Spreading Faster than Cancer
Late last year, my sister was running out of pillows. For weeks she was having trouble breathing whenever she lay in bed. At first piling up pillows behind her head helped. But when she had already piled them so high and still couldn't breathe well, she knew it might be more serious.
When she went for a check up, she was told there was fluid in her lungs - a lot of it that kept coming back even when the doctors drain it. The first suspicion was tuberculosis, but that was later ruled out. Soon the doctors identified the cause: by some strange complication, what’s in her lungs was abdominal fluid, which was being pushed up by a growth in her ovaries. It was cancer and she was told it was stage 4.
This sister of mine is the doctor in the family, so you can imagine how lost and confused we were now that the one person who knows how best to take care of all of us is the one who is sick.
But she had always been strong. She patiently explained every detail of her condition to us. She knew how to deal with the pain. (Though the nurses were all nervous around her because she knew their job better than they did.) She has 4 kids and she and her psychologist husband somehow managed to explain the situation to them in such a way that the kids knew the gravity of it but managed to cope.
In turn, my family helped in various ways. One sister spent time with their kids. Another sister spent time at the hospital and stayed by my sick sister’s side as much as she could. Our eldest sister was with “Couples for Christ” so she offered masses and prayers. My brother in New York called often and offered financial aid. And me? I had to take on the responsibility that no one else was equipped to handle. Before she went for chemotherapy, I took charge of getting my sister a wig.
But that’s oversimplifying things. Truth is, we all did a bit of everything. And when all was done, there still couldn’t be enough prayers. My brother-in-law’s friends from school helped him organize a special mass. I went to the miraculous shrines of Manaoag and Baclaran. My partner went to a healing priest and offered “proxy healing” for her by bringing her picture along.
We all prayed for a miracle. And, without us realizing, one was being granted to us - slowly but surely.
Last March the operation to remove the tumor was tricky. But somehow my sister did not only pull through without complication, the doctors said they managed to remove 98% of the cancer. The rest, they hoped to remove with chemotherapy.
In April, when my family did our annual Good Friday pilgrimage to Tanay, we thought we were merely there to pray. But it was through conversations with relatives (that we only see once a year) that an aunt of ours introduced us to this herbal medicine called “Himalayan Goji” that was so potent it was known to cure various diseases, including cancer. Normally we would be skeptical, but we figured it was worth a try. My sister just had her first chemo session then and was very weak from it. She decided to give Goji a try because, if anything, it had high vitamin C content. After a day, she vowed it made her stronger. And from then on, it was Goji that helped her through chemotherapy. In fact she was able to recover so quickly that within days, she was already driving her kids to school and running errands! Looking at how active she was (and of course, ehem, with the clever wig she was wearing) you wouldn’t think she had cancer.
In June, when she went for a check up, the doctors said she was improving at a dramatic pace. Can’t quite quote exactly how, but the long and the short of it was she was getting better, but she still had a few chemo sessions to go.
By July she was due for a check up that would determine if there were still any cancer cells in her body that would necessitate further chemo. Of all dates it was on her birthday, July 20, that she would get the results. We couldn’t plan any big party to celebrate. All our emotions hung in the balance. As you can imagine, further chemo was proving too taxing – physically (even with Goji to help boost her strength), emotionally and financially.
But it was inevitable. As I said, a miracle was already at work. It was in the skillful hands of my sister’s doctors. It was in the strength of my sister’s resolve. It was in that Good Friday when my aunt introduced us to Goji. It was in the way my sister’s husband took care of her and the way our family bonded and worked together. It was in the way our relatives and our friends prayed. It was in the way everyone, even the kids, stayed strong and supportive and in good spirits. Everything was pre-ordained and everything was quickly leading to something and it all pointed to one thing.
For what can spread faster than cancer, but a miracle?
And so, on her 47th birthday, after over half-a-year of battling stage 4 of the big C, my sister was diagnosed to be in good health.
Hallelujah, indeed!
After the much talked about UP Film Center screening, Filipino writer-director Jun Lana's "Roxxxanne" was a hit at Robinson's Galleria. More screenings to come!