I am 54 years old, Brazilian, plastic surgeon, living in Dubai since 2009. I have a 28-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old son both living in Brazil, and a 14-year-old son living in Dubai. My 20 year old son had a cancer when he was one year and a few months old, he fought for his life and and today is a brilliant, intelligent and funny guy, very much friend of mine , I would not say he is my favorite son but , without doubts , the closest of me .
In 2014, he asked me to study in Boston, wanted to try a place at MIT or Harvard as a student of chemical engineering. After the SAT and Toefl tests, several interviews and essays, he got a seat in 9 American universities, including MIT and Harvard. I was so pround of him . He went to US for the beginning of classes in September 2016 but, for some reason, decided to return to Brazil and study there, leaving the American universities. I was furious and for 2 months I didn't talk to him, I didn't understand, as a dad , that our children are from the world and , especially , have their lives and our "work " is to support them in their dreams, because life is very short and can surprise us at any time.
In December, he called me saying he had an abdominal pain, did an ultrasound and MRI and , unfortunately , he had a new abdominal tumor. I flew immediately to Brazil and, two days before Christmas of 2016, he was operated on. He had a huge abdominal tumor, 23 centimeters in length and weighing astonishing 2.1 kg. His right kidney needed to be removed and he had two broken ribs during surgery. And I was in the operating room and I saw all this . He spent 7 days in the ICU, lost 10 kilos (he was 69 before the surgery), was hospitalized for 10 days and left the hospital very weak.
Only one week after discharge from the hospital, he took exams at one of the best universities in Brazil which lasted for 5 days, 6 hours a day and was approved in 4th place among the 33,000 candidates ! He couldn't move and breathe well , I couldn't believe how strong someone could be .
We traveled together in March to Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand. His classes started at the end of March and he was radiant, feeling his life back. A week ago, he did follow-up examinations and a small mass was found in the images of his abdomen . Before yesterday, he did a biopsy and the cancer is back . I feel helpless but hopeful and I will continue to fight for my child until the last day of my life. Forgive me for this long post , for some reason I felt like doing it here, thank you for having read it .
May God bless him and all of you, my virtual friends of the GP4 community.
Happy Easter