This text is written as an antidote in the full and precise sense of the word; a writing with which the soul resists illness, cancer and its treatment, the toxins of the chemicals that have infiltrated the body's organs. A writing that depicts pains that only those who experience them can feel, yet that captures us all in moments of tested human existence. A writing that follows, with unparalleled courage, the story of an illness and the pains it engraves on the body and soul, moment by moment. I say courageous writing not only because it defies illness and its toxic treatment, but because, in the midst of all this, it does not forget to weave into the contemplation of the aching self a discussion of others: the people of Gaza, the sick sister in the homeland, and the world's poor. All suffer the fates of their tested human existence. Meanwhile, family and friends give meaning to life in hardship and prosperity.