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There are judgments against which there is no appeal. Those that send directly to the other world. Cancer wanted to take Kasia before the age of thirty. Take away her right to the first wrinkles and gray hair. Not to let beloved parents into the grave, but to invite them to the funeral of their own child.
As part of our campaign “We choose the truth”, we recall selected texts from TvoiLokona that influenced the reality around us. In the coming months, more articles from the series will be presented on the TvoiLokony home page. This article appeared on MedTvoiLokony in 2016.
- Kasia fell ill with lung cancer when she was 29 years old. She underwent chemotherapy, but the cancer came back and was referred for immunotherapy. – They say it’s okay. We are stabilized and continue to heal. You never know with cancer. I feel like I used to, the little one went to kindergarten. I have more time for myself, I can cook dinner, clean the house. You know, I have to live, I have someone for whom – says Kasia
- When Andrzej fell ill, he believed that chemotherapy would help him. – With each infusion I was getting weaker and weaker. I couldn’t eat and lived on beet juice. In the hospital, I pretended to be a daredevil, but I didn’t even have the strength to shave. I felt that I was leaving. I was prepared, I accepted death
- When the disease returned, he was given an experimental drug. It worked
Diagnosis like a judgment
– In the left lung in the sixth segment, at the very bottom next to the heart. We will not help you here – she heard. You have to go to Warsaw. So she and her husband get into an old Ford Focus and drive 100 km to the Cancer Center to collect a sample for hist-pat examination. But nobody here wants to see Kasia. The coordinator says the green card is invalid. It was not listed as having cancer. They order people to return to Siedlce or call the hotline – 22 456 74 01. The fast path of cancer treatment eliminates patients even faster. After a few hours, Kasia is admitted to the ward.
After the tests, a diagnosis that sounds like a sentence. Adenocarcinoma – adenocarcinoma, inoperable. Recommended treatment – chemotherapy. Or a new research program for treatment of advanced stages of non-small cell non-squamous cell lung cancer. Kasia gets reading conditions. But he doesn’t know what he’s reading. All she knows is that her husband, Łukasz, is crying in the corridor, and in Siedlce, a 1,5-year-old child is waiting for his mother.
He enters the doctor’s office and asks directly – «Doctor, please imagine that I am your daughter, what should I do?» – «Take a program, there is a chance the hair will stay».
Friends of infusions
This is how they met Andrzej. On the fourth floor of the Lung and Chest Cancer Clinic. When he saw Kasia, he thought: “too young, she could be my daughter”. He gave her hope the treatment was helping. She gives him strength to fight. They meet every two weeks on the ward. – I always ask him the same question: ‘Is there any appetite?’
– And are you Kasia?
– He’s back. Even before I got sick, I lost six kilos, and after chemotherapy, another three. Now I’m starting to remind myself.
After Kasia’s clipping went to America, she was computer randomly selected for group B – chemotherapy. Group A was an immunomodulating drug. She was to come to Warsaw on infusions every three weeks. She started chemistry in February 2015. After the first three-day cycle, she left the hospital in a wheelchair. Nausea, vomiting, insomnia. Her whole body, muscles and bones ached. She came back to Siedlce and lay in bed with a bowl next to the pillow.
Prayer helped in difficult times. God did not ask why. How Job took cancer on her chest and waited for a new day.
– I told myself that everyone carries a cross. But mine was extremely hard for 29 years. Even for a pension I was too young.
There was a relapse in October, a second tumor in the same lung. After her cancer progressed, she was switched to immunotherapy, which she began in November. After the first two doses of the new drug, she felt the difference.
– What does the doctor say today?
– They say it’s okay. We are stabilized and continue to heal. You never know with cancer. I feel like I used to, the little one went to kindergarten. I have more time for myself, I can cook dinner, clean the house. You know, I have to live, I have someone for.
One balloon too many
She never lit a cigarette, he smoked like a dragon all his life. As a boy he had Caro in one pocket for his future wife, and Sporty in the other.
– My genes sucked. Almost everyone in the family has died from cancer. Grandfather, mother, aunt. And also cigarettes.
– On a diet?
– I ate like any normal person. Potatoes, cutlet, and salad.
– Work?
– Difficult in the production of sausages, cutting pork and beef, I had rheumatism more than cancer.
Andrzej did not go to the doctor and avoided examinations. Why, if nothing hurt. But five years ago something went wrong. Morning cough, hoarseness. He was sleeping badly, feeling weaker and weaker. He did not have the strength to work, and he barely entered the butcher’s shop on the third floor. He lost weight so much that he began to wind the belt around the belt loops of his trousers.
And it happened – a strong bronchitis. The chest X-ray showed nothing. In six months, the same thing – bronchitis, referral to a hospital in Płock, X-ray examination. Suspected tumor or tuberculosis. Computed tomography and a message like a bolt from the blue – Please, sit down, we have cancer with metastases. Inoperable.
The size of a lemon
When he heard the word cancer, he didn’t ask why. He didn’t wonder how it happened. In the doctor’s office, he only thought about work. – I will not be able to do, I will not have the strength. And the house, four children. You need to get paid. I asked what my chances were. – «You know, everyone has a chance, but with you …»
Andrzej was referred to the Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in Warsaw for bronchoscopy. Diagnostic endoscopic examination of the respiratory tract. The cancer turned out to be large, 6,5 cm – the size of a lemon.
– Type?
– I didn’t hear you. The word small cell rang in my ears. It’s over, it’s over. Maybe half a year, a maximum of a year with good deals with the top. I came home and my son corrected me. “Dad here is non-small cell – non-small cell”. Relief – if God willing, I will live.
They could start treating him in Płock in three months. He didn’t have that much time. He went to the Oncology Center and started taking chemotherapy. He always came to Warsaw with his wife Halina. She was gone only once in four years. Andrzej will not hear and forgets, and she was his ear.
– I had scruples before chemo, but I believed in it. We hear so much that she helped this and that. The truth is, maybe temporarily. I was getting weaker and weaker with each infusion. I couldn’t eat and lived on beet juice. In the hospital, I pretended to be a daredevil, but I didn’t even have the strength to shave. I felt that I was leaving. I was prepared, I accepted death.
Managed to
The doctor said there was a relapse. Andrzej had a choice: either stronger chemotherapy or an experimental drug, which Kasia later received. There were many potential side effects. He asked if there was any alternative – “There is no, this is your last chance”. He signed the informed consent form quickly.
– I was scared of the side effects as hell. All night I wondered what was still waiting for me. Will be bad. I will be a rabbit. But there was no other option, a cart or a carriage. In the morning I had an electronic medication pump plugged in and I waited for side effects. Nothing happened. The next day I got up and waited for the side effects. Nothing again. I breathed a sigh.
He felt better almost immediately. Intuitively, he felt that the new drug might help him. After the second dose, he took his wife fishing. They went to the pond, saw the water, and he came back to life. After three o’clock, he went with his sons to a picnic of the Solidarity Union. He ate borscht and a piece of bread that had been in his throat for a year. – The guys drank a beer and say “daddy, you will go”. And I haven’t driven a car for a long time. I didn’t know if I would still be able to. It’s nice behind the wheel!
In May, three years have passed since Andrzej started taking an immunomodulating drug. Doctors say there’s nothing left in his lungs. There are only scars and meta nodules, which he previously had as much as good porridge strewn.
– I know that you are fed up with all the media. They come, ask, shoot …
– I wouldn’t talk to you at all if it wasn’t for the refund. Something or someone spared my life. This drug can help those whom the gods have left without a chance. How many people, instead of lying in the sand, could walk in the streets.
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