for an entire year and a half i watched my uncle's battle with his illness and fight for his life. in the beginning he had a massive heart attack . i was at the emergency room and i watched his heart pounding at over 200 beats per minute. his skin was sheathed in a deathly gray. the attending physician told me he only had a few hours to live. i pleaded with him to not leave me, sobbing out of control. my mother told me there was nothing anyone can do, and led me out of the emergency room. he was read his last rites.
miraculously, he lived though the night. when i visited him in the intensive care unit, told how happy i was to see him alive. he told me he had a very strange dream. he was in a tunnel and standing in line with hundreds of people. at the end of the tunnel was a man and two doors. when it was his turn to meet the man, he said the man asked him to choose one of the doors. after he made his choice, the next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital.
a few days later he complained about a pain in his stomach. at first the doctor thought it was an ulcer. than the x-rays revealed that he had a huge ominous mass on his stomach. the mass turned out to be a malignant tumor that devoured half his stomach.
over the next several months i watched him as he slowly withered away and succumbed to cancer--after the surgery, months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. first it started in his gastro-intestinal tract. he had three quarters of his stomach removed. then it spread to his lungs, his vital organs, his brain and everywhere else in his body. he even had tumors that were growing along his spinal column.
i submerged myself in doing research on oncology. i read medical books and talked to his physicians who specialized in their field. i was so desperate to understand this disease. the disease that was slowly killing my uncle and predating on his body. in the end he laid in a delirium being sustained by IVs and morphine drips. it was one of the most painful experiences of my life. when he passed away he weighed a little more than 70 pounds.
miraculously, he lived though the night. when i visited him in the intensive care unit, told how happy i was to see him alive. he told me he had a very strange dream. he was in a tunnel and standing in line with hundreds of people. at the end of the tunnel was a man and two doors. when it was his turn to meet the man, he said the man asked him to choose one of the doors. after he made his choice, the next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital.
a few days later he complained about a pain in his stomach. at first the doctor thought it was an ulcer. than the x-rays revealed that he had a huge ominous mass on his stomach. the mass turned out to be a malignant tumor that devoured half his stomach.
over the next several months i watched him as he slowly withered away and succumbed to cancer--after the surgery, months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. first it started in his gastro-intestinal tract. he had three quarters of his stomach removed. then it spread to his lungs, his vital organs, his brain and everywhere else in his body. he even had tumors that were growing along his spinal column.
i submerged myself in doing research on oncology. i read medical books and talked to his physicians who specialized in their field. i was so desperate to understand this disease. the disease that was slowly killing my uncle and predating on his body. in the end he laid in a delirium being sustained by IVs and morphine drips. it was one of the most painful experiences of my life. when he passed away he weighed a little more than 70 pounds.
Comments:
kga245 (February 25, 2007. 04:08pm)
We had a friend in our family who died from stomach cancer as well. Very similar course of events. The cancer just spread so quickly. In the end, the person you're looking at is so drastically different from the person before the disease. It's so hard to shake the image of death. But there it is. I feel for you, Pep.