Why “I Have This Little Garden”?
May 5, 2010 by Mark Thurston
Filed under Cancer Stories
Why is this web site called “I Have This Little Garden?
When Virginia Thurston was diagnosed with breast cancer, it had progressed a fair amount. A lumpectomy, chemo, radiation, perpetual pill taking and all of those potential side effects became a real concern. My mother’s goal was to fight this disease with every tool available.
That included educating herself on everything from anti-nausea caused by the chemo to support group participation to help keep her spirit positive and her life worth living. She attended a group at Deaconess Nashoba Hospital and her participation brought joy and laughter to the other participates. Her love of life gave others a positive spirit and will to live life to the fullest that they were capable of, even after many had thought they lost the means to fight.
At one of the group sessions, the group ‘facilitator’ asked everyone, “what gives you joy?” Still being able to find joy means still being able to carry on under impossible odds. When it came time for my mother to share, she started… “Well, I have this little garden…”
Mom’s garden was 8½ acres of land she lovingly tended for 40 years. At her memorial service the group facilitator told the story of that day and as she did she opened her arms, as if to encompass the whole 8½ acres and stated with near amazement and admiration, “As you can see, it is anything but little… and Ginny’s love is evident everywhere you look.”
It is our hope that this site can pass on a tiny fraction of the love my mother has for nature and the spirit of love and life gardening represents. It is our hope… all who help tell their own stories here, those that share ways they kept some of the side effects of treatment to a minimum, those that spend hours reading to their own loved ones stories from this site when it no longer becomes visible to them and those that translate this site into other languages, that this site might bring some meaning and hope to those dealing with any kind of cancer, their families, their friends and their co-workers.
The Virginia Thurston Healing Garden was created by my father after my mother passed on in August of 1999. It is located in New England, which can make it difficult, if not impossible, for some of those currently battling this disease. This site is for those too far away to go there physically. It is our hope that a small measure of ‘virtual hope’ can be shared here. May this site bring you at least some small measure of peace and strength.
Audio: Why ‘I Have This Little Garden’?
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This story illustrates even stronger that one must be in charge of their own health-care decisions. Information, research and conferring with loved ones is just as, if not more important sometimes than just blindly following whatever protocol your doctor or insurance company wants to follow, thanks or the post.
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Let’s hope everybody got a good Xmas. I had to deal with a virus through Christmas day and eventually have my personal desktop computer flushed to be able to learn to read the newest blog post. Anyways, it is moaning, Let’s hope you all enjoy a happy new year and I wish you all good luck.
Wow,
Quite an ordeal. This story illustrates even stronger that one must be in charge of their own health-care decisions. Information, research and conferring with loved ones is just as, if not more important sometimes than just blindly following whatever protocol your doctor or insurance company wants to follow. Thank you for taking the time to share this. It will do many much good. Thanks again,
Mark
A little over a year ago I was certain something was wrong in my body and I was pretty sure that it was some sort of cancer. I started bugging my doctors to let me get a PET Scan and they all assured me that I was in perfectly good health and whatever I thought was bothering me would probably go away soon.
When it became clear to me that none of them would allow me to get the scan I then figured I would have to settle for my GI doctor’s offer of doing an Endoscopy. He found that I had Barrett’s Esophagus, but again assured me that it rarely turns into cancer.
Soon after, I had an intestinal infection that dragged on for almost a month. After a lot of nudging he agreed that following up with a colonoscopy would be a good idea. Once again, he assured me that at age 47 that it was three years to soon for needing such a procedure, but against his better judgment he gave in and grudging agreed to doing the colonoscopy.
With his hands shaking a bit and avoiding my eye contact, he read me the report that indicated that not only did I have colon cancer, but cells appear to be aggressive, mostly they dug their way through 4 layers of tissue and he was pretty certain that it had made it’s way into my blood stream.
Bottom line, not only was I right about having cancer, but I needed surgery ASAP.
Surgeon followed the normal procedure of removing what was believed to be effected area of my colon and 12 lymphoids. To everyone’s surprise the pathology came back negative on everything that the surgeon took out.
In spite of 5 doctor’s assuring me that this meant the cancer was gone I was persistent in demanding that I needed a PET Scan and this time I really wasn’t taking no for an answer, regardless of their vast combined experiences telling them that it wasn’t necessary.
The PET Scan came back positive in the Thyroid region of my body.
Of course, they all once again, assured me that I was over reacting, most likely this was a false positive reading and there was about 1 in a billion probability of anyone getting two primary cancer readings in one year.
Ultimately, I was sent to a neck specialist and he did 3 biopsies in his office, all of which came back negative. However, my Endocrinologist said that it appeared to him that not enough cells had been gathered in the biopsies and he insisted that the next test needed to be done in the hospital with a Ultrasound Tech. providing guidance to the area believed to possibly having cancer cells.
The results of this test were very different. My Endocrinologist said that it was one of the highest positive readings he had ever seen and I need immediate surgery.
The day of the surgery, the Surgeon, yet again, assured me that most likely he would only be needing to remove a small section of my Thyroid, they would do what they call a “cold biopsy” and I would probably be going home that day.
I woke up to very different results. Not only did he have to take out my entire Thyroid, but the cancer had actually broken out of the gland, and it was necessary for him to remove part of the tissue from my Trachea, and I would need a CAT Scan to determine if more treatment was needed.
The CAT Scan revealed that the cancer was Metastatic and I ended up getting 152 mCi of Iodine Radiation treatment.
There seems to be some debate over just how effective that treatment has been and in truth we won’t know for many months.
So, it might be true that in many cases the extra tests that doctors do turn out to be unnecessary, but the unfortunate truth is there are times when it seems like you can’t get them to do enough and only thing at risk is a person’s own life.
Pray that all the tests done on you turn out to be one more into the unnecessary test statistic, because I know firsthand how painful it is when it doesn’t.
Be Well,
Shawn Paley