Well, it's finally happened - my silly old Dad, who loves his beer more than anything else in the world, has been diagnosed with this devastating type of malignant tumour.
After several months of suffering from what was first thought to be a gastric ulcer (as first diagnosed by his GP) and complaining all the time, taking far too much Gaviscon and Quikeze tablets (and losing more than 2 stone!) my mum and I finally threw our hands in the air and made the doctors appointment for him (he hates going to see Doctors and has one of the highest pain thresh-holds I've ever come across!)
Now, it's certainly not something that's happened quickly, far from it in fact. At the tender age of 15, he left school for an apprenticeship in car-painting. That was back in 1961. Years later, a family man with a wife and 4 kids to support (and being a heavy smoker to boot) he was still a car painter, hated his job that paid sweet bugger all, but with low self confidence and not having any other work experience, he continued to breath in the fumes and metal silica dust that has likely been the main facilitator of the tumour. The fact he likes his beer so much that he drank more than 4 flagons a day, had nothing to do with it? My arse it didn't! And the associated weight and reflux problems that went with all this…
You get the picture.
Yes I, and my siblings (and my mum) have suffered the stresses related to living with an alcoholic, the flights of anger, the flying saucers (not of the UFO kind and on one occasion with attendant knife, fork and spaghetti, narrowly missing myself and my toddler aged sister in the kitchen) and the constant fighting of our parents. We grew up with it happening at least once a week. It's a wonder my mother didn't chuck it all in and leave, but she's a compassionate soul who values her marriage vows (as she constantly reminds me after my own marriage break up) and with four kids to take care of, it wasn't an option. Plus, she really did love the old sop, for all his failings.
No one's perfect.
Flash forward 30 years, during which time he'd also had a Hiatus hernia operation, the scar tissue being quite obvious during the resultant endoscopy. But this operation was done some 25 years previously, and although Dad thought that may have been the cause of his tumour (an orderly gave him water to drink even though they were under strict instructions not to give him anything for 3 weeks, which caused Dad to retch something chronic for hours afterwards!) it turns out that the Operation was a great success. It cured his reflux for at least a decade or more.
But it wasn't permanent!
Obviously, he was suffering reflux again for many years prior to this latest diagnosis, but being the hard working family provider, and with easy access to over the counter remedies, he just boxed on… Stupid!
So we now live in a state of shock and recovery - he's in shock, and we're in recovery mode, trying to stay strong and positive, and carry on as though nothing has changed - but tis hard as hell!
As mentioned above, we've all suffered the indignities and flights of fury that come with living with an alcoholic. But apart from the alcohol, my Dad is a lovely person. It has only ever been the booze that has made him hard to deal with. However, being a small man, he's also a bit of a coward - he always takes the easy road - well, not this time!
The lack of proper Nutrition is also another big precursor to succumbing to cancer - we all lack certain vitamins, minerals and enzymes in our diet, because of over processing, lack of nutrients and minerals in soils due to over-farming etc, which results with less uptake into the food we eat on a daily basis. This also goes for the meat we eat - let's face it, if we don't do something soon to rectify the imbalance, we are all buggered! More and more cases are diagnosed every day, even in people who don't drink, have never smoked or eaten high fat-content foods, and who regularly exercise.
So what's the cause? Will we ever know?
Back to basics is a good starting base - the food pyramid, plenty of good clean water, and super foods like broccoli, ginseng, kiwifruit, bitter almonds, leafy greens, wheat-grass juice, flax seed (linseed), olives etc - do your research, there's plenty to read on the Web. These will help to bring the body back into balance and to aid in the fight against cancer, not to mention most other ailments. You know how your mum always said “eat your greens!”? Well, she was right!
