Well I guess I should start off by telling you this is not really the Beginning of this Adventure. What I mean is as of today April/19/2012. So I will have to jump back to 2009. I can't remember the exact dates, sorry I am not very good with names or dates or spelling or punctuation. So please bare with me. Anyway back to the story. I had been very low on energy and feeling very week, which is not a normal thing for me. I had gone to the doctor repeatedly for this over several months. To which they had run a tone of tests of which they found me to be getting more and more anemic. That seemed to be causing a great amount of confusion for them because they could not find the cause. My Doctor had decide to send me to get a test where they make you swallow a small camera pill and you have to walk around with this computer strapped to you for a day so that it can take pictures of its journey, so I was explained. Again I can't remember the name of the this procedure, sorry . Anyway the fallowing week we get a call from my Doctor, she says me and my wife need to come in for her to talk to us about the results. Ok! This is where I figure the beginning of my Last great adventure began. My Doctor calls us in and askes me and my wife to have a seat and says, I have your test results. I don't won't you to worry but we have found something ( It's never good news when it starts with I don't want you to worry no matter who is saying it especially your doctor). So she proceeds to tell us the test has revealed a growth on your small intestine, it appears as food passes it, It causes it to bleed ( So that's why I was showing up Anemic). She says we need to schedule surgery to remove it and take a biopsy. So off to surgery. Well not only did It come back as cancer but one of the rarest and worst ones you can get. It was Angiosarcoma (www.knowcancer.com/oncology/angiosarcoma/). I remember that name. Any way now we will take a break for a minute on my cancer situation. So I can tell you a little about my big dream.
I love the Ocean. I Have for as long as I can remember. I think it started the first time my grandfather took me deep sea fishing. So also for as long as I can remember my plan was to build my own sailboat. So that when I retired I could sail around the world as many times as I could before my time was over. Other events a few years prior to this made me think I was going to get to do that early. I had been put in a position where I moved to a island which brought me close to the ocean. Re energizing my dream. I started my own welding and sand blasting business and started building a shop for my business and to have a place to build my boat. Money was tight, but hey it always is. But i was getting there. Then all this. Well I guess that brings us back to the cancer.Talk about a run of bad luck. I was healing up from my surgery and anxious to get back to work,(I am not a sit around and do nothing kinda guy). So I start trying to line up new jobs so we can get caught up with our bills, projects, and life. Well her comes the next dilemma. We get woken up at around 7:00 in the morning by a loud crash. I get up get dressed and go out to look. A Taxi driver lost control of his care,spins out and plows into the front of my truck in my driveway, destroying the front end. Now I have no vehicle to do the jobs I have lined up. The drivers insurance company starts playing games(another long story) as they always do. Isn't it funny how governments protect the big companies. I have to pay insurance or i will have to pay a fine or loose my license or both. The insurance companies can drag things out forever and no one makes them pay, at least until they are ready at best. Anyway I don't want to start on this subject because I am anti government( all current forms of government) and anti big business, and that could take a whole book for me to explain. Needless to say my feelings are so strong it almost makes me look forward to the end and not having to watch where we are leading. I will leave it at that. So back to the now My truck is wrecked and we are barely making ends meet,( I must thank my wife for all She has done and continues to do to help through all this there is no words for all she does and the stress she endures) During all this I have to go every three months to check that the cancer is not returning. Well around a year after my first surgery the test comes back Positive.I now have several tumors on my liver. So back in for another surgery I make it through againe but just barely this time. The doctor says he had to remove more of my liver than he had planned and was amazed I had made it. Well now another 4 months of healing and a stomach that is starting to look like a jig saw puzzle. Finally the insurance decides to grace us with a portion of what they should owe us. And I have to use that to just catch up on our bills. Durring All this my Wife researches and finds out that I should qualify for ss disability so we apply and get accepted. Lets take the Time to Thank the great Government for Giving me a small portion of the Money they have extorted from me for the last 25 years.( Thank You Uncle Sam). So now we get by. My business is gone, and so is the dreams of my boat ( or are is it?). We manage to pay the bills but there is no extra to finish the shop and definitely not for building a boat. But When I was healing up from this last surgery my wife's parents paid for us to come and stay with them, so they could help with taking care of me and give my wife a break ( thanks Mom and Dad ). While we where there In Venezuela We found a boat that I liked to go look at.It helped me think about what I had dreamed . It wasn't a beautiful boat kind brutish I guess for a sailboat. It was steel and had a huge full length keel that came all the way up to the bowsprit. It was a multi chine and reminded me Of something I could picture Vikings sailing. I fell In love with it. I guess that's how they came up with with the saying that's a face only a mother could love. Anyway I spent allot of time day dreaming about her, and driving my wife crazy with all my Ideas . But We had to head back home for more tests. The every three month routine started again. Over the next several months things where looking good all clear test. My mother decided we needed to bury the hatchet and wanted to come for a visit. She showed up and we mostly got along. I showed her our home and the island and she got to meet a few of our friends. And my wife and her got to get to know each other. It was a pretty good time. Then about a month after she went home I get a call from my sister saying mom is in the hospital she fell and broke her ankle and now she has a blood infection that has shut down her kidney and liver they don't expect her to make it. Talk about a good kick in the gut. Me and my wife try to come up with a way for me to fly there but a few days later my sister calls and says. Mom is in a coma and we are going to remove the life support here say something to her. Wow so much runs through your mind all the things you wish you could take back all the things you wished yo would have shared. But All I could squeeze out was love you mom it will be nice where your going and I will see you there. I hope that was enough. We couldn't get enough money together to go there for her wake but at least I got to say goodbye.
My next tests after that we get the news. I am sorry to have to tell you Mr. Gomes but you have 12 new lesions on your liver. They are spread out through your remaining liver and that makes them inoperable. There is a experimental procedure we have that involves injecting a radioactive solution into your liver (again sorry cant remember the name, wish my wife was here she is real good at remembering those kind of things)that is attracted to cancer cells . We have not tried it here in Portugal with your type of cancer but we have tried it on some other types of liver cancer we are hopefull that it may slow the tumor growth. So me and my wife talk it over she tells me you really want that boat in Venezuela. I said yes. Well you try this procedure and I will go get that boat. We have a small condo there that we bought as an investment when we first got married paid next to nothing for it. She says I will go and get the boat in trade for the condo. but you have to do this procedure. I said Ok. So now we are here 4/19/2012 I am sitting here in a Pension( its like a cheap hotel) in Lisbon waiting for the doctor to call with My appointment to do this procedure. My wife is in Venezuela she got the trade done and all the papers ready for my signature. So now the plan is to get this procedure done (and make it through it) fly to Venezuela sign all the papers, do a shake down of the boat and equipment. Do a inventory and prey that what little bit of money we get every month we can make a go of sailing. So I will keep you posted as the events unroll. I would like to dedicate this adventure to My mom. She gave me what ever it is inside me that keeps me going no matter what happens or how hard things get. I think she was one of the few that know all i have gone through in my life because she was there from my beginning.