• Health
• Money
• Leisure
• Make a Difference
• Family
• Online Community
• Membership

Cancer Speech 6/9/08

Hi everybody.  I’m Jeff Schiela, and I’m blessed to be a 5 ½ year cancer survivor.  I’m from Eudora, MS, a small town outside of Memphis.  First, I’d like to thank Rose for inviting me here tonight. Then, for all of you who are volunteering, participating and contributing for this event, on behalf of myself, other cancer survivors and patients, and the 1.5 million people who will be diagnosed with cancer this year, I sincerely thank you.  Events such as this not only help raise awareness of this deadly disease, but they also help support groups, research and treatments. 

When I was first diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer on December 10, 2002, there was only one treatment protocol.  I went through multiple surgeries, radiation treatments, and the old standby chemotherapy.  The chemotherapy hadn’t changed in 35 years.  It was toxic and the side affects were harsh.  That first year was the most difficult of my life, with constant problems, including a chronic staph infection that required almost daily IV antibiotics for 9 months, intestinal shutdown from the radiation, and an ecoli infection.  Just your typical life threatening situations.  However, God gave me the strength, courage and faith to endure that year.  I always felt His presence, and knew he was carrying me during all the times that I could not walk on my own.    When I first learned that stage IV colon cancer at that time, had a 2% survival rate for 5 years, I was devastated.  But my doctor had the wisdom to tell me that God did not put an expiration date on the bottom of my foot, and that he would occasionally give me breaks from the chemo so that I would have a chance to recover physically and be able to do something fun to help recover emotionally.

In June of 2003, shortly after I had recovered from a near fatal intestinal shut down from radiation damage, my doctor told me that I needed to take a weekend off from the chemo.  A really wonderful thing is that God also gave me the courage and strength to enjoy the days that I wasn’t sick.  Now, cancer patients aren’t always in their right mind, and I was no different.  I decided to take a fishing trip with my best friend to Texas of all places.  Those of you who fish can imagine all of the fishing rods, tackle boxes, coolers and suitcases we had in the back of the truck.  On top of all that, I was still getting antibiotic IV’s, so I had an IV pole, a cooler full of bags of antibiotics, a box of syringes, and a red hazmat container for the used needles.  Not your typical fishing trip.  However, it gave me a chance to escape reality for a few days, and realize one of my dreams by catching my largest bass ever.  Each day after fishing and after having dinner, we would go back to the motel room, where I would hook myself up to my IV.  I’ve always said that getting chemo is a lot easier when a nurse is holding your hand, but getting antibiotics was a whole lot easier with a bag of homemade brownies.  We got through the trip without incident, I was glad to be going home, and Paul was stressed out from trying to keep track of where the nearest hospital was at all times.

Instead of telling you all that I have had to go through the last 5 ½ years, I want to tell you about the impact that cancer has had on my life.  You see, for me, being diagnosed with cancer was not a death sentence, but the beginning of a new and exciting life.  God not only showed me His grace and mercy during my fight against my cancer, but he also gave me the strength and courage to more fully enjoy my life and to live my dreams on the days that I am not sick from the chemotherapy.  During my first year of treatment, one of my nurses kept telling me that I needed to plan something exciting for when I completed my treatments.  It seemed kind of ridiculous, as sick as I was, but I started planning a fishing trip to the Amazon rain forest in Brazil.  Six months after my treatments ended, Charlene and I actually went to Brazil.  Besides being the ultimate fishing trip, it was part of our spiritual journey as we marveled at the beauty of the rain forest.  We called it God’s greenhouse.

One of the things that we learned on that trip was that we needed to live our lives fully every day, despite our tragedy, as God had intended for us.  God made man to be a warrior, an adventurer and to love others.  I have been battling cancer with God beside me for over 5 years.  That shows that I am a warrior.  Having cancer has strengthened the love in my marriage, and has opened my eyes to all of the people in my life who I love and who love me.  The adventurer part is the fun part.

