A Lesson in Determination

It was a quiet ride as my dad drove my mom and I to the hospital on an early May morning. I knew why he chose to be the one to drive…it was his last chance to distract himself from what was about to happen. Though we would never admit it out loud, my mom and I were scared. I kept telling myself everything was going to be okay. I kept praying for the best case scenario, and I knew my mom was too.

For several years, the doctors had been monitoring a small shadow on my dad’s lung. Year by year, it didn’t change and he was free and clear until the next check. But this time it had grown, just a little, but enough to urge his doctor to take action. He wanted to remove the part of the lung that contained the shadow, and he wanted to do it soon. My dad insisted on waiting until after the summer was over. He couldn’t imagine spending the summer months recovering from surgery rather than being able to do all the summer activities he enjoys, from bike riding to playing with his grandkids to all the handyman jobs he conjures up around the house. But his doctor took the road of caution. Within a month, my dad was scheduled for surgery.

After a long and anxious wait in the waiting room, the doctor finally came to give my mom and I the news. They had found the lump and removed the top third of the right lung. The initial pathology report concluded that it was indeed cancerous. There was no other suspicious tissue in the surrounding area, so he was hopeful it hadn’t yet spread. Now we’d just have to wait for more testing to come back and for the recovery process to begin.

I could tell my dad was distraught about the lump being cancerous. I could see the anguish in his face when he said, “I have cancer.” I can only imagine the numerous thoughts going through his mind, but one thought that was on all our minds was how? How did my dad, someone who always took good care of himself, who always ate well, was very physically active, and didn’t smoke, end up with lung cancer? How could this happen to him, yet the person who never exercises and smokes three packs a day has no health problems?

We expected my dad to be in the hospital for about 5 days after the surgery. Two days after the surgery, he was regularly walking laps around the nurse’s station to strengthen his lungs and keep his body moving. He practiced his breathing exercise regularly with a contraption where he would breathe in forcefully and try to keep the little ball suspended in the tube for a few seconds. He was like a little kid bragging to the nurses about what he could do. Though he would tire easily, things seemed to be going well. But over the next several days, his lung was still leaking and the doctor decided to go back in and try to reseal the lung. This was discouraging for my dad, who can’t stand sitting still and so desperately wanted to get back home and work towards getting back to normal.

Three weeks later, he finally went home. Despite the setback with the second surgery, my dad was determined to regain his physical abilities as quickly as possible. Within the first few weeks, he practiced walking around the house, up and down the stairs, and around the yard. Soon, he was walking on the street, one mile at a time, a few times a day. Before long, he was walking 2-3 miles at a time and was able to get back to doing work around the house. There was no stopping his determination. Before the summer was over, he was back to riding his bike. There is no way he could have recovered so quickly had he not been in such good physical shape before his surgery.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my dad’s surgery, and as of his last appointment he remains cancer free. You would never know that he had lung surgery. Sometimes he gets tired later in the day, but I think that’s mostly due to the fact that he hardly sits still! He still walks every day, bikes in the warm months, and skis in the winter. He takes on jobs helping family or friends with home renovation projects, or works on his own home or yard. It’s amazing to me how much he does after his body went through such a dramatic event.

My dad’s determination to regain and maintain physical health is honorable. He could have easily thrown in the towel and figured why should he try so hard if he’s just going to end up with cancer. He could have chosen to give up on regaining his previous fitness levels and just become a lazy bum. He could have let his situation allow him to become negative and miserable.

But he didn’t. He knew he had more life ahead of him and wanted to make sure his body felt good in that life. His surgery, the cancer diagnosis, the recovery, were all just a hiccup that he worked through without ever taking his eyes off of his goals.

I take this story as a lesson that when we give priority to taking care of our bodies, our bodies will reward us with better health, faster recovery, and longevity. Maybe the reason my dad’s cancer hadn’t spread further was because he was so healthy…or maybe not. Making healthy choices doesn’t guarantee us immunity to things like cancer. But I know I am not willing to take any risks.

Make your body a priority. Do whatever it is that helps you feel your best. Do it to feel strong, do it to feel energized, do it to feel relaxed. Do it so that your body has a better chance at resisting the bad stuff. Do it so that if one day the doctor walks in with an unfortunate and scary diagnosis, you can say, “I’ve got this. My body is strong. I’m going to beat this.” Do it so that at any given moment in your life, you can know with certainty that did your best to help your body reach its full potential.