After visiting various doctors in the course of the first week, I finally met the doctor who would lead the main battle. With inexplicable serenity on my part, I heard for a second time the original prognosis. I had Hepatocellular Carcinoma, which in other words, it's a gigantic tumor in the liver of cancerous cells. How big, you might ask? Well, they say it's covering 95% of my liver (they can't operate it and they can't transplant).

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Definitely my life, but not just mine, was about to change (and of that I'll say more later). The treatment consists of indefinite oral chemotherapy to prevent the tumor from growing or spreading.

 

This is where money comes into play. Monthly, the treatment is expected to cost between 80 to 100,000 Lempiras (aproximately $5,300). For sake of comparison, minimum wage in my country is approximately 7,500 Lempiras (about $326/month). 

 

Although the prognosis and its treatment options were starting to worry me. I kept going back to those voices who insisted, “don't worry, we would give our life if it were necessary".

I am moved by many of those words. To this day they just provoke a happiness in me, and I can't hold back the tears. 

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Even though the treatment was free in Honduras, we couldn't guarantee the chemotherapy would always be in stock. The public medical system I have access to is known around the world for cases of extreme corruption that leave the institution without even the most basic medicines. 

 

With a long and costly treatment, we saw ourselves at a crossroad. Access free, but unstable, medical care OR join my family in the US in order to seek the best treatment options. 

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Risking it all, we decided we needed to be together, and on May 10 from Houston, TX I took the first step toward recovery by taking the first pill of a long treatment. 

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This is why today I invite you to join me along with my family and loved ones on this new day. To sing along the immortal words of my faithful friend Facundo Cabral:

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“This is the song I sing every morning when I wake up,

to thank Heaven,

the kindness of a new day,

That is to say of a new opportunity.

Because you can always start again,

In eternity you can always start again,

And this is so true, like paradise is not lost, but instead forgotten.”

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Thank you for reading and for entering into the intimacy of my being. Remember “in eternity you can always start again” - El Indio Gasparino-

 

May the force be with you, Ema out.