stringstorm
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Lung Problems: Closing the Chapter! :D
🕑 Added 2019-09-21 18:51:43 +0000 UTCHello! I was supposed to make this post on my birthday, but I wanted to choose my words carefully. And now I am satisfied with what I have written, I can finally close this chapter in my life.
When I was at the hospice shelter, they told me that I had a tumor in my lung and that they said that the symptoms I have are similar to those that have lung cancer. It was then did I agree to receiving experimental treatments that not only kept this tumor from growing but also paid me in the process. It was a win-win, I thought. Get cured and get paid at the same time! I don't remember exactly what law was passed but it caused me to get booted out of the shelter. This had rendered me homeless.
I asked Alfabusa on what to do. He suggested I open up a patreon so I did. It was November 2014 back then; I can still remember it because it was the first time I felt that I was truly hopeless. No home, food (I had to eat paper to keep myself from being hungry), money, and it was also a time where there was this really powerful typhoon bearing down on us. I even got a deep cut when a roof fell on me and I had to make do with boiling water and using just my shirt to cover the wound. I took shelter at an abandoned gymnasium, making songs on my laptop and using public wifi to upload content. Soon as I received my first patreon money, I immediately put it to getting myself at least a roof on top of my head, getting treatments, and paying my medical debt.
As the years go by, I started to improve. I was able to get new clothes, a proper bed, a nebulizer. I was even able to rent a breathing machine because I really have a hard time to breath (I still even rent it to this day!). Granted, I had to eat once a day to stretch the budget at the time, but I was eating proper food, not scraps or paper!
I encountered more obstacles along the way like getting into a legal tangle with the people from the hospice shelter (the court ended up favoring me when they heard my story), another storm which tore the roof off of my home, and many more. But there have also been some really great moments like when the landlady decided to let me stay for free (though I still have to pay the bills) because I helped repair the apartment during a storm, or that moment I bought myself an air conditioner which made breathing a whole lot more tolerable during sunny days.
During these moments, though, I kept up with my treatments, had my check-ups. The results from these has been increasingly positive. I'm not familiar with the medical terms but it had something to do the lump regressing at a very slow pace.
I went to the doctor on the 9th of September, a day before my birthday, to get my check-up. After a few more scans, the doctor finally says the words that I have been wanting to hear throughout these years: "Non-cancerous". It was like... I just took off a very heavy bag pack off of me. Like I had just run a very long distance and then finally sat down. I mean, the doctor explained that the tumor is still there, but it is now "benign". I will still have a hard time breathing, I will still cough up blood, the doctor said. But those are very miniscule problems to me when it was revealed that I am now safe!
I went home, spending a little bit of extra to celebrate with myself. When the day of my birthday came, I found myself thinking rather long. I did not know what to feel. For one, I felt very angry at my previous doctors for being very vague with their big medical words. Was it even cancerous to begin with? If so, did I just waste a whole lot of money, my patron's money for that matter, on treatments that might have had no effect?! Then again, how could the doctors have known? And then I felt very guilty because there were a lot of people who helped me through this, and I can’t even think of one thing to repay their kindness.
I then looked back to November 2014 and thought over the events that took place. Everything happened in the span of one or two months. It only took that little amount of time to decide where I would end up. If I didn't go to Alfabusa and ask for help, I may as well be homeless at this point, or worse, dead. But it's thanks to you guys that I am still here, especially Alfabusa, the TTS Crew, and the patrons who have been here since the very beginning.
I am making this post to say thank you. You guys have saved my life.
