EL PROCESO DE SUPERACION QUE ATRAVESÓ JAIRO

Written by:
Deisy Julieth Lozano Barrera

Written for:
Cristian Guerrero

Grade:10B

Ángela Restrepo Moreno

English
Bogotá D.C
2023
 First of all, it is necessary to describe the personality and physical appearance of the
protagonist of this story, that is, my uncle. His name is Jairo Barrera, he is an adult of about 62
years old, he is of average height, thin, with green eyes and brown skin obtained thanks to the
sun. If he used sunscreen, he would not have that skin color, but would have a lighter tone;
however, you can't blame him, considering that he is a person who has grown up all his life in the
countryside and is constantly exposed to the sun's rays. His personality is based on being a
cheerful, noble, charismatic person, who pleases everyone with his mere presence, kind, tolerant
and other qualities typical of him. Likewise, he has a large family that is characterized mainly by
being composed of eight siblings, a wife and three children with ages very close to each other.

For years, my uncle has worked in various professions to bring sustenance to the house.
First he was a farmer, tilling the land every day to produce a good harvest of food for different
families. His other job was to maintain in good condition the public roads of his hometown,
Tipacoque, a town located in the department of Boyacá, which my family and I visit every year to
greet our loved ones. He has been characterized by requiring in his work a lot of strength,
constant hours under the hot sun, arriving home very late, eating just enough and necessary and
other similar situations. If he had achieved a more stable and less strenuous job, he would have
more time to spend with his family.

For these same reasons, at the end of September last year, he began to feel that he choked
easily on any food and there was no reason behind this sensation, in addition to the fact that he
became very dizzy, pale, fainted on some occasions, vomited what little he ate, lost his balance
continuously and other symptoms. If he ate a little too much or something too strong, he would
vomit it all up without taking a bite or choke on what little he ate. This happened in various
circumstances until they could no longer find a clear reason for what was happening to him, so
they decided to take him to the town hospital. There the doctor ordered several tests to find an
answer to his symptoms and decided it was best to hospitalize him at that time.

On the other hand, my mother, being a nurse, decided that: "If Jairo gets stuck a lot, he is
seriously ill", so it was necessary for her to perform a blood test in addition to the tests that the
doctor had already ordered. When the results of this analysis came out, my uncle tested positive
for esophageal squamous cell cancer, so the only alternative was to start chemotherapy
immediately to treat the cancer as soon as possible and not to aggravate the situation later on. If
the doctor detected the cancer correctly some time ago, my uncle would not have had to go
through several exhausting situations to finally fight it.

In February of this year, Jairo arrived in the city to receive better treatment for his cancer
through some procedures directed by my mom. He was transferred to the hospital "Universitario
San Ignacio" and from there he started his chemo and radiotherapy. He went once a week for
chemo and the rest of the week for radiotherapy accompanied by his wife and siblings. If he does
chemo and radiotherapy all week, on weekends he will be very exhausted and without strength.
In addition, if Jairo does these procedures, he will have to eat very slowly in case he chokes.

After a while, the doctors decided to operate on him to finally put an end to the cancer and
cure him completely. The whole family, including myself, were worried about whether the
operation would go well. They hospitalized him and proceeded to perform it for thirteen hours
straight without giving any information to the family members, when it was finally over, they
said that everything had been a success and that no complications had occurred. If my uncle had
not been so brave, he would not have accepted the operation and today he would still have cancer.
Later he was hospitalized again for a biopsy to find out if the cancer was definitely gone or if
they had to do something else. Satisfactorily, the cancer was gone from his body and he had faith
that it would never come back to haunt him.

So, if the doctors and family had not supported Jairo throughout the process, he would
have been exhausted and unwilling to continue fighting cancer. And if Jairo continues with
cancer, he is likely to die. In the same way, if my uncle had listened to the opinions of his wife's
family, he would continue with his disease; since they were telling him that those procedures
would not help him at all, but that he should do natural and environmental treatments to be cured.
Jairo's family was obviously against these ideas and supported him to always follow the
procedures recommended by health specialists. On the other hand, it was necessary for him to eat
through tubes and in liquid form, as he was still very weak from the surgery and could not chew
well. If he does not eat through the tube, he becomes ill with malnutrition. He spent some time
eating through the tube until he was finally able to feed himself little by little without help.

However, after being cured, pains appeared in his body without any explanation, he felt as
if he was being pricked with needles and a current ran through his body, but nothing strange was
seen in the places it suggested; so he was taken again to the emergency room due to his history, as
this had only happened two weeks after being discharged from the hospital. There he was
hospitalized again and operated on his appendix and a hernia. If Jairo had not told what he was
feeling, it would have been much more complicated. If Jairo's body did not hurt, he would have
returned to his village.

After the operation he was found to have "Herpes Zoster", or better known as shingles in
the villages, which consists of an outbreak around the body that subsequently blisters and the
blisters spread to other people, so he had to be isolated and treated with antibiotics. If Jairo gets
chickenpox, he is at risk of getting shingles, as many say it is a very common cause of shingles. If
people don't take antibiotics while they are sick, they will make their condition worse. Similarly,
if Jairo had gone to his village, he would be sick at home and without medical help.

His family visits him every day in the hospital and brings him food to feed him little by
little, they tell him the latest news and try to make him feel always comfortable during his stay in
the hospital without having to worry him about the external problems of his family in Tipacoque,
where his two daughters and his youngest son, one of whom has just given birth to a baby boy,
are at the moment. If the family did not visit Jairo in the hospital, he would be very sad. And if he
were not hospitalized, he would have accompanied his daughter in childbirth and would have met
his grandson.