He Just Keeps on Living
What a wonderful face. He looks a lot like a young Lance Armstrong, lean and fit with a soft smile and a voice that pulls you closer because you don’t want to miss a word of what he has to say. He knows his medical record better than any doctor. He can tell you what his counts are and what his last scan showed and of the ten or twelve chemo’s he’s tried, which one seemed to work the best. Actually, they all seem to have worked pretty well. When you ask him how he feels, he’ll tell you he’s had a little discomfort.
Not exactly.
Thinking back, I remember how Leroy responded when he was asked that question. He would answer the same way. “Feels kind of like the flu,” or “It’s not too bad, it passes.” What I would remember was a very different reaction to those nasty cancer drugs. Just like yesterday, when the wife of this young man spoke up and spoke the truth.
But like Leroy, this cancer patient, refuses to give, even the slightest advantage to the disease. By not acknowledging that the chemo makes him crazy sick, he’s still in the drivers seat. He’s still in control. One of the most important parts of living with cancer, is staying in control.
Who knows how much longer this pillar of strength will be in that position.
He was at the cancer center yesterday to meet and listen to a different set of doctors, who remind him of himself. They are willing to take safe, agressive steps and think outside the box, if that’s what it will take to keep on living.
He’s already thrown the survival stats on his disease out the window. He’s the patient the doctors talk about when they quote the science numbers for a particular cancer treatment. So many die, so many live an extra 3 months and then there’s the one who just keeps on living.
That’s the best stat of all.
Kasper Suits Petite
April 16, 2011 @ 3:00 pm
Kasper Suits…
[…especially worthwhile and I’m going to use it on my personal internet site, thanks for your time..]…
March 31, 2011 @ 1:54 pm
It’s much easier to get here than I thought! Margaret, rest assured I will add your family members to my prayer list. It is almost the worst nightmare to have your child ill. Life is so full of peaks and valleys. Some valleys are pretty low. Watching all the basketball upsets lately, I am reminded that people really can beat the odds.
March 31, 2011 @ 12:21 pm
Just found you all over here…
I’m celebrating 2 years post cancer treatment, and as soon as I told my husband, I got a call from my brother. His son who is 6 is having an MRI tomorrow. They suspect sarcoma or lymphoma. I know this is a group with a lot of faith. Please keep my nephew, and my brother and sister-in-law in your prayers. My brother was sobbing as he told me the story.
March 30, 2011 @ 7:30 pm
Here’s hoping that this young man is one of those miracles that come around once in a while. Fighters should be rewarded. Jim never let cancer know it had the upper hand either. I was thinking today how a couple of times when the spring weather was so irresistible he would insist I stay at work and he would ride his motorcycle to chemo treatments. Of course the oncology nurses would just have a spell over it but they knew him well enough to let him leave when he thought he was ready. That was his reward for what he had to go through that day. He never gave up until the strokes made him forget to fight. I hope Heaven has a good Harley shop.