[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted:07:50:22 08/15/04 Sun
I am currently being treated for a brain tumor call Chordomas. I have to go to L.A. to get my tumor removed twice in May and June of 2004. I am at my last stage of the treatment with radiation but I have to travel more than an hour each day. I have four children ages 13, 12, 5, and 3.
I have always been a survivor. It seems like throught my entire life I have to struggle with each step so that I can move ahead. At nine years old I saw the communist taking over of Laos and had to leave my dog behind so that we can escape to Thailand overnight. I was separated from my parents for almost a month in the refugee camps. At eleven I have to struggle with adjusting to the new language and culture in America.
My parents were always fighting too so I really never wanted to stay home as a teenager. I went to live with my brother in Madison in 9th grade because both of my older brother were attedning UW-Madison. I went to live with my sister in St. Paul in 10th grade. I went to live with my brother again in Ft. Worth, TX in 11th grade because one of my older brother was working for the U.S. Air Force. In 12th grade I went to live with my parents again in Detroit because my dad got laid off and have to take a job in Detroit. After my parents move back back to WI in 1986 I just travel the U.S. and really didn't care much about my college education anymore for a while. I lived in Fresno for a couple month, Denver, Milwaukee, and almost a year in Philadaphia (I help the Hmong there won their first Asian Soccer tournament). In the Winter of 1988 I met my wife and my life turn around again. We got married in the summer of 1989 and I went back to college along with my wife.
We both struggle in our college years because we also had two children. It was especailly hard when the kids are ill during final exam. I remember telling my wife that if we can make it through college than we can handle anything in life. A year after we both graduated I encourage my wife to go on into graduate school in Madison and I took a cleaning job that paid $8/hr to get us by. During that year in Madison we butcher pigs every two month to get us meat.
I know a lot of people all over and they are amazed that I don't smoke and don't use drug. I don't even like to drink beer. I have always consider my education and my health a main priority. Sometimes I am surprise by some kid in Appleton or Green Bay when they walk up to me and tell me that they wanted to be just like me when they grow up and I would tell them that they should be better than me when they grow up because my life suck.
I learned of my tumor after a soccer game. I was having double vision so I went to an eye doctor to have my eye check but the doctor told me that I didn't need glasses but recommended me to have an MRI. The MRI reveal that I have a tumor the size of an egg under my brain. I first went to Milwaukee to see a surgeon. The surgeon in Milwaukee recommended a surgery of cutting my brain open in order to get a bioxy of the tumor. I remember crying as I was driving back home. I have learn to survive in the street and I have struggle so my life can be better, but I didn't know how to deal with this tumor at all. The surgeon in Milwaukee warn me of the possibity of death too.
AFter I got home I founded the Skull Base Institute in L.A. and went there to get my tumor removed. 95-98% of my tumor was remove through the nose. I have been out of work for almost three month now and the radiation have really tire me out too. I have always help people out as a kid and as an adult. I have done volunteer work as a translator, fundraiser, board members. Even in Madison I volunteer to recruit inner city kids to join summer camps. In St. Paul I volunteer at Habitat for Humanity. In Detroit I volunteer to tutor Middle East student with history classes. In Manitowoc I volunteer to coach soccer, and fundraising for the Hmong New Year. Now that I am really in need of help there seems to be no place or no one that I can turn to other than my wife and kids. If there is a God it sure seems like he have lost my name on his list.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
