Progress so far

Months of silence! I'm alright, alive and kicking, Alhamdulillah. Updating from the previous post, few month after I'm done with the chemo, I got my menstrual again. This is certainly not a good sign since my cancer is ER/PR positive. Sad to say, the lump grew bigger again. In October 2013, I began to feel the pain on my back again. I began to see this Ustaz who practise using Qur'an recitation to transfer the cancer cells to a kemboja