In times such as these, when every TV channel, newspaper or conversation is spewing fearful and despairing news, how does one cope and survive with the hope to see better times? Amidst galloping COVID 19 numbers, gruesome clashes on our borders, crumbling economy and a very uncertain future, I discovered a living story of exemplary coping and resilience that can make a difference to our lives.
Her name is Ruth Bader Ginsberg, 87 year old lady, the oldest judge of the Supreme Court of USA who is attending to her duties while undergoing chemotherapy for her third cancer.
The present cancer that she is fighting is an advanced one that has spread to her liver, for which she is receiving twice weekly chemotherapy and is optimistic as the tumour is showing signs of regression.
Her long life is as much a lesson in hard work and perseverance in reaching where she has in her career, as it is about coping and resilience with health problems and cancer.
Her first date with cancer was in 1999 when she was 56 and underwent a surgery for colon cancer. In 2009, at age 67 she was diagnosed to have pancreatic cancer, for which she underwent another surgery. Then in 2018, while being scanned for broken ribs after a fall, she was found to have nodules in her left lung, that turned up to be cancerous. She underwent a surgery and got them removed.
Three cancers in a life time, many of us would think is a bit too much. And there had been other health problems too: she had gall stones for which she required yet another intervention few years ago.
What is indeed inspirational, is the way she fought back each time and continued doing her judicial work. To hasten her recovery after surgery from pancreatic cancer, she arranged to get a gym set up in the premises of the court where she trained unfailingly to keep her body strong. And in between court and chemotherapy, she manages 20 push-ups daily even now!
With her will power, regular dose of exercise and sheer grit, she has kept herself not just active, but intellectually alert too, dictating judgments on complex issues in court. All this while taking the chemotherapeutic agent, Gemcitabine, to knock off the cancer cells that have spread to her liver!
Life, as we know well, is finite, and limited by time. How long she will be able to go on is anybody’s guess. But when I see my patients and relatives around giving up too often and too early, I wonder if we could draw inspiration from this feisty lady’s extraordinary story of coping and resilience.
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