To All
Here is a post made by Chuck Rossier, a fellow prostate cancer patient. I thought the post was wonderful and have permission to share it with all of you. My reply to him is at the end of his post.
Here is a man who knows how to live!!!
Don
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From Chuck:
There is nothing special about today - except that I am alive. A long time ago I posted my digest on this list and I expect that hardly anyone paid attention then or remembers it now. I will repeat a few of the highlights here: 12/97 PSA 8.6, 3/98 RRP - aborted due to positive lymph nodes, 4/98 began CHB, 9/98 EBRT. Interspersed with those events are a broken leg, a kidney stone, an emergency gall bladder removal, and 3 episodes of pulmonary emboli.
Today I struggle with incontinence from the EBRT, suffer hot flashes and impotence from the CHB, am subjected to an endless string of blood tests, have to enter the hospital for a week or more for a simple procedure such as a colonoscopy. I have accepted that my future promises bone metastases and an extended period of increasing pain culminating in a death that I will welcome as a release from my suffering.
So, why do I celebrate today? I celebrate because today I feel good. I have a wonderful wife who loves me a great deal and wants me with her regardless of how fast I can run, how much weight I can bench press, how many times a night we can have sex, how much I can remember about yesterday. I have two wonderful children - although at 23 and 21 they are not children except to my wife and I. They constantly show their love to me both in words and by their conduct of their lives.
On most days I can go out and run in the woods along the river bank. I chase deer, wild turkeys, geese, woodchucks, squirrels, and numerous flocks of birds. I marvel at the beauty of the wild flowers and the smell of their fragrance. I pause to watch the insects drink their nectar. I peer in amazement at the patterns of dew droplets on flower stalks. I don't run as fast or as far as I did two years ago, but I rejoice in the pleasure of feeling my feet glide along the trail and thrill to the coolness of a breeze in my face.
Yesterday, I began a new venture - teaching 4-8 year old children how to swim. With my own children now grown I had forgotten how wonderful it is to watch a young child learning while having fun. Soon, I expect to begin teaching nursing home patients how to use a computer. I don't know what to expect from that venture, but I plan to have fun doing it.
Near the end of a week in the hospital I asked my wife to pickup a bouquet of roses to put on the nursing station. I can't describe the feeling I got from the comments the nurses and doctors made or just watching as one after another nurse went up, smelled the flowers, and their faces lit up with joy.
I don't know how much time I have left, but I intend to have as much fun as I can.
Shalom,
Chuck Rossier
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My Reply:
Chuck
That is absolutely the best post I have read, coming from the heart of a man who is going to enjoy life to the fullest regardless of what lurks in our bodies.
I am doing fine but find myself doing less work on PCa of which I feel guilty about. Michiko has quit work and we are spending ore time together during the day. Before she was out and I would work at the PC. I think I live as you live and told in the post. My time has been spent in helping others through the internet as you well know. I have time to spend with my two little one who are not 5 and 8. We had a wonderful month long trip in August in which we traveled 3000 miles in the motor home. We are going to try to do a longer one next summer.
Life is wonderful, there is beauty to behold every day, every place one looks. When I cuddle with Michiko or set with the kids on my lap there is nothing else going on - just me and them. No cares, no cancer, no worries - just love.
Don
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Diet, Vitamins, Supplements
Drug Interaction - Dangers
The Median Isn't The Message
The Battle - Personal Stories
Prostate-Help Web Sites.
PHID Items of Interest
