Some of my church friends are suffering from the pain, agony of
cancers; the suffering extends not only to the patients, but also to patients' spouses, family
members and close friends. Since cancer may strike anyone when a person
is getting old, what shall we do if we face such a challenge?
I
believe that the following healing story from a cancer patient (colon
cancer) who is also a neurosurgeon in Taiwan would bring hope to those
people whose life are affected by the pain and agony of cancer. The original
article and the You-Tube video is in Mandarin. I will do my best to
translate the article to share with my friends. Also, since some of the
readers of this blog read Mandarin, I will present the story both in
Mandarin and in English.
專訪 名醫許達夫 談罹癌的心境過程與抗癌的自然療法之成功見證
Interview: Testimonial of Dr. Hsu Ta-Hu (a neurosurgeon in Taiwan) of the struggle and the success of his natural healing.
腦神經外科名醫許達夫目前已經幫一萬多位病患開過腦部手術，但是他自己卻被醫師宣佈罹患末期大腸癌，活不過三年。今天，許達夫仍然非常的健康，迄今正常生活超過十年，他要分享抗癌結合中西醫的自然療法。
Dr.
Hsu Ta-Hu, a famous neurosurgeon in Taiwan, has saved lives to more
than 10,000 patients who had head injury trauma. Unfortunately, he
himself was diagonalized of having stage-3 of colon cancer. His doctor
told him that he had only 3 years to live. However, 10 years after the
diagnosis, not only he outlives his fate predicted by his doctor, he is
healthier than ever. He is sharing his healing story to those who are
anxious to learn about the secret of natural healing.
The following story is taken from the excerpt of the interview of Dr. Hsu with a television reporter.
If you understand Mandarin, you can click the link to the YouTube interview.
PART 1: http:// www.youtube.com/v/0e56OsD36bc
Neurosurgeon Professional
Reporter: Can you introduce yourself to the audience about your profession?
Hsu:
Yes. I have been a neurosurgeon for 20+ years, specialized in head
injury brain trauma surgery. Sometimes, I operated 20 patients a night.
Most of the patients were brought to the hospital due to motor-cycle
accidents. Back in the 80's, there was no law requiring cyclists to
wear helmet. That was why there were so much accidents. After the law
was enacted requiring cyclists to wear the helmet, the number of head
injury was greatly reduced.
Fear
Reporter: As a doctor, how did you react when the other doctor told you that you had stage-3 colon cancer?
Hsu:
At the time I received this bad news, I had a patient in my office. I
was so frightened with the news that I did not know what did I say to
the patient (In fact, I could not even compose a complete sentence.) but quickly sent him home. Cold sweats were all over my
hands and my feet. I was shivering, and was very depressed and could
not walk a step outside. I reacted exactly the same way many cancer
patients did. I fully understood their agony.
Reflection and Lifestyle Changes
However,
the difference between me and other patients was that, I only
frightened for only 2 days. After 2-days of great fear, I stopped. I
began to reflect and analyze my life style including stress and diet and
I began to see why I got this terrible illness.
First
of all, I noticed for the first time in my life that my life style would
eventually get me into trouble. In the operation room, I often spent
72 hours straight working on patients; it meant no sleep, very lousy,
quick, calorie-loaded meals. For each patient, I would spent 20-30
hours on brain surgery; sometimes I had to skip bathroom break.
Occasionally got a weekend break, I would eat big meals loaded with meat
and other animal-based meals, very seldom ate any greens or other
vegetables.
Before I got sick, I was a very famous
neurosurgeon in Taiwan. I spoke, everybody listened. Besides, I was an
athlete in medical school. I played rugby in school. I felt that I was
invincible. That belief system crumbled the moment I got sick.
Although
medical students were the best students in Taiwan, we never learned how
to treat diseases, especially cancer effectively beyond our tools:
prescription drugs, radiation, or surgery. We were never taught in
medical school about the nutrition, the mind-body connection, the
importance of stress management, let alone the prevention of the
disease.
Doctors are not God
Thus even medical doctors looked like kings
(or queens) in the eyes of the society, they were the group of people
knew least how to take care of themselves. In fact, they often were
much short-lived than the rest of the society.
Reporter: Let's go back to 2002 when you had noticed something wrong in your system.
Hsu:
Yes, back in 2002, I found blood in the stool. First, I dismissed that
symptom as hemorrhoid. To a brain surgeon who had seen more traumatic
cases of brain injury, hemorrhoid was just a minor nuisance; nothing to
be worried about. Well that symptom did not disappear and lasted 3
months; upon the nudge of other doctors, I finally went to hospital and
did the colonscopy.
Treatment Journey
Reporter: As I read your book,
initially you took chemo treatment. Then your doctor suggested to do
the surgery, you refused. What had happened?
Hsu:
Yes, after I self-pity on myself for 2 days upon the bad news of colon
cancer, I began to change my diet, reduce my stress, and completely
changed my life style. I even began to learn Qi-Kong ( a Chinese form
of breathing exercise). With those preparation in hand, I went to the
first run of chemo. I felt my health had greatly improved.
Three
month later, my doctor told me to conduct a surgery. That became a
very serious decision for me to make. My final decision was to say 'No'
to the surgery. First, I had felt for the first time in my life, my
breathing exercise, or Qi-Kong, was doing good thing to my body. I felt
stronger and healthier with this breathing exercise. This surgery
would set the clock back to the original 'sick' state. Second, I had
seen many cancer patients in the hospital. They looked terrible: hair
loss, skin turned dark, sacking eyes, crooked backs. No one smiled.
Everyone looked so depressed. Many of them died in the hospital, not
due to cancer but the complications from the treatments: pneumonia,
blood poison (septic disease) etc.
To be continued on Part II. Click "See Older Post" to read Part II
