Almost a year and a half after he made the decision to retire, no longer seen in the public space, Codrin Ştefănescu opened the door of his house wide to Romania TV and agreed, on the eve of the big celebration, to talk about the ordeal he went through passed during this time, after, as speculated, he was diagnosed with colon cancer.
It was a very hard test. I no longer had any kind of contact, I had to focus strictly on this misfortune, on the battle between being and not being.
I went into this battle with pessimistic cancer. I left with minimal chances. When I found out the verdict, I realized that I had no chance, zero chance. But here, I’m alive, not completely recovered yet, I still have a few months to take vitamins.
The symptoms
I started to lose a lot of weight. I celebrated my birthday together with Anamaria Prodan. We are born one day apart. And we had guests. I felt bad during this party and I asked Anamaria to hold my place and make it not be noticed that I left.
I left and went straight to the hospital. At 12 at night, when happy birthday was sung, I was already in the first analysis. They kept me until 5 in the morning.
The first verdict came the next day. The doctors clearly saw what was happening to me, I did a set of tests, I started to lose my appetite, my zest for life. But the luck was that I discovered in time. It was the hardest battle.
I want to tell Monica Pop that I left pessimistic, I didn’t leave confident when I went to do all the tests recommended by the doctors. I left with the idea that it was almost final.
The 3 elements that helped Codrin Ştefănescu win the battle with the disease
I want to say something for everyone. There are 3 elements that help you win, what Monica Pop said: to leave optimistically, to be determined to fight, and when you pray, I prayed for myself: Give me, God, energy and make me well , give me, God, a reprieve because I have some children, I need a little more time.
All the doctors said that I am under control, that I must be optimized, technology allows you, if you leave optimistic with the desire to fight and if you trust your guardian angel, you say: God, you gave me this test, I will fight. If you undertake all this, technology will help you!
I left with a will, I called the lawyer and decided for the children what they had to do, I did everything, details with everything as my father left me, the notes for each thing. I, when I left these, was taught.
This is not a political battle, with people without character, it is a clear battle in which you know that you have only 2 options, win or die. I did not believe that death could be felt. You feel the lady with the scythe. At the beginning of the disease, I had the vague impression that it was haunting me, as I progressed I began to feel that it is present at night, that it is in the room.
Death is not cruel and ugly, it is sweet and makes you understand that this step is not terrible. If you don’t give in, you win. It’s something psychological, that’s why some, after treatment, went back to normal activity ignoring the disease.
Victory over disease
Something unimaginable happened to me. There came a time when I was fed through tubes and the doctors were not worried, they told me that it is a normal thing, that after the treatment the body must be regulated. I, after 30 or so years in politics, realized that I do my job to the maximum, but I hide part of the truth.
On the third day, I had a thought. However, you can’t surrender just like that, Codrine, you can’t lie in bed and wait for… And I decided to fight, I got out of bed almost passed out, I didn’t press any button, I taken off and I had 2 dumbbells next to the bed to move.
You don’t think about anything at all, you have to be active, do sports, whatever, even if you feel bad. I did sports until my body accepted and I did well. Madness! I opened a bottle of red wine, drank 2-3 glasses of red wine to start fighting.
I did sports, I drank another glass of wine, I started to see that this desire started to grow in me. The second time I fainted with the dumbbells in my hand, I threw them and hit my knee on the corner of the table, the pain was acute. It was so great that my body forgot about death and concentrated and the next day I started to eat.
The fact that the blow was so painful, every movement I make I feel it in my brain, I feel like cutting off my leg, no, because now you are focused on something else.
And then I barely understood, and not only Monica Pop told me, you have to leave optimistic that there is a solution. I started to eat, to grow, to return to normal, the treatments started to have an effect, to take care of my work, to see my child then.
The doctors told me: you concentrate, you don’t do anything, if you die, you know that everyone is fine. Your children are quiet. I wrote a letter to each of them. And the doctors told me: you concentrate by being active. They told me some things, I turned off the phone, the tablet. But when I started to recover and turned on the TV, I started to get angry again.
I had entered normal and passed the big fire, but the final was the most terrible battle, but I convinced myself of some important things. That our mind has crazy powers, that there is a guardian angel and when you pray, you must pray to him without asking him, you are only asking him for respite.
Stress, the basis of any form of cancer
Absolutely all the doctors told me that the disease is due to stress. Stress destroys your immunity. Let’s take the example of a man from the country. What does he do: he goes to the field to work, he eats healthy, what stress does he have in his life? When a child is born, when someone dies, right? When the girl and the boy get married. And if you take the life of a simple man, he has 10 points – 11 stress points, like taking a pill.
Well, in politics I had 10-20 stress points in an hour: swearing, attacks, through the courts, interventions abroad, to deal with… all this stress is in one day. This disease is triggered by stress.
Doctors admit that we all have these cells, but they are only triggered when you have low immunity. Stress takes its toll and at some point the immunity drops and attacks you wherever it can.
The digestive system is the easiest to stress, so to speak. There are many who have anxiety, depression, everything starts from there. 91% of those who fall ill with the disease of the century, even official reports say so, fall ill because of stress.
I didn’t believe in this until I met a retired doctor from the Military Hospital. He has been my friend for 30 or so years. And he asked me: how many times have you laughed in these years? It’s not that you laugh at political jokes, laughter means a few friends with whom you can spend the evening, drink a glass of wine, make silly jokes with your wives, simple jokes. How many times have you met with sincere friends, not with those with whom you pretend to be fine… with your friends from college, from high school? Stress is released through very good relationships in the family, with close ones. You did it, you didn’t relieve this stress.
How Codrin Ştefănescu’s life changed after he got rid of cancer
Now I do things that I didn’t do before. The people around were very surprised. And my daughter, who is at her house, comes to visit me. They say to me: well, how come, you were a cold person, with friends, with family? I have visibly changed my approach to life!
In those moments, you have regrets for things you didn’t do and for things you did. Regrets suffocate you, it depends on how you take them, you regret not having acted in certain circumstances. I had the regret that I promoted people who turned out to be scoundrels and reached the top of the state.
The body weakens when you are mentally weak, when you have regrets you burden yourself even more, that I didn’t do that, that I didn’t do the other. I regretted the most that I didn’t dedicate more time to my family, to my children.
Treatments are 90%, 10% is what you have in mind. We have technology in Romania and we have fabulous doctors. I was sent by doctors from outside to doctors in Romania. For example, Beuran. I also went to Vienna, they told me: You have in Romania some of the great surgeons who write annually in international magazines that we learn and try to put into practice.
Cancer occurs more as a result of stress than of poor nutrition
The foods we eat have chemicals, but the body adapts. This is not where the disease of the century comes from, but from stress, frustrations, lack of time, routine, I drive an hour on the road to go to work for 8 hours, to come back to do the shopping, prices have increased by 5% compared to yesterday. The bills are coming, I don’t have anything to pay, I’m paying taxes, the apartment tax has tripled, the parking is no longer mine, all these things, every day, accumulate.
He planned his funeral down to the smallest detail
I said that no matter what I looked like, it was clear that I would only be skin and bones, to be buried in the grave where my mother and father are, I don’t want to be cremated, to have my ashes thrown on the branches or in the Black Sea. And I asked for one more thing, and that’s how I left it in my will: violins. The song that should be played for me immediately after the service, before putting me in the pit, should be Open, bury, the grave, and I also gave the name of the violinist who should come. I left very pessimistic.
I took into account absolutely everything. My driver, I don’t have a license, I’m anti-driving, he’s my childhood friend, I let him do what he has to do. I left everything now plus some personal letters for each child. I left written that if I don’t win this battle, I want to be buried in Bellu, in the family vault, in the coffin with the lid open regardless of how I look, so that the world can see that I fought until the end.
When you have this disease, you have to meet with friends, drink wine, watch movies, meet with family and the disease starts to fade, pray if you have this faith.
Tags: dont cancer eat body chemicals stress Stress released sick
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