Mr. R's Story

Assalamualaikum..

All praises to Allah.and peace be upon His messenger.


Mr. R used to be overweight.He also smoked 30 cigarettes a day and drank lots of alcohol.But 20 years ago he decided to change his lifestyle.He stops smoking, exercises more regularly, eat healthily, and cut down his alcohol consumption.

20 years since his life-changing decision, early in the year 2011, Mr. R was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.Part of his oesophagus was resected and he had to undergo a series of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

About 4 months after the surgery where part of his oesophagus was removed, Mr. R was diagnosed with pneumomediastinum, believed to be a complication of the oesophagectomy.

He was then treated for the pneumomediastinum.

Now, Mr. R is a perfectly healthy man.



This story may sounds tragic.but it is actually the opposite.

Had Mr. R did not stop smoking and started exercising regularly 20 years ago, he would not have been a suitable candidate for the treatment of the oesophageal cancer (this is because the treatments for both the cancer and the succeeding pneumomediastinum can only be done successfully if the patient is in a good shape).The cancer then would have probably killed him. Even if he survived the cancer treatment, he surely would not survive the treatment for the pneumomediastinum.However, it is because he has lived a healthy life and has had a perfectly healthy and fit body, he is able to survive both unfortunate events.

Mr. R's story just further proved the 'butterfly effect'.small changes that we make in our life could bring a huge impact later on without us realising.





cheers.

(p/s: Mr. R is a patient whom I met at the surgical ward.He was very eager to share his story and believes i should learn some lessons from this...well, I surely did Mr. R)