Ganbaru Mindset: Do Your Best: Successful Mind Management Through Brain Cancer

By Luke Amery and Lauren Clemett

Relive the tragedy and triumph Luke Amery went through in his battle with brain cancer—a battle he has won. “Ganbaru” is a Japanese term which means to “stand firm” in spite of circumstances, to do even more than one’s best. Appreciate the lessons learned along Luke’s journey, and achieve for yourself yo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cash Ways Pty Ltd
• Release date: Dec 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781946875037

Book preview

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The Rock in the Pond, Thank You

I would like to take this opportunity to show my gratitude to Alyca, my darling wife, who helped me along my cancer journey. Even at the start of my examinations you were by my side, giving me the support I needed, and most of all, listening to your intuition. It kept us moving forward in the right direction. I am sure this journey has made you an even more resilient person than you were before, so thank you.

My dear parents and family, thank you ever so much for your support whilst going through this journey. Most days I was simply taking one step at a time, to be honest. There were days I didn’t know who I was, what would happen, or when another blood test was due; days I could not even read a clock on the wall because my brain was just fried. I still remember that day on the beach with Mum asking me, Why do you have cancer? I should be the one having this battle.

My reply was quite simple: Things happen for a reason, I said, and I don’t know where this journey is going to take me, but I am willing to follow the path.

To my close friends who called and visited me in hospital, who sent flowers and text messages, I am truly grateful for your support. Most days I stayed as strong as I could with all the meetings and procedures involved in my first brain surgery, but I would often collapse with fatigue after that. But this too helped me along with my journey. Thank you ever so much for your support and fundraising for me and my family. I was blown away. You guys were awesome, thank you so much.

Contents

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Contents

Note to Readers

Dedication

PART ONE: BEFORE

[ 1 ] Life was Good

[ 2 ] Martial Arts

[ 3 ] Something Wrong

PART TWO: DURING

[ 4 ] In the Hospital

[ 5 ] Out of Body

[ 6 ] Superman

[ 7 ] Brain Surgery . . . Again

[ 8 ] Chemo & Radiation

PART THREE: AFTER

[ 9 ] Dr. Who

[ 10 ] Recovery

PART FOUR: CURVE BALLS

[ 11 ] Wilson

[ 12 ] Johnny Cash

[ 13 ] The Secret

PART FIVE: ONWARD JOURNEY

[ 14 ] Help is Here

About the Author

The Ant Philosophy by Jim Rohn

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Note to Readers

What you are about to read is a true story. No characters or events have been made up. You can read this as an autobiography, but the author has designed this book to include key perspectives that helped him through his ordeal to achieving a new happiness and a new type of success, with questions for you to work through if you choose to. All of this is to share and to guide you to achieving your own Ganbaru Mindset.

Thank you, and please enjoy!

Dedication

My dear friend Jess, it was such a pleasure to meet you on that beautiful sunny day while we were isolated in our rooms going through our own journeys with brain cancer. The universe works in mysterious ways.

Luke, my nurse said to me, I think there is another patient in our ward with the same tumor as you.

Really? I said. Wow. Okay, I’ll better go and introduce myself.

After getting my health back on the rails and working towards having mental stability, I noticed a news feed on my Facebook page that said your battle with Cancer was over. I was shocked. Holy shit, I thought, I didn’t know. I felt so bad that I didn’t get to tell you my last thoughts. Jess, you showed me that I was not alone on my journey. I am truly grateful to have met you. I remember when you were heading home and you were jumping out of your skin. I still had one more treatment to go even though I was so eager to go home myself. And I was so happy and grateful for you. Jessica, you will always be remembered for your big smile and the positive vibration you brought to the cancer ward. Thank you ever so much.

You will be truly missed but never forgotten.

—Luke



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Jessica Luxford Duffy

RIP 2015

Jessica was one of a kind. At 23 she experienced the first symptoms of brain cancer when she began to have seizures. At first, we thought it was epilepsy, her older brother having been diagnosed with epilepsy in February that year. But the seizures grew worse. They were of a different nature in that she was quite conscious when they occurred and made her eyes move strangely to the left. Eventually she had a biopsy which detected a very small tumor in her right frontal lobe. The surgeon decided to wait to see if this would grow, and in a month, we were back getting the results of the biopsy, which returned an aggressive tumor, in the surgeon’s words. So, within two weeks Jess was back getting the tumor out, which they were not able to completely remove.

By November the biopsy determined that Jessica’s tumor was a primitive neuroectodermal tumour or PNET, quite rare in someone of her age of 23 years, as they mainly occurred in children. Jessica had been on dexamethasone during the operation which reduces swelling, and began reducing her intake of this drug. At the same time, there were changes in her personality and she underwent psychosis for which she was treated medically. Jessica was concerned about her safety and believed her life was being threatened by those who cared for her and hospital staff. This made the process of flying to Brisbane for her stem cell harvest and her radiation mask construction a very delicate operation in which she needed a great deal of support. Unfortunately, Jessica had a major seizure whilst preparing for an appointment, which resulted in her hospitalization for a week.

As Jessica underwent the first phase which was targeted radiation, she slowly emerged from the psychosis. At that phase, we were being visited in our Brisbane accommodation by the psychiatric team who counseled her. Eventually we could go out and enjoy shopping in Brisbane, and travelling the buses. The radiation period went quite well. Jessica then had stem cell therapy—the injection of her own unblemished stem cells taken prior, which were then injected into her after each round of chemotherapy, four doses over four months. The stem cells enabled her body to reboot faster which enabled her to get stronger hits of chemotherapy at the scheduled time. Jessica required many transfusions of red blood cells, platelets, and magnesium. During the second dose of chemotherapy, Jessica was nearly sent to intensive care but passed through the crisis.

It was during her third round of chemotherapy/stem cell transplant that the nurse told us somebody else was in with a similar problem, and it was with great delight that Jessica met Luke Amery. Just to have somebody else going through the same thing meant the world to Jess and she didn’t feel quite so alone with the grueling regime she was to go through. Luke was such a bright and shining star for Jessica, someone young that she could identify with, that it helped keep her spirits up. I only ever remember Luke smiling, and thought both he and Jess were such an inspiration having to go through this very difficult time at such a young age. On completing her stem cell therapy, the stem cell specialist told us that Jessica had gone through the procedure the best he had seen, as she had no side effects once it had finished.

The other thing that helped Jess was having a dream and hanging on to that dream throughout chemotherapy. Jessica’s dream was to work as a beauty therapist. Despite the difficulties of chemotherapy, Jessica applied for a scholarship in which she submitted a DVD recording of why she wanted to do this. Jessica won the Queensland Red Kite scholarship which allowed her to learn how to professionally do nails. When Jessica came home, she started learning to do nails, as she improved in health.

Towards the end of March, during