Buiding A Possitive Attitude

Hunt had asked me to write a post for our blog about our preparation for the trip to the Burzynski Clinic and I kept postponing the task. Not because I didn’t have the time nor the events to write about; I had way too many things in my mind and didn’t know where to start. Although we’ve been on this cancer journey for almost a year now sometimes I feel like it’s just a dream or nightmare and if I try to wake up then the nightmare would go away. It didn’t go away and here I am writing for the blog.

The only good thing about this cancer is it has given me an opportunity to observe the people around me, and to learn how they behave differently under certain circumstances, and that these behaviors of humanity have always existed. The person that surprised me a lot even though I always knew how amazing she is, was my mother-in-law, Barbra. She emerged into this cancer journey as a caring mother with her strong personality and an ability to handle any situation which I couldn’t believe if someone had told me before. She never wants to admit her age, but living more than three quarters of a century – I’ll let you to do the math, would have given her all that strength and the attitude of I-will-never-give-up that her son will be getting better. In just a short period of time she could find out the information that I needed by researching the Internet or by simply making phone calls. The most challenging task that she’s been handling pretty well was to survive being around with Hunt while he was not in a good mood due to pain, or suffering from the side effects of the medications. Not being a mother myself, I couldn’t imagine what else a mother could have done for her children.

Hunt’s cousin Sharon was another character that has appeared into our journey as an incredible person. She was the one who fired up the questions about Hunt’s health issues when we came to her house for the Seder last year, two days after Hunt had the liver biopsy. Since then, Sharon has been involved heavily with us by providing us deep information about liver cancer and pros and cons of the treatments that Hunt has been given. The thing I really appreciated about Sharon was she never told us what to do but left the decision for us to make as any treatment would have the side effects as well as the benefits. With the Burzynski treatment protocol which focuses on Hunt’s genetic tumor markers HER2+, she would give us the benefit of the doubt by moving forward on making comments about the treatment regimen without questioning if Dr. Burzynski may be a quack. Hunt and I have brought Sharon’s notes with detailed questions with us to the appointment with Dr. Kelley at the VA San Francisco, then to the appointment with Dr. Anderson at the Burzynski Clinic and it turned out her notes were very helpful. These notes may have been boring for those who are luckily not dealing with cancer but for those who are fighting cancer for their lives, I will be happy to share them with you, of course with Sharon’s permission. On top of everything that Sharon has done to help us out, Craig, her husband, has always been there for us too. He’s even coming over to set us up with Skype, so we’ll be able to see our families on the East Coast and in Vietnam! 

 

Another character I would like to mention is my sister-in-law Al who I usually call “Bro.” As very smart and brilliant as she is, Al’s role in her brother’s cancer journey has been very unique. Through her social network, she found Dr. Katie Kelley at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco and was able to get an appointment for Hunt to be seen within the next few days while we had been struggling with Kaiser to find a decent oncologist. Dr. Kelley has turned out to be a quite incredible oncologist and we feel lucky to have her. Recently with the Burzynski clinic treatment protocol when our funds for Hunt’s treatment became scarce, Al has volunteered to help us by working with our cousin Craig and friend (Hunt’s ex-wife) Katie Macks to organize fundraisers for Hunter. I know running a law firm and taking care of her son Amir would take up much up her time so I really appreciated the time and effort that Al has put in to help us.

It wouldn’t be a complete picture if I didn’t mention Aunt Rhoda and Uncle Stan, cousin Nicole and her family, my mother-in-law’s friends Judy, Carol, Ray, and Hunt’s friends Diane and Lauren and best friend Marvin. Together they give us hope and help us build a positive attitude that Hunt will be in remission.