“Hi everyone, I’m 5 weeks old today, I hope those of you who are not yet 5 are doing well!” On April 23, 2018, I wrote my “birthday” wish in a group of 247 people with lung cancer.
“Congratulations!
“Congratulations, Zhu!”
“I want to learn from you, Laozhu.” …… The screen was full of flowers and wishes. My thoughts couldn’t help but drift back 5 years: my son and daughter were by my side, and our family of three nervously stared at the doctor, waiting for his diagnosis.
“Adenocarcinoma, advanced stage. Be prepared, the best case scenario is 5 months ……” I can’t remember the rest of the words because my mind was blank at the time, with only one voice repeating back and forth: “Only 5 months at most”.
Healthy as I am, I have cancer?
My name is Lao Zhu, I was only 45 years old when I was diagnosed with lung cancer, and I was working in a southern city for a living.
I’ve been in the military and I’ve always done manual labor, so I’ve always been in good health, and I rarely even catch a cold, let alone go to the hospital. But in the spring of 2013, things changed. I started coughing a lot, with chest pain and sometimes blood. I didn’t know much about diseases and didn’t think it was a big deal, but my son and daughter were worried and kept asking me to go to the hospital. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.
With 5 months left, do I need to be treated?
Almost gave up on treatment
“In your case, you need chemotherapy, which costs about $5,000 a time. Let’s do 4 sessions and see.” I had been given a death sentence by the doctor, but my instinct to live was still hopeful. But the doctor said the cost of treatment poured a pot of cold water on my heart. 5,000 for one visit, 20,000 for 4 visits. And my savings is only 20,000 points, my son and daughter are in college, and one will soon take the college entrance exams, the 20,000 yuan to pay their tuition …… I made up my mind: no more treatment! The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers.
Just as I was about to walk out the door, my children took my hand left and right: “Dad, you have to treat your illness. Let’s go out and make money!” My son even knelt down, pulling my arm and whimpering, and my daughter was also holding me up, her face full of tears. “Dad, please, we can’t live without you.”……
I looked away, tears streaming down my face.
Sons and daughters hold up their hearts
After repeated pleas from my children, I started chemotherapy. My body is in good shape and I didn’t feel as much pain during chemotherapy as others said, but I lost all my hair and my weight dropped from 150 pounds to 110 pounds. Most of all, “I have at most 5 months to live” was like a big mountain weighing down on my heart, making my body even weaker after 4 chemotherapy treatments. I felt very weak for half a month after chemotherapy, and I was desperate for life, anxious and apprehensive every day.
My son and daughter, on the other hand, have been working hard for the family. The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. …… Looking at the tired and thin faces of my two children and thinking about my 70-year-old father who is still at home, I made up my mind: no matter what the outcome is, I will fight the cancer to the end!
Vitality is “living hard”
.
That’s when I started to fight for my life.
The change started with my lifestyle: I started to eat mainly vegetarian, supplemented by one egg and two taels of meat a day. The main food is sweet potatoes, potatoes and yams, with a small amount of rice, red bean porridge or millet porridge, and a glass of freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice each morning and evening. After I got sick, I seldom went out and often lay in bed. But after resolving to fight cancer, I woke up at 7:00 every day and went to the park to walk and shake my hands until I was slightly sweating. After lunch break, I also go to the park for an hour to walk around and play chess occasionally. My WeChat exercise steps, almost every day to maintain more than 10,000 steps …… slowly, my body has strength, because the chemotherapy lost hair and beard also slowly grow out, which gives me a lot of confidence: this shows that my body is still alive and vital, I want to go along this right direction!
Then I had genetic testing on the advice of my doctor, took erlotinib for 3 years based on the test results, switched to oxitinib when it became resistant, and am still managing my disease with targeted therapy.
For cancer patients, 5 years is a “ghost gate”, but after all the difficulties of advanced cancer, family poverty, and drug resistance, I made it through. Why me? I had a death sentence of “5 months at most”! When I think about it, I think it has something to do with the fact that I have been working very hard, living with a positive attitude and improving my lifestyle persistently. I’ve always cherished every day, every possibility of recovery, and I’m very calm, focused and thorough – life, you have to live it well to be alive!
I hope every cancer patient can use cancer as a chance to turn around and live a real life!