It can be a real opportunity to get healthy.
Well it all started back in 1991 when I broke my leg of all things whilst I was playing golf. It was a PR day with a company that I had a really big contract with, my six year old daughter said please don’t go dad you said you were going to take me to the movies, wow I should have taken her advice. When I was recuperating in hospital she said you should have taken me to the movies dad.
Moving along to 1993 well would you believe it I do a back flip off the top of a ladder 4.5 m onto a slate verandah and crush fracture two of the vertebrae in my back (I broke my back) and my hand in a number of places. There is always a cause and effect – for every action well since my leg was badly broken on the golf course my leg and ankle were in plaster for over a year that was the cause and because of this my ankle was prone to over rotate that was the effect when I stepped on the ladder to descend the roof needless to say another couple of years of crap to come to terms with.
Well during those past 4 years believe it or not yes that is right you guessed it PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, like you would not believe. Well it took me another few years to wade my way through that lot with the help of a really good physiologist he did not look Chinese but his name was Nomchong and he said to me shit Kevin did you kill a chinaman. There is no malice in that statement it is an old saying in Australia I guess if you kill a chinaman that’s bad luck, I guess if you kill anybody that s bad luck. Well I thought about that statement for a while and just got on with it.
Rolling forward now into 1999 I have not told you before but you may have guessed I was a roofing contractor, so it is somewhere early 1999 I am up on a roof working when I get a call on my hand held mobile phone someone wants a quote so I put the phone to my left ear so I can have my right hand free to write down the details and what happens all I get is static it was not the phone it was my ear – guess what – big brain tumour so get that removed in the end of 1999.
Can you sort of imagine the stress going on here now – so let’s get back to the future where in 2005 the brain tumour comes back so we monitor it each year with MRI scans do I get rid of my mobile phone – why would I do that, should have, would have, could have but after having one since 1988 I did not until 2009 when I started getting earaches or should I say an earache I lost the hearing in my left ear when I had the brain tumour removed – I have not used one since and really do not miss it.
Coming into January 2011 I am about to go to work next day January 3 when I get a really bad pain in my chest area cut a long story short I have my gall bladder removed and they tell me while I am in hospital there is a little spot on your left kidney you should have it checked out when you get over this lot.
A couple of months later when I am about to take on the world I said to my wife I should go and get that little spot on my kidney checked out, well what did I think it was probably just a bit of fat nothing to worry about – guess what shock turns to horror it is a 66mil cancerous tumour on my left kidney – yeah after all the shit that has happened over the past two decades, I did say why me.
Well after going to so many seminars and my friend Mr Nomchong I thought OK lets be positive lets get this thing out of me and get rid of the cancer and that will be that and we will go on as usual.
Had the operation and on the last day in hospital the surgeon comes to see me when I am finally coherent and he starts to tell me that the operation was a success everything went well then I said did you get all the cancer, his answer was I think so. That’s not the answer I was looking for.
However I told myself the cancers gone and just went on my merry way did not do anything special did not change my diet, or do anything to try and help myself. Doctors do not tell you about those things that you can do to help yourself.
There is a show on television in Australia called “Winners & Losers” and one of the main actors mother gets breast cancer well the whole family’s in shock, it is the end of the world mum’s got the dreaded disease – cancer.
But when I tell my family I have got cancer they seem to think dads just got a bad cold don’t get me wrong my family are very supportive and really love me and would do anything for me but I guess after two decades of seeing dad playing Russian roulette with his health it is sort of getting boringly the norm.
Well coming forward to early 2012 after 2 or 3 scans it is getting hard to keep up with, I am told I have got metastasised cancer to my lungs and I am sent to a lung surgeon who tells me he cannot do anything for me as where the nodules are located in my lungs he cannot even do a biopsy he refers me to an oncologist and the oncologist tells me he cannot do chemo for what I have he could give me some medication that will make me really sick and you will feel like shit but it will not do anything for you, then he basically says go and enjoy the rest of your life there is really nothing that can be done for you.
He fills out a form for another scan and says come back and see me in 3 months. He did say you have years to go not months well that is not really good enough for me I am 69 now and I want to see all my grandchildren turn 21, that will take me into my 90’s – however what the oncologist did say was there is a really good book written by Ian Gawler ‘How to Conquer Cancer’, I said wow funny you should say that my daughter is a naturopath and she has given me that book from a friend and I am reading it now.
As my daughter was in her last months to graduate to be a naturopath she was always giving me good advice before I knew I had cancer she was telling me to stop eating lollies and sugary things because tumours thrive on sugar and that will not do your brain tumour any good. She also told me that having excessive scans can further exacerbate the cancer so I decided to cancel my appointment for 3 months and I would make another one when I was ready. So I organised to have a scan 7 months later when I was scheduled to have a brain scan.
Well me thinking that the secondary cancer I had now was a death warrant, believe it or not I immediately became a vegetarian I was taking any advice I could, I read the book ‘You Can Cure Cancer’ by Ian Gawler and other books, then my family said you should go to the Gawler Foundation Retreat. This is a 10 day retreat that teaches you how to live with cancer and sometimes beat it. Well I said we really can’t afford it and my wife said is your life not worth $3,000.
I did the retreat and that was the best money I ever spent in my life, I was with 30 other people who were in the same boat as me some were more advanced, we all learnt an immense amount of knowledge of how to live with cancer and I came out of that with so much life changing experience to explain it you would have to write a novel come to think of it this blog is really starting to seem like a novel. If you have cancer you owe it to yourself to read Ian Gawler’s book at least.
We can all say Oh shock horror I’ve got cancer, I’m going to die and become a patient and just leave it up to the doctors and feel sorry for yourself however it is going to work a lot better if we try and help ourselves as well.
What have I done in the past 7 months I am a total vegetarian that is vegetables and a bit of fruit, herbal teas and filtered water plus herbal supplements. What I do not do – no sugar, no salt, no alcohol, no coffee, no tea, no dairy, no animal products including any type of meat. Sound boring well it is for awhile but you get used to it.
Every morning I do half hour of Chi Gong, half an hour of meditation. I go through anything from 14-20 kilograms of carrots a week for juicing that relates to 5 to 7 juices a day it all seems really hard and time consuming however it beats dying hands down as well as the carrots I also juice celery and beetroot – all organic. I use as much organic produce in my diet as I can get my hands on.
I must admit my wife is becoming a 5 star chef when it comes to cooking vegetables. I always look forward to my food I eat a lot of almonds. My daughter has given me lots of information on things that are good for me.
Now the best of being a vegan and living clean I no longer get the following ailments:- irritable bowel syndrome – gone, diverticulitis – gone, I have not had a bout of that in seven months. Was taking reflux medication for 6 years, do not need it anymore, my body is alkaline. Do not get hay fever any more gone and best of all lost 15 kilograms or 33 lbs and I feel so fit I could jump over the moon, I generally ride my bike around Lake Burley Griffin everyday and there is more to come later.
It is quite a shock when your first told you have cancer everyone thinks that only other people get cancer and it will never happen to you but it can happen to anyone at any time in their life.
Well the past seven months since I was told I have secondary cancer I won’t tell a lie it has been hard but every day you get more used to it and it is worth it. At first I thought when I walk into a mall with all the food that is available I cannot eat any of it I cannot drink any of it. They say stress is the number one contributor to most chronic diseases I can honestly say I have had my fair share of that.
SO GETTING TO THE CONCLUSION OF THIS MINI NOVEL BLOG
Last Thursday I had bone and lung scans to see how my cancer has progressed well the bone scans were all clear no cancer there , the lung scan found that there was a small lesion on the adrenal gland that had increased slightly since the last scan, on the first scan of my lungs showed a cluster of nodules the two largest being 5mil on the next scan showed that the cluster had increased and the two largest nodules had increased to 7 mil that is a 40% increase in size this is when I was told to go and enjoy the rest of my life. Well the last scan on Thursday showed that these two largest nodules had decreased in size very significantly and the cluster had decreased. I raised my concerns with the oncologist about the lesion on the adrenal gland and he looked at me and laughed and said I would not be worrying about that I have only ever seen this cancer being reversed once before and that was 6 years ago you are really lucky I have a waiting room full of patients and they would all gladly swap places with you.
On that note I went away feeling I was winning the battle and everything I have been doing over the past 7 months has been worth it, it is early days yet but as the book says I really do think you can conquer cancer.