Morning all, I felt compelled to write this little note as an inspiration if nothing else for us here at the CP forum. I came home from going to school with my grandson this morning to find my husband visiting with an unknown fella in a wheelchair in our garage. My husband has been building a new workbench for a over a week now and the fella saw this going on as he got up to the driveway. Husband likes doing woodworking and it quite talented at it.
I made my way up to the garage and introduced myself to this fella. I learned he lives two blocks behind us and I knew I had not seen him on our street before. He was telling us that he too is into woodworking, but since losing the use of his entire left side of his body he is fearful of using small tools and objects afraid he may cut himself. He went further to tell us he lost use of his left side due to chemo therapy he had done previously. He was dx'd with inoperable brain cancer Jan of 2009 and was told to get his affairs in order that he would be pushing it to live to November. He has been thru various rounds of different chemotherapy and radiation. He stated that early on he had a wonderful nurse at his oncologists office that spent a great deal of time with him and got on a personal level with him and his wife. He had to be built up because his immune system was shot long before any of the heavy hitters ever were started. She informed him that there was many different kinds of chemo for brain cancer but a dr would not touch a patient with some of it unless their immune system was good. This nurse got together a lot of information on "juicing" to build the immune system. He said the first month was the toughest and it tasted horrible. He said he dedicated himself to juicing no matter what and it boosted his immune system 500%. His drs continue to be shocked that he is in excellent condition when his body has been ravaged by the hard cancer drugs. He said to us, can I prove it that juicing did this, no, because there is not enough info out there or any studies done to prove it. But, he says I know I would not still be here if it were not for doing this. He is currently on a chemo drug now that is fairly new and it either kills the person within two weeks or they can live as long as 10-12 years. He says the drug is probably one of the hardest ones he has done so far and he really feels the ill effects of it.
What amazed me is as I stood there talking and listening to this man, I never heard him complain, no pity me please, nor was he bitter. He has obvious deficits, but other than that not knowing him he is your average guy. I can't begin to explain how I felt after meeting this man, except to say to my husband after this fella left. My words were "and we think we have troubles and problems, how would you like to have his?" He is the most courageous person I have ever met in my life and it was a real eye opener to say the least. It was almost like a wake up call.
Hope everyone has a decent day.
Susie