“Knowing the date someone is going to die is a very traumatic thing and can destroy you, but it depends on how you welcome it.” This is the reflection Camilo gets from his 35-year-old life that he knows will soon be over.
Camilo has an inoperable brain tumor that was detected six and a half years ago.. A faint during a workday changed his life. And when he woke up from a coma for several months, he learned that, as he said, he already had an expiration date.
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After losing everything in his unconscious sleep ever since, his wife, his job, almost all his money; Despite his unfortunate situation, he decided to give everything for the one person who stayed by his side: his mother.
This Bogota man, whose days are numbered, devotes 12 hours a day to working on digital transport platforms, the rest dealing with his illness and spending the most and best time possible with his mother.
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Camilo wanted to be a soldier all his life. He was a disciplined child who had always played in wars since he was a child.
His older brother was an example for him – because his father died when he was very young – and he was also a soldier, so the path Camilo wanted was the same path his brother wanted, even if his mother didn’t want it.
As soon as he turned 18, he decided to do his military service as required by his personal duty. He didn’t want to spend money on a second-hand military notebook and then do something he didn’t like in civilian life. He wanted to experience the hardness and adrenaline of the National Army.
While in the institution, he did his best to be a disciplined soldier in physical education, shooting lessons, and training. However, one day, during an operation that he had been inactive for a while, two bullets hit his right leg, and he reluctantly decided to follow his commander’s advice to learn about nursing.
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“I had a homophobic belief that nurses were gay, so when I found out I was embarrassed, I wanted to take action. After the bullets, my left leg ached,” says Camilo.
Unfortunately for Camilo, the wound he received did not allow him to continue his military career. Although this situation made her mother happy, she was discouraged and now she had to figure out what to do with her life.
He first tried to enter the National University to study Chemistry but failed. Then she decided to continue what she started in the military, and maybe that’s the only thing that went well for her: Nursing.
She started her career at the age of 23 and graduated as a professional nurse 4 years later.
He immediately got a job and worked hard. He was now indebted to his patients and wanted to consolidate his career and realize his new dream.
Two years later he married the love of his life and they started living together.
Everything was going very well in Camilo’s life. His job was tiring and required a lot of sacrifice, but what he loved and was happy with was how happy his wife was and how proud his mother was.
At the beginning of 2016, Camilo’s health problems began.
At first it was just mild headaches and some dizziness. He attributed it to his job, as he had long shifts that he had to do on two weekends a month.
His pain gradually increased, and one day, while he was resting at home, he fainted and fell to the ground.
When he awoke, he was in the hospital and had been channeled. Next to him was his mother, who continued to tell him everything that had happened.
Camilo was in a coma for six months. They did brain surgery at the time and were able to remove part of a tumor he had that unfortunately paralyzed the right half of his body.
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A few days after waking up, Camilo experienced that truth. No matter how hard he tried to move his right arm or leg, he couldn’t. And it was here that his ordeal and depression began, worsened by his mother’s confirmation—at his insistence—that his wife had separated while he was in a coma and had never heard from her.
Now he only had his mother by his side, and it was his mother who would give him the strength to survive the bad moment.
Supported by his mother, Camilo knew this bad moment would pass, but not in the way he thought. Unfortunately, there was no other opportunity, no matter how much he wanted it, because the doctors reported that the tumor that displaced his brain was inoperable and the situation was really discouraging.
However, Camilo started her treatment. He received radiotherapy to restore mobility in his body, healing therapies, and psychological therapy to learn to live with the tumor and its new reality.
Gone are the days of military service and nursing, which he dreamed of living, and he was now unemployed and disabled.
Later, after good results in recovery therapy, he was able to walk again and even grasp some objects with his right hand. Added to this was the unparalleled and unconditional support of her mother, who took care of her every moment as if she had been reborn.
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But after two years of treatment, nothing about the tumor had improved, in fact it had increased in size and was already causing more serious health problems for Camilo.
“The pain was unbearable at night, especially at night. It also got to the point where I had seizures,” she explains.
When he was shaken, his mother took care of him. She learned to adapt to avoid injury, and when her condition got complicated, she checked in and cared for her when the ambulance arrived to take her to the emergency room.
“In the end, because I wasn’t seeing any improvement and I was already waiting, the oncologist and neurologist told me there wasn’t much to do. I could have continued the treatment, but I wasn’t really responding properly,” says Camilo.
So he asked them how long he would live to stop treating himself. “You have five years left,” they said.
But the devastating news did not upset Camilo. “It didn’t really upset me. It made me think. I felt I had to make a decision about what I should do and whether it was really worth it to continue suffering with treatment or to enjoy those five years. Whatever they were to the end,” Bogotano explains.
After talking to her mother, the decision was that the only thing certain was that the next five years would be the most special of their lives.
Treatment did not guarantee recovery, so the guarantee was to be as happy as possible together.
“Because I don’t have a job anymore and I want my mother to calm down, I’ve dedicated myself to working, taking advantage of the fact that I have a disability certificate and can get in my car with no choice and license plate restrictions. Digital transportation apps like Cabify, Uber, and Didi,” explains Camilo.
He gets up at 4 am every weekday. He leaves his home in Kennedy and begins to seek service.
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The 1.74-metre Camilo demonstrates calmness and precision while driving, despite his mobility issues. He can be seen in the driver’s seat, from the passenger’s point of view, often silent and looking straight ahead, listening to the El Sol station playing his favorite salsa music, which he can no longer dance to.
His car is mechanical, so with the ring and pinky finger of his right hand he moves the gearshift lever, when appropriate, as he almost always does, without exceeding 60 kilometers per hour.
“The day passes between the bus and the bus, and around 2 pm I return home to be with my mother,” she says.
And this new job allowed him to have more time to do other things, as Camilo explains.
“Whether I want to go for a walk with my dad in the afternoon, eat ice cream, or just go for a walk, now I have time. And that’s partly what I enjoy most,” she says. .
She does not earn as much as she did when she was a nurse, but she spends more free and quality time with her family, almost the same.
Their mothers also work in the mornings and this is enough for them to live without financial worries. In addition, it does not have any medical expenses, as it has already completely stopped the treatments.
“I’m waiting for my time to come. I enjoy every day as if it’s my last, and that’s how I make my mom feel, too. I still live with pain and continue to have seizures, but when one learns to live with it; it doesn’t affect it, practically becomes a part of lifeCamilo thinks.
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In June 2023, the years of life that the doctors prophesied Camilo will have expired.
Whether or not what the experts predict does happen, she is waiting for that day very calmly, knowing that the previous weeks will probably be very painful as the tumor may leave her unconscious again and perhaps she will not be able to say goodbye to her mother. . Ever since she made the decision to stop treatment, she has been determined to accept death.
“I’m saving up everything I’ve worked for, and when the day comes, I’ll leave it to my mom, in June or later, as they told me. In addition to all the good times we’re having right now, I want to leave. Something to help her when I’m no more”, ends Camilo, smiling and juicy with eyes.
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DUVAN ALVAREZ DE LAS SALAS
NATION Editor – EL TIEMPO
From Twitter: @Duvan_AD
Source: Exame
