Grasping Life

By Ramón Ángel Salamán Nicolini

Grasping Life meets the deepest memories of a year of my life, during which my family began a relentless fight against cancer. I tried to capture the impact the illness of my wife had, both in me and in my three children. Each word describes the frontal fight against suffering, pain and helplessness of a disease that takes your breath away. This is a true story with a surprising end.
In buying the book you support research and care for people suffering from Cancer since the funds raised will be donated in full.
Website: http://www.nicolini.com.mx

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palibrio
• Release date: Feb 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781463352417

Ramón Ángel Salamán Nicolini

Ramón Ángel Salamán Nicolini, born in 1968, native of Mexico City Manager by profession, with a membership of Lasallian education for 17 years of education in its institutions. He has a Diploma in Electronics and Total Quality processes at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and a Master’s Degree in Real Estate Valuation from the Engineers College Association. Proud father of three, he shares with you this book which far beyond from being a story, it is a lifetime experience.

Book preview

Grasping

Life

Ramón Ángel Salamán Nicolini

Copyright © 2013 by Ramón Ángel Salamán Nicolini.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Revision Date: 21/02/2013

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Contents

The Main Question

The Diagnostic

The Life-altering Decision

First Stage of the Treatment

Second Stage of the Treatment

The trip

The medical exam

The results

The problem and the available options

The hallucinations

The third stage of the treatment

A new year

The present moment

The following book is based on a true story. All names have been changed to protect the true identity of the characters.

In buying the book you support research and care for people suffering from Cancer since the funds raised will be donated in full.

Website: http://www.nicolini.com.mx

The Main Question

There is no such thing as total happiness, happiness is made up of small life moments; I heard this thought a lot of times from mi mother, Adriane. All those moments turned into memories which, throughout the years, gave me enough strength to confront difficult life challenges.

My name is Roy; I live a happy life surrounded by three amazing kids, product of a successful seventeen year old marriage. It´s not easy though, trying to be a responsible person that is constantly striving to get the best for his family and facing daily problems in order to be a better person.

My twin daughters, Lisa and Sally, and my youngest son Jess, are part of a swimming team that has been really demanding, regarding time and effort, during the past few years. I, on the other hand, have been constantly trying to be in good shape with different gym routines. A year ago, my daughter Sally asked me the following:

We have been training five days a week, four hours daily to win some tournaments and improve our scores. On the other hand, you train everyday but don´t participate in any tournaments, what are you preparing for Daddy??

I remained silent for a few moments, and started looking for an answer in the bottom of my heart. Finally I answered that I was preparing for life itself. Sally didn´t care about my answer, and to be honest neither did I. After a year passed I realized that my answer made a lot of sense.

The following is the story of the last year of my life, which I will never forget. This year represents a moment of my life in which I had the chance to heal, reinforce, and create new bonds with my family, in order to confront what was unknown for us at that time.

Last year, in May, I got diagnosed with a tumor on my right testicle, nothing serious, but it needed to be removed as soon as possible. I scheduled my surgery immediately, since my doctor suggested that was the best way to proceed. The surgery was a success and the tumor turned out to be benign. It was painful and recovery was really uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Tara, my forty four year old wife, had been having strong headaches and was starting to lose sight on her left eye. She felt that it wasn´t really important, so she just took some aspirin to control the pain.

The Diagnostic

A week after my surgery, Tara´s headaches became more frequent and intense, to the point where she couldn´t drive because of the light and her vision was getting worse. Since both conditions presented at the same time, we thought it had something to do with her eyesight; therefore we went to see the eye doctor to have her checked. The doctor told us there was nothing wrong with her eyesight and that the headaches were not related to it. He recommended we visited a specialist who could perform some tests in order to determine the underlying cause.

The next day we paid a visit to Dr. Ralph, her gynecologist, and we explained everything to