My Own Grief in Kubler-Ross' Stages

        This year has been tough for my family. Mainly after hearing my grandmother had terminal, pancreatic cancer. She had one to an exploratory surgery after finding the mass, only to learn she was in one of the early stages of her cancer.
        Following Kubler-Ross's "Grief Cycle," the first stage is ultimately the denial stage. When we heard she had a mass, my family prayed for it to be a clot at most. We were horrified to find it was actually lung cancer. For a while, we didn't believe the diagnosis. That is, until my grandmother told us herself.
        Secondly; the anger stage. We were informed after the diagnosis that, during the exploratory surgery, the surgeons had unintentially spread the cancer in her lungs to her pancreas. We were unbelievably angry. We knew it wasn't the surgeons' fault she developed the cancer, but we needed someone to blame before we could begin to accept the diagnosis.
        Next is the bargaining stage. One of the saddest things I've seen was my grandfather trying to get my grandmother into an experimental drug test. The researchers said this drug had high hopes for curing pancreatic cancer and our family jumped at the opportunity. They, sadly, declined. Mainly, because my grandmother was already ill from the chemo being done on her lung cancer, and they didn't want to take the risk.
        Months later, her lung cancer is gone, but she is still very ill from the pancreatic cancer. The doctor says most of the cancer is gone, but a lot keeps coming back. After hearing this, my grandmother is horribly depressed. She thought she would beat this, but is finally realizing the reality of her situation. She reached the depression stage.
        Now, she goes through her day optimistically. She has her good days and her bad, but once she reached the acceptance stage, she isn't entirely happy with her situation, but she's living through it. And that's all anyone can ask of her.