MIKE'S STORY

He Refused Chemo Therapy

By Victor M Adamus

One of my closest friends who has a friend named Mike, came down to Florida this past Monday to help with funeral plans for his friend who died this past Sunday of lung cancer.  Mike was a person who enjoyed life, worked for the same company for 20 years, had no wife or kids, but many friends who will miss his sense of humor and compassion for those less fortunate than himself. 

Two years ago, with no complaints, his doctor ran the usual tests on the 61 year old and discovered a spot on his lung which was too small to biopsy.  With lung cancer there is great risk regardless, of doing a needle biopsy.  Most doctors suggest Chemo therapy or radiation, a PET scan to see if the spot is carrying any heat.  Mike refused the treatments as he was convinced these were old aged spots normal to his age group and left it alone.  A year later a PET scan revealed five spots, one of tumor size, and he was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He was also told that Chemo was now a 50/50 proposition because he left it late but not too late to extend his life for another six months to a year, maybe more. 

His first experience with Chemo was his last.  He couldn’t take the vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and pain.  His blood count showed he was also anemic and had to have a neupogen shot before each treatment.  He simply gave up and asked how much time was left and the doctors said less than a year.

With a year left he resigned his engineering job and took his Harley to the streets of Florida, visiting Key West, Tampa and spent a month up in the Panhandle.  He visited friends, flew up north, but his greatest joy was to stay at home where he could wade into the Banana River and scoop up shrimp which he packed on ice for a daily treat.  He loved Shrimp!

When he was put on pain killers, too sick to even get to the store, he notified his brother up in Connecticut, friends up north and a friend here in Melbourne that his time was near.  Mike signed up for Hospice and the doctors there told him six weeks to 90 days but Mike’s pain and sickness was becoming worse by the hour and he gave up, died in one week.  It was a shock to all who knew him.

He didn’t leave a Will, just scores of notes a Hospice nurse helped him write, and signed three checks so the funeral home could be paid.  His estate will likely be probated, something he told friends would never happen.  His remains will be spread upon the waters of the Banana River sometime this year when all his friends can be here together to remember him.

Was Mike in denial?  Most of us think so.  His chances of survival were at the front end of this disease, not the back end.  It almost sounds like the type of thinking Steve Jobs went through.  When Jobs wanted treatment it was too late. 

Sooner or later life comes to full circle.  The time in-between is quality time to enjoy the planet Earth, learn as much as you can, love what you do at work, love friends and family, go on trips, see the world, all the things we humans love to do when we are healthy. 

For Mike, he stubbornly took the short cut.  He was a smoker right up to the day he died.  But he was also a thinking person and I believe if there is a way to will yourself to death, he found it.  Godspeed Mike.  Rest in Peace.  We hope this story will encourage people diagnosed with cancer to act quickly, endure the pain of treatment plans and live longer.