Neck Cancer 4 Years later

Sometimes it is hard for me to believe I went down to 128 pounds when I was on cancer treatment. A few times I thought I wasn't going to make it, like when I ended up in the cardiac ward. I'm not going to preach to you about it. You know what it can do to your health.

That was 4 years ago and I am now up to 180 pounds. I was one of the lucky ones so far. A lot of people who had neck cancer don't make it this long after diagnosis. A lot of people don't make it without radical surgery that leaves them deformed for life. I was lucky alright. I was lucky the chemo and radiation only left me with severe neuropathy, a paralyzed bicep, and several numb spots here and there.

Lucky for me that the young me went and joined the Navy 42 years ago. Because of that one move I was covered with Veterans Health Benefits. Without that I might be dead now.

One has to learn something from that, or waste a perfectly good learning opportunity. I learned a couple things from my time fighting cancer. One thing is that no matter how much you like to smoke tobacco now, you might just end up hating yourself later for it. You may as well stop smoking right now. It makes you look like a dumbass.

The other thing I learned is, no matter how you served our nation, that being in the military or just working 40 hours a week as a civilian, no one deserves to be left out in the cold with no help when they are in trouble with some deadly disease. I don't care if you only have two nickels to rub together, we are one tribe and we must help each other.

Please give up tobacco. Then you may not have to go through the misery I went through. You got any kids? Don't make them suffer the other way cancer caused me to suffer. I had the undesirable task of caring for my mother when she was dying of stage 4 lung cancer. I listened to her last words as she struggled for air as I held her. "Let me breath!" she begged. My tearful reply, "I just don't know what to do." Let me tell you something! You don't want to go through that. You don't want to force your children to go through that. I say force because they love you. They don't want to see you die in their arms, but they love you so much, they will care for you until the very end. It would be much easier on them if you died a sudden death, like in a auto accident, then to watch you slowly and painfully die.

Take it from me, a cancer survivor, and a man who has lost a lot of relatives to the ravages of tobacco, stop any way you can and stop real soon. Don't allow your future self to suffer the agony of cancer. Imagine yourself way underwater trying to breath. Don't allow your children to suffer watching as they watch you die a slow agonizing death. It isn't fair to them one little bit. It's cruel.