“I think I got somewhat complacent, comfortable,” he said. “Like, ‘OK, I’m
cured.’”
Then the cancer came back.
Faison said he went to Tijuana, Mexico, in November 2018 to buy an herbal tonic
that isn’t approved for use in the United States. He attended an alternative
medicine conference in Florida in February.
“If I didn’t do all that,” he said, “there’s no doubt in my mind that I probably
wouldn’t be here, or I probably wouldn’t be as healthy.”
But Faison’s health insurance doesn’t pay for alternative medicine. The GoFundMe
campaign he set up to cover his costs is falling short of its goal, and he can’t afford
all the alternatives he’d like to keep pursuing.
In April, Faison returned to the emergency room with a nagging cough and back
pain. He is now participating in a clinical trial for a new drug.
“I really try to forget that I’m sick,” he said.
Until recently, Faison didn’t know about all the places from his childhood where
radon was found. He didn’t know about HUD’s inaction or the failure of housing
authorities to test for radioactivity in public housing.
The government should have shown more urgency in its effort to protect families
from radon over the past 30 years, he said. Testing should be required.
“In the meantime, you’ve got little kids living in homes, like me, who might end
up with lung cancer,” Faison said.
“There’s no way,” he said, “that we should still be living with this.”