When Someone You Love Has Cancer Bernie Rosquites: Hi everyone, you’re listening to the Faith and Family podcast, a Christian family community that aims to promote Christian values for every phase of your family life. I’m Bernie Rosquites. You know the line, “in sickness and in health”? Sound familiar? When the minister mentions, “in sickness and in health” during the marriage vows, we tend to think of a cold, maybe a bad case of the flu, but not this. Jhoana Parto: Hi, I'm Jhoana Parto. I'm 38 years old. My family and I live in Sydney, Australia. Donovan Parto: Hi, I'm Donovan. I'm 39 years old. Jhoana and I have two sons, Isaac and Ezekiel. Bernie: Jhoana and Donovan’s story actually begins with the flu in 2020. The world had shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the midst of this, the Partos were devastated to find out that Donovan’s lingering flu symptoms led to further testing and a biopsy. The diagnosis was Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, and he needed chemotherapy immediately. Donovan: It was March… sorry, actually it was in April of 2020, where I actually got sick. You know, one of my passions is sport, and I was playing tennis that day with a friend. From that day onwards, I started to get high temperature fevers, extreme sweats. Jhoana: You lost a lot of weight. Donovan: And I also lost a significant amount of weight. I probably lost about seven kilos, which is about 15 and a half pounds or so within two weeks. And basically it was like that for about two and a half, three months until my doctor suggested I reach out to a cardiologist, thinking that it could be a heart issue. And it was a Friday morning. I do recall it was July 9 of 2020, where I got a blood test in the morning and while I was cooking dinner in the evening, the doctor called and suggested that I should go straight into the emergency department of a hospital that was close to us in our previous place or our previous home. And so I did. I rushed through, got a whole bunch of tests done and it was crazy. You know, the doctor was telling me that my blood results had, you know, certain readings of potentially leukemia or a really bad virus. And so I ended up staying there overnight. And yeah, it was just a crazy time in my mind. And at that stage, you're in shock. You actually go through the whole process of, you know, managing the process of trying to accept it, the fear and the acceptance and basically going through that whole process of managing grief because for a 37-year-old, I think at that time I was healthy. I was working hard. Jhoana: You were traveling, you were playing sports. Donovan: Yeah, I was traveling. I was playing sports. In my role at my company I used to travel, you know, four out of five times a week, whilst performing as a deacon during my visitation, joining the caucus meetings for our local congregation back there in St. George. And yeah, it was extremely busy, but then suddenly COVID hit. What was the hardest thing to accept? Jhoana: So what was the hardest thing to accept about being diagnosed with leukemia? Donovan: Yeah, it's the uncertainty. I think that is the hardest thing to really accept with leukemia. You know, I talk about the shock. I talk about the fear of not being able to recover quickly enough....