My Journey to Health: Cancer, Part 2

At first it seemed that my dad did well under the treatment at Oasis. He fought against nausea and a metallic taste in his mouth from the chemo, which made him not want to eat, but other than that, he seemed to be doing okay.

That is, until about seven weeks into it…

That’s when we started to notice a rapid decline in his body, and overall wellbeing. He was losing sleep, and a lot of weight, (though he couldn’t afford to lose either one!) and experiencing more pain, especially in his abdomen around the area of his tumor.

He began to make more frequent trips to Mexico, as they tried and failed to manage his pain. I got the priviledge to accompany him on a few of those trips. And even though they were excruciating, I am so thankful for them, and the things I saw and learned while I was there.

It was there that I experienced a phenomenon that would change the course of my life.

Oasis of Hope believes in combining both conventional and alternative medicine for what they call a Total Cancer Care Program, individually tailored to each person’s body and type of cancer. After extensive reviewing of my dad’s situation, the doctors there felt that a small dose of chemo, combined with mega doses of vitamin c, ozone and other healing therapies would be the best possible route to take in treating his specific lymphoma.

But now that he was having so much trouble from his tumor, they felt the need to change it up and get more aggressive with the chemo. So with my dad’s consent, they upped his dosages and in the meantime, performed a pain blocker procedure on his abdomen to help him cope with the pain. Finally, after several horrific weeks of unbearable misery, he found some relief and some sleep again.

But the roller coaster wasn’t over.

The months that followed were an emotional blur of highs and lows, hope and despair, pain and relief, healing and suffering, as Mexico became my dad’s second home and the people at Oasis became my second family.

He made friends with his IV port as I made friends with the cooks. He found faith in the prayers of the suffering while I found hope in the success stories of other survivors, at the dining room table. We both found strength in the calm reassuring care of the doctors.

During the times that I was there, I walked my dad to every nutrition class they offered and on the days he couldn’t walk, I wheeled him down to his favorite place on the grounds, the Oasis Garden. I made sure he took his supplements, even if I had to hide them in his morning smoothies. I fought for his healing when he was too tired to fight.

I heard his laughter, as we reminisced of times gone by, or spoke of the nurses and the funny comments they had made that day. I caught his tears when another scan came back showing little or no progress. I held his hand and told him he was going to climb mountains again, even when I was afraid he wouldn’t.

I celebrated his victories and felt his despair.

Until one sad sunny day in June, it all ended. The IV’s and the supplements and the raw carrot juices stopped. The roller coaster ended as abrubtly as it had started and he lost his fight.

Four short months after his diagnosis, the whirlwind was over and my father entered into Eternal Rest.

Continued in next week’s My Journey to Health: Cancer, Part 3