Lost In Space ...

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Steve Jobs

Sunday, 12 August 2012

Brain Tumor


These last few days have been very challenging. Last Friday I took my father to his doctor, this time for his regular check up. There is no hospital on the island so we have to travel to the nearest town 1 and ½ hours by ferry. Tuff life. My brother waited there for us and took us around by car. The  heat was unbearable, from 39 to 42 °C. My father is 78 and cope really well after his 4th brain surgery that he had again in February of this year.

It was a long, long way to get to the diagnosis... First time ever he was diagnosed with the brain tumor was August 2003. His tumor was huge, bigger than the brain itself and chances for him to survive were 0. He had to be operated urgently but all hospitals refused to do it. Somehow we privately got in touch with (still) the best neurosurgeon in the country (I should even say he's one of the best in the world – he is active in some world's hospitals, indeed) who agreed he would do it. But he was almost 500 kms away and so we had to fly there as soon as possible. My father was in really, really bad condition at that time, had a stroke as well, could not walk and was immobilised. To get him on the airplane with a special permission issued by hospital we had to wait for 3 or 4 days till agreement between hospital and air company could be settled. Our new friend neurosurgeon warned us we did not have time and even seconds counted so we took him into that plane as normal passenger under our own responsibility.

He was taken under the surgery already next day, only 3 days after the diagnosis, on his 72nd birthday on 22.08.2003. It was near to 8 hours long surgery. After 3 days he was taken to operating room again as the brain was so swollen it had no room to expand and therefore started bleeding. His skull was opened again and the bone removed to leave the space for the brain.

After we signed him into that hospital for the surgery my brother flew back home for work and other duties but I decided to stay. I just could not go back to work and leave him there in such state. At the end, I stayed there with him for a bit more than 2 months assisting him all the time. At first he was not recovering well and not waking up at all for almost a month. His head was huge, swollen and bruised, and his brain pulsing out under the skin with no bone to protect it.
Doctors were telling me each and every day that even though he has survived so far his chances still were 0. His internal organs were daying out and not functioning at all and pneumonia started already. There was nothing left to do. However, after two weeks or so of absolute uncertainty I called my supervisor at work to tell him I was not coming back (my contract was expiring in November, anyway).

When my father finally woke up after almost one month post surgery it was pure miracle witnessed by everyone evolved: he woke up talking normally knowing not only the season (it was Autumn already!) but he also knew the day and the hour, he was full of energy, he talked normally, he could see, he could hear, he could read, but he could not walk yet. His recovery afterwords was so quick and so purely miraculous. He was back on his own feet in less than two weeks time! The whole thing was life changing for all of us, especially for me. It was a time for all of us to except The Miracle, The Force or God if you prefer to call it.
So many times in my life I witnessed such Presence but choose to neglect it. I choose to call it coincidence, instead (but learned there is no such thing!). I've been deeply hypnotized by others as well as my own self that I choose not to believe. No matter those rare but powerful times when I was really present in my awereness and could feel and see The Miracle in front of me unfolding pure, powerful and indescribable I would still prefer to call it coincidence.
This time it was serious and real, and the most powerful ever. The Force took the care of each of us from the day one of our battle. Despite all problems with limited fisical human forms called doctors who refused us, all obstacles that were there in front of us, in 3 days time we've found the way to a new life without knowing anything at all. When looking back at the whole thing you just have no slightest idea of how you did it. The only thing that is certain is that indeed you were guided, transported, helped and protected by The Force, by God.

When you have no choice you surrender and witnes The Miracle. There's nothing left to do but acknowledge it, say Thank You and remain grateful forever after. 

Stay connected. Be connected. Here and now. Be present and be aware. As everything does happen for a reason.