March 2000. Office of Dr. Kandell, Gastroenterology, Wellesley Hospital, Toronto. “I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is you have cancer. The good news is there is only the one tumor and it has not spread.”
March 2000, Dr. Breirley, Radiation Oncology, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto .
“Has anyone talked to you about radiation and Systemic Scleroderma? Because we don’t do radiation on patients ,like yourself, who have S SC and the difficulty is that the surgeon you’ve seen will not do the operation to remove the tumor without radiation first.”
Systemic Scleroderma is a rare auto immune disease that can affect heart, lungs and kidneys. Radiation causes an exacerbation of the disease. I was lucky. Another surgeon took up the challenge.
April 18, 2000 Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Surgical team led by Dr. Zane Cohen. Seven hours of surgery to remove the tumor from my rectum, and other working parts it had attached itself to. I was reworked and rewired.
At this point in time my dream of riding a horse at the international level of Prix. St. George and Intermediare 1 seemed highly unlikely.
March 2018 I competed with my horse Biasini in the Intermediare 1 and had competed with him in the Prix St. George the previous year.
I am that unlikely success story.
Never give up your dreams.
While there is life there is hope.
This is my response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge “unlikely”.To see other responses click here. https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/unlikely/
I’d love to hear from you!