People this report that was conducted in September 2009 (Source: http://veja.abril.com.br/090909/estou-preparado-morte-p-78.shtml), with the then vice president of Brasil, José Alencar, I personally found it fantastic.
Everyone always has a lot to learn... Unfortunately we humans learn more through the pain than with love... Anyway, learning the pain has the advantage of being durable and can really reach the closest people too... If you reach one, it was worth.
I still have much to learn about humility, gratitude, life and death... But I’ll get there... hehehe. Read the it... Worth it!
"I'm prepared for death"
Andre Dusek / AE
The battle is not over José Alencar began last week, one more cancer treatment
Last week, the vice-president, José Alencar, 77, started another battle against cancer. The 11th treatment to which he undergoes in an attempt to control the sarcoma, an aggressive and relapsing cancer, first diagnosed in 2006. The approach now consists of four weekly sessions of chemotherapy. The chemo was decided by the doctors since the cancer Alencar, with multiple nodules in the abdomen, did not respond to a medication still experimental, testing at MD Anderson, a center of excellence in oncology research in the United States. Since the beginning of this treatment in May, the sarcoma was up 30%. The chemo is an attempt to contain the spread of the tumor. Visibly shaken, almost 10 pounds lighter, the reporter received Alencar Adriana Dias Lopes in room 215 of the Cancer Center of the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital in Sao Paulo, while going through the first session of chemo. The meeting lasted about an hour. In the first ten minutes, the vice president ate two burgers and drank a glass of milk. Alencar cried twice. In speaking of his parents and humility, the virtue that he said taught him the disease.
How are you feeling?
Everything is great: pressure, temperature, heart and memory. I have an appetite, including – I just don’t eat pork because they don’t serve me. My problem is the tumor. I realize that the situation is at least very difficult - if not impossible, under the medical point of view. But as for God nothing is impossible, I delivered it into his hands.
Since when do you know that from the medical point of view, the disease is incurable?
The doctors came to that conclusion two years ago and just told me. And it could not be different because I always asked to be kept fully informed. The information reassures me. It gives me weapons to fight. I feel an obligation to be absolutely clear when I refer to the disease in public - nobody has anything to do with the cancer of José Alencar, but with cancer of the vice president, yes. A man with public public life does not belong to himself.
You often use soccer as a metaphor to explain your fight against the disease. You once said that you were winning 1-0. Another time, it was a draw. And now, what's the score?
Look, after all the surgeries in which I spent the recent years, now I feel weak to live the most satisfying moment of a match: vibrate when I make a goal. I no longer have the strength to climb the fence and celebrate.
As the disease changed your routine?
Minas Gerais (a Brazilian state) people usually assess a given situation by saying that "the train is good or bad." The train is getting ugly for me. My life began to change in recent months. I'm getting tired. The treatment I did in the United States gave me this weariness. Walk a little longer and get tired. Another fact that was dramatically changed my routine is the colostomy (deviation from the intestine to open an outlet on the side of the belly, where they placed plastic bags), inheritance of the last surgery in July. I make every effort to work normally. The work gives me the feeling of fulfilling my duty. But sometimes I need help. I have my wife, Mariza, and Jaciara (nurse of the Presidency) to assist me with the colostomy. When for some reason, they can not accompany me, I have two other nurses, Márcio and Dirceu. I am treated by them my own office. If I'm in a meeting, for example, say I'm going to the bathroom, call one of them and what needs to be done is done and ready. Without any drama.
Do you go through moments of anguish?
You should ask me if I know what's anguish. I would answer the following: I don’t know that feeling. I never had it. Since l was a boy and the disease will not change that.
The worsening of the disease has brought you some kind of reflection?
The illness taught me to be more humble. Especially after the colostomy. I always ask God to grant me the grace of humility. And he has been generous with me. I needed this in my life. I've always been a cheeky. If not, it would not have built what I built and would not have entered politics.
It is painful for you to practice humility?
No, because humility develops naturally in suffering. I am forced to adapt to a situation where I depend on others to perform basic tasks. I does not work if I get nervous with certain limitations. One of the lessons of humility was the realization that there are people much higher than me, as health professionals who care for me. This goes for doctors Hoff, Roberto Kalil, Raul and Miguel Srougi Cutait as for nurses and nursing assistants who assist me anonymous. I concluded that what I do professionally is of less importance than what they do. That's because my job has almost no direct effect on the next people lives. On second thought, suffering is enriching.
Such consideration would be a way to prepare for death?
Probably, yes. When I was a boy, a teacher had repeated the following prayer: "Save us from sudden death." What does that mean? It means that conscious death is better than sudden death. It gives us the opportunity to reflect.
Are you afraid of death?
I'm prepared for death as I have never been in recent times. Death to me today would be a prize. I became a much better person. That does not mean I had given up fighting for life. The fight is a Christian principle, inclusive. I live day after day fully. Because not even the best doctor in the world can predict the day of death of the patient. This is for God only.
Do you realized the national commotion that this situation has resulted?
There is no fortune in the world able to repay the kindness of the Brazilians. I am privileged. You can not imagine the amount of affectionate demonstrations that I have received. The other day somebody told me that when we die, I would find my father, who died over fifty years. That touched me deeply. If it is to meet with Mom and Dad, I want to die now. The hope of finding loved ones is a great encouragement - and a big reason not to fear the moment of death.
You have become more devoted because of the disease?
I am from a Catholic family, but I was never going to mass. Neither do it now. When things gets bad, pray the Lord. Lately, I have prayed about two, three times a day.
If you received the news that you were cured, what would you do first?
I would give Mariza a hug and say: “Thank you very much for taking care of me”
