得在家中生活的生活。
“在家里,这不是相同的……天黑了,佤邦s no conversation and people would start to ‘feel bad for us’ when they would come and see us. When we would be around people, they would cry,” Sarah said.
As Emanuel’s condition worsened, Sarah and her brother started overhearing conversations between friends and family that would visit. Sarah remembers hearing anecdotes of horrible moments that had happened overnight at the hospital. Visitors would also talk about the consequences and risks of his treatment, making Sarah and her brother nervous about what would come.
The diagnosis and treatment were tough on the family, and Sarah said it was especially difficult because of how it impacted her “indescribable” relationship with her dad.
“我总是与父亲最亲密，总是对他在整个童年时代所教给我的不同事物感兴趣。我记得在外面看着他从头开始为我们的游泳池建造一个甲板，甚至是他自己定制的吉普车。”
Mixed in with the good times they had together, Sarah can vividly remember the difficulties throughout the years following her dad’s diagnosis and treatment. Thechemotherapy特别是导致许多副作用。伊曼纽尔（Emanuel）经历了医学引起的耳聋，并从高剂量的顺铂发育着蜂巢。当医生改变他的治疗时，伊曼纽尔（Emanuel）恢复了一些听力，但仍然患有其他治疗和间皮瘤相关的副作用。万博专业版
“我仍然记得他的时间表，但是我记得的一件事是他的强大，这是我直到今天一直困扰着我的一件事。他经历的痛苦和痛苦向我们展示永不放弃是很难做到的。”
莎拉继续说：“我记得我们最后一次吃家人。当我妈妈把父亲从医院带回家时，这很难。她做了煎饼，他正在使用电动椅子，因为他无法走路，也瘫痪在手臂上。但是他仍然试图和我们一起吃煎饼，因为他从未放弃。这让他和我们感到沮丧，因为我们都知道他以前的状况。”
Life After Losing Her Dad
Emanuel Costa survived four and a half years with腹膜间皮瘤万博专业版, despite an initial prognosis of six months. Though the family got more time with him, it didn’t make the painful loss any easier.
“当我们被告知父亲去世时，我们知道它即将到来，但是我从来没有意识到这会发生。我仍然记得我们坐在客厅里，我们的祖母告诉我们“他在一个好地方”，但起初并没有点击。”
当家人开始悲伤和处理他的死亡时，前进仍然非常困难。
“失去我父亲是任何人都能体验到的最糟糕的事情。多年来，我妈妈处于严重的抑郁症中，这使我们担心接下来会发生什么。那是一个非常黑暗的地方，”莎拉回忆道。“这不像有一个家庭。感觉破裂了。”
自从他去世以来的几年中，莎拉（Sarah）和她的家人通过提高对石棉和间皮瘤的认识来寻找积极的经验。万博专业版莎拉（Sarah）希望其他人受到罕见癌症的影响，知道他们并不孤单。
“In the future, I’d love to help others with advice or creating a place people can just come to relax, paint, color, read and just air out their thoughts. When I was going through this, I never shared any thought or pain to my family or friends, but today it’s catching up to me.”
Sarah hopes her experience can help others watching their loved ones go through a similar diagnosis. Even though it’s hard, Sarah believes staying strong and focusing on one’s mental and emotional wellbeing can make all the difference when facing a rare cancer.
Sarah advised, “Just be by their side and show them it’s not over. Do activities with them and share as much time as possible with them. Do things that will make them smile and remember it’s normal to fear, be in pain and be negative sometimes. But something I learned is you must talk and share your emotions. Don’t keep everything inside. It’s ok to talk to your friends and family.”
当她继续通过提高认识并帮助他人来尊重父亲时，莎拉总是记得伊曼纽尔给她的建议。
“我总是会听他会教我的事情：相信你的心，永不放弃，坚强，始终保持头脑高。今天，我的方式是因为我父亲教给我的东西。”
