I just finished Lance Armstrong’s book, It’s Not about the Bike:  My Journey Back to Life, and wanted to reflect on some of the thoughts that entered my mind.  First of all, I really enjoyed the book.  It was long overdue that I read it, and I am glad that I finally did.  His ability to fight back from almost unbelievable odds is amazing.  After he won his battle against cancer, his doctors said he was less than the 3% of all comers with testicular cancer as far as being the worst or most severe case.  Part of my mission with this wellness center is to provide a global wellness program to help others.  Deborah Haynes, the Director of Operations at Anti-Aging and Vitality Center, spoke in Cleveland where I visited her AVC center there and said, “A healthy man has a thousand wishes, a sick man has but one.”  That resonated very clearly with me.  My father suffered all his life and finally succumbed to illness in his last days.  I am glad that I was there to see him and stay with him in his final days.  We truly take our health for granted.  In fact, we take a lot of things for granted.  Every day we get up and complain about something, usually something trivial.  Until you have been faced with life and death, you can’t appreciate how much you truly have.  When I was traveling abroad in Asia for 6 months to study Asian cosmetic surgery, I went to Bali for an Oriental Society of Plastic Surgery meeting.  I left on Saturday at 1 pm. It was not until Sunday night when I returned to Hong Kong that I realized that a bomb went off in the exact night club that I was in the night before at 11:03 pm Saturday that led to casualties of epic proportions.  The lucky died.  The unlucky survived with at least 80% plus body burns, disfigurement, and loss of hearing.  I am grateful today that I am alive.  I want all of you to reflect on how precious life is and how much God has given us to be here today.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 8:33 am and is filed under Lam Facial Plastics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.