I'm an athlete. I trained for two years to prepare my body and mind to participate in an Ironman Triathlon. This required discipline. I spent 3 hours a day training, monitoring heart rate, and measuring my performance. I learned how to eat or "fuel" for short or long runs. I learned how to use electrolyte supplements to ease muscle cramps so I could train longer. I hired coaches to help me improve my technique and form with swimming, running and biking. I would concentrate on improving just one or two things in each training session. I focused on improving on what I had done before and shunned any comparisons to others. This was a personal challenge, to improve on my own terms and no one else.
And despite all of this, Testicular cancer manifested in my body. A tumor that ballooned to the size of a basketball that crushed two
vertebrae, lumbar 1 and 2. It strangled my stomach so I could not eat more than 2 teaspoons of food at a time and made it hard to breathe. I lost over 60 lbs. and ironically, I looked like I was 6 months pregnant with all of the symptoms, i.e. back ache. I was reduced to sleeping most of the day and kept up at night with dry mouth and a back that ached so badly that I had to muffle my cries in a pillow to not alarm my wife and children.
Death was a looming possibility. All of my efforts seemed to be in vain. I tried many medical devices and healers applied their skills with little effect. Everything that I thought I knew was thrown back into my face in a merciless mockery. I felt guilty for having this sickness. How will my family survive without me? Why did I let this happen? Where is the justice in having this condition? Where art thou God? His answer was simple: "right here. I never left you." I underwent 12 weeks of chemotherapy, you can read about it
here. It was harsh, I almost needed a blood transfusion a few times because my white blood cell counts went so low and I had a fever several times. Friends and family prayed for my recovery.
I was comforted and strengthened when I needed it most. My sister Lynell, my brother Mark, my aunt Elma, my cousin Theresa, my nieces Melissa and Leah and my mother came to visit. I had a vision of our family line going back to the patriarchs of old, a wonderful gathering of the family where we sat down for a meal while hearing the stories of our ancestors and afterwards danced together. The witness of the holy ghost was very strong as I related what I saw.
I have made many changes to adapt to living with cancer. I started juicing raw
carrots,
apples,
beets,
ginger,
turmeric and other mixed greens and fruits. I eat salads with mixed vegetables and nuts as condiments. I drink
Peppermint and
Essiac tea instead of water. I perform a daily cleansing with a
coffee enema. I spend a few hours in quiet
meditation and
prayer. I write. I work part-time as a
technical writer. I walk a mile or two to stretch out my back. Recently, I have been having 3
chiropractic and 2
massage visits a week.
Recovery is coming along well. I track my progress with blood tests, e.g. Alpha-Fetoprotein (
AFP) and
Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). I monitor the size and shape of the tumor by laying on my back and pressing down into my abdomen. I feel the lump in my back. The shape and size changes daily. I have my doubts some days. I refused an Retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (
RPLND) surgery because I thought the price was too high: a kidney, lymph nodes and probably another round of
chemotherapy. I still have the goal to complete an Ironman Triathlon.
