Here's some exclusive content that I wanted to tease you with.
A part when I went back to work after the surgery, then finding out my tumour was malignant, and having to go through Treatments. Enjoy!
PART 3:The Truth about it all…
The day came for me to step into the office. I was nervous and excited to get back to work. I guessed I missed the people, the community. The first week there felt great cuz I was welcomed and greeted by everyone, telling them what happened, and watching them light up when I was done. Not long before I was diagnosed, another co-worker of ours didn’t make it through his experience with cancer. Seeing me fight and survive it gave other people inspiration.
When it finally came to get to work, I thought I’d be excited to do it. I took a step back and looked around. Everyone was at their workstations focused on their tasks at hand, though it was busy, it seemed pretty lifeless. I started to get the thoughts that I really didn’t want to do this for the next 5 years, even the next year. Again, I went back to the goal of getting out of debt and for the next couple of weeks, bit the bullet and pushed through it. Before the next part, I already pretty much knew that this wasn’t the place for me in the long term, so this happened.
While at my desk, I got a call on my cell phone from my Oncologist. I quickly found a private spot to take the call and answered it. Thinking it was some good news cuz it took a while for him to get back to me, I was sorta blessed with his news. I was given the option of the Bad News and Good News. I asked for the good news first. The good news is that all my brain scans are clear of anything negative. However the bad news was that the tumour was Malignant Stage 3. Meaning that there’s a high change of it returning. Even though there’s no sign of any tumour left in my brain, there could be some small cells lingering around that could possibly grow.
I was quiet for a bit to soak up everything. I was so confident that I was good and this news shocked me. I was told what the next steps would be. He obviously said that the decision is up to me at the end but was recommending a combination treatment of Chemotherapy & Radiation Therapy. I saw what Chemo can do to people and I just didn’t want to go through that. He even went over the possible side/after effects of the treatment. He also stated that everyone is different and will all react differently to it. With all this news coming at me, I asked if I could have a couple of days to think about this and discussed it with some loved ones. I was pretty numb inside and I told my boss that I didn’t feel well. With no hesitation, he let me go home.
When I got home, I saw my parents first. My sister was still at work and was mainly living with her BF (Now Husband) at the time. I would be telling the news to my parents first, then wait for my sister to get home to tell her the situation. Later that night when everyone had all the information processed, I made the decision to just go through with the treatment. I chose to fight it and used my martial arts training to help supplement my experience. With my martial arts training, I knew how to never play the victim and push myself to be better. I knew my immune system would be shot, I thought to myself
“This would be a way to reset my immune system to build it even stronger”
So I would change up my diet to eating clean and developing better sleeping habits. I knew there would be times I’d be weak, so I would have light resistance bands with me to do short exercises. I lived on a hill, so I would use it to take short walks to get my heartbeat up. I just had to stay disciplined.
The next day I called up the oncologist and told him that I’ll be going through with the treatment. He asked me again to confirm and then he started to process. He gave me the date to come in for my first appointment which was an orientation of the process. I then went into work to tell them the news and said that I might be needing to take more time off. They gave me the rest of the day and week off. Before I left, I spoke personally to my co-workers who were close to me. Being all shocked and wishing me the best on this journey. Before I left, I was told that someone from the Head Office will connect with me to have documents filled out. Paperwork sucks.
On the day of my orientation, my mom & sister came with me. I had some paperwork to fill out when we arrived and then chilled in the waiting area. Someone then called me and told me that there was a video to watch. They said that my Mom and Sis can come in and watch cuz it will be beneficial for everyone. The video was pretty much straight forward. What I thought was cool was that I would have this face mold get done so that it will secure my head in place when we do the radiation treatment.
It showed that they stretched this malleable rubbery sheet over the person's face, then got pulled and stretched over the face and neck. They explained you’d need to be still for about a min for the plastic to harden. The next part was the radiation machine they’d be using on me. It looked like a sophisticated operating station. Things moved like a robot; it was crazy. The treatment would only be a matter of minutes, just like getting an X-Ray. The final section was Chemotherapy. I was fortunate enough to be taking the treatment orally. It was Chemotherapy in Pill Form, but the effects would still include the dizziness and nausea. When the video ended, I had this sense of confidence in me that I knew I could do this.
We were then asked to follow the host so that they can give us a tour of the place before we get that plastic mold done. We were taken down to a lower floor and were shown where to go to check in for the radiation treatment. There was a kiosk I was to go to and then they gave me a check in card. I was explained to come here and drop off the card in this basket. There should already be prior information on the card on where to go and when you get the card back, the next date and place is set. Pretty straight forward. Finally, they showed me the pharmacy, the place to get my chemotherapy pills. I was to take the pills every day. My Schedule for the next 6 months was to come in and do radiation Mon-Fri. I had to take the Chemotherapy pills 7 days a week, with re-fills every Friday. For me, I saw that there was an end target and knew I had daily tasks that had to be done. Again, I felt confident I can do this.
Finally it came time to get that mold. My Mom and Sis had to wait in the area for this one. When I got to the place, I was greeted by the tech who had awesome energy. He was a funny guy and got me to chuckle a couple times. There was this shaped table I had to lay on. They told me that they were gonna put on the mold and get started with it. It felt like a warm towel at first and I could then feel them pull it down over my face and neck. There were specific holes in the mold so that you could breathe. I heard the guy say this next part is the most uncomfortable and just hang in there for a bit. It was pretty tight and just remained calm. Finally when they took it off, I had that feeling of relief. Because of the pressure on my eyes from how tight it was, I couldn’t see a thing when I opened them up. I was like blind for a few minutes and had to sit there for a bit. They knew what was happening so they told me to take my time. Slowly my vision started to come back. For those minutes of being uncontrollably blind, it made me realize to be really thankful that I have my sight.
When that was done, I was met with the host and then took me back to the starting point. There I saw my mom and Sis. I was given an overview of everything, the card with the info for radiation treatment, and the prescription paper for the Chemotherapy. With the plans that were made that day, I knew what I was getting into. I could already see days being tough, but I had to make sure that I had to fight through that. Soon after the next journey began.
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Thank you for reading and can't wait to share the rest of it when my book comes out on February 23rd.
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