I had always dreamed of traveling, and our trip to the Amazon rain forest got us hooked.  We don’t just go to the beach anymore, we go to some of the most exotic places we can think of.  My nurses always tease us that as sick as I am, we keep going to strange places where I can get even more sick.  After my cancer returned, and I had finished another 6 months of intensive chemo, we celebrated by going to China.  Six months later, my doctor gave us the dreaded news that the tumors had grown and spread.  I asked him when he wanted me to start chemo again, and he said right away.  You should have seen the look on his face when I said I don’t think so!  I wanted to take another trip just to celebrate my life.  This time we went to Spain, Morocco and Portugal.

Last June after 6 months of aggressive treatments with 2 different protocols, I had planned on taking a 2 week safari in Kenya and Tanzania.  Unfortunately, my cancer had not gone away.  I told my doctor that I had wanted to go to Africa, and he said to go ahead and plan it, that we would just take a break from the chemo.  Quality of life is just as important as quantity of life.  So last September, we took off for an exciting 2 week safari.  We saw the great migration of the wildebeests and zebras, came entirely too close to lions and elephants, and I became very affectionate with some giraffes.   As we were hand feeding giraffes, we would put food pellets between our lips and the giraffes would kiss us.  When we were told that giraffes are able to eat poisonous leaves and berries because their saliva had antiseptic qualities, believe me, I made sure I got lots of kisses.  Now, you’re not going to believe this, but I stumbled on a miracle cure for cancer.  When we returned from Africa, my scans showed that my tumors were almost gone.  I’m always available for another trip to Africa if anyone is interested.

I’ve always worked hard in my life, and having cancer didn’t stop that.  I continued working as hard as I could until last year.  The physical and emotional stress of fighting cancer for 5 years was catching up to me.  I retired from Kroger in December.  As a retirement gift, Kroger gave me a travel voucher.  So guess what?  Another trip!  This past March, we walked the pathways of the pharaohs as we visited Egypt.  You don’t know the meaning of old until you see 5,000 year old pyramids.  Naturally, my wife and I laughed and played all the way through Egypt.  When we were visiting the temples at Luxor, we saw a snake charmer.  I sat down next to him and he put a cobra around my neck and told me hold it’s head tight.  As if I had to be told!  He even held one on top of my head.  But when he wanted me to put the snake in my mouth, I put a stop to that!  Later, when Charlene was showing some friends on the boat the pictures of me with the cobras, they asked why on earth she would let me do that?  With a straight face, she simply said “insurance”.

I am still getting chemotherapy treatments, and still having occasional problems related to it.  But we’re not letting it get in the way of enjoying our lives.  Most of you are familiar with Tim McGraw’s song “Live Like You Were Dying.”  In it, he sings about what he did when he received some devastating news about his health.  Now, I haven’t gone sky diving, or rocky mountain climbing and I’m sure as hell not going to ride a bull named Blue Manchu.  But in the last 5 years while battling cancer, I’ve gone fishing deep in the Amazon rain forest, I’ve climbed the Great Wall of China, I’ve seen cathedrals in Spain and ridden camels in Morocco.  We’ve seen the great migration in Tanzania and kissed giraffes in Kenya.  And we’ve seen the great pyramids and temples of Egypt.  We’ve learned to celebrate life and praise God in our good times and during the bad times.

The message that I want to leave you with today is simple.  You don’t have to wait until your children leave home, or you retire, or like me until you get sick to live your lives.  God created us to experience adventures, excitement and love.  We all need to have fun in our lives and to live our dreams.  Whether it’s fishing, traveling, gardening or playing ball with your kids, you need to enjoy the lives you have today.  All men die, but unfortunately few men ever really live.  My experience with cancer has just been a bend in the road.  I plan on continuing my adventures in life with my precious wife.  Remember, life is not problem to be solved, it is an adventure to be experienced.  Thank you.