Now it is Anh Kim's turn to be featured in this series entitled "Lessons From Our Life With...". Anh Kim is the oldest boy in the family; he is nearly 16 years old.
If there ever was an award for tenacity, Anh Kim, our oldest son, would definitely win it, hands down.
Anh Kim is nearly 16 now, and he has been with our family since he was ten years old. He came to us from Vietnam. He came to us, a scared, frightened little boy who spoke very little in the way of English, and suffering from nightmares. He now is nearly 16, and he is now a very happy, quiet, shy young man who delivers papers every day and is interested in working at a pizza place once he turns 16.
He is also handicapped. Anh had cancer at the age of 6, before he came to America, and the cancer resulted in the amputation of one leg. He sometimes wears his prosthetic leg, but he is happier just going about his way on his crutches and not using his "fake" leg. He feels his "fake" leg only slows him down, and so this is why he often doesn't use it. If he isn't using his crutches, then he is hopping from place to place like a jackrabbit.
Anh eventually recovered from his first bout of cancer, but then, three years ago, when he was 11, he developed leukemia, or cancer of the blood, and he again had to undergo chemotherapy treatments and radiation. He again suffered from extreme nausea and weight loss, and he again lost his hair. He still has chemo, but he now only gets it once a month, and he sees his cancer doctor about that time too, to make sure the cancer isn't spreading to his organs; and so far, everything is looking good. But Anh is often left exhausted after a chemo treatment, and he is also left nauseated and cranky; so it is a big hassle to try to get him to eat.
As a result, Anh is very skinny (he weighs only 85 pounds, even though he is 5'1" tall), and his clothes absolutely hang on him. His hair is also sparse; and so he will often wear a hat because he is embarrassed about his thin hair and his scalp showing through his hair.
After Anh does his paper route (which he does on his one leg and on his crutches), he is spent, and he will often go to bed, where he will sleep for a few hours, just so he can get his strength back, and he will then eat supper if he isn't feeling nauseated. Sometimes he doesn't eat until as late as 10:00.
Anh is rather quiet and shy in nature, and he often gets grouchy. Who can blame him, since he is often sick and doesn't feel good? He has some friends, but not many. When he isn't sick, Anh likes to read, do his paper route, visit with his customers, play on the computer, chat with his friends,
play video games, watch "Star Trek" or any science fiction type program on tv, EAT (that boy is a veretable eating machine if he isn't nauseated!),
and draw or write stories. He also likes to write poetry (most deal with his experiences with cancer). He also likes to listen to country music on his radio or play his guitar.
Another reason why Anh is often grouchy in nature is because he has what is known as "phantom pain" in what is left of his leg (the part that wasn't amputated), and sometimes the pain can be so severe and disabling he will yell out in pain when one least expects it, or he will get tears in his eyes. One never knows when the pain will hit, and one gets worried because when one of these "phantom pain" spells hits, Anh will grab his chest and rub it; and we think he is having heart problems, but Anh reassures us that it is only his leg acting up again. He rubs his chest as a means of comfort, but we get scared, nevertheless. We ask him why he doesn't rub his leg instead of his chest, and Anh will say in typical teen fashion: "I don't know!"
Anh is quite handsome: fairly short for a boy of 16, incredibly skinny, and has thin, stringy black hair, brown almond-shaped eyes, and a broad, yellow-tan face. He usually is clad in jeans or tee-shirts, and he also wears brightly colored tennis shoes. Oftentimes he will wear a baseball cap on his head to cover up his scalp, which can be easily seen through his hair. Sometimes he will wear a sweater or a jacket, even on a warm day, because he gets chilled easily due to being ill and being so thin.
We try to offer Anh help in carrying his papers or his schoolbooks for him, but he refuses. Instead, he will hoist them onto his back (he is incredibly strong in his arms and shoulders), and he will go along his merry way. He would rather do things for himself than to try to have us helping him.
This is why we say that if there ever was an award for tenacity, Anh would win it, hands down, because he doesn't like people helping him. He is determined to do things on his own, in his own fashion, and nobody--or nothing--can convince him otherwise.
Anh has taught us about bravery and courage, and he has taught us that even though cancer is a bad disease, and many people do die from it, more people now than ever are surviving cancer, and cancer is really nothing to be feared because if one has the right attitude, chances are, they will beat it. Anh has certainly done that, not once, but twice. And he is still going strong! Cancer hasn't beaten him, and he isn't about to let it do so! He is a true "Cancer Survivor", and he has proven that even with cancer, one can lead a very rich and fulfilling life.
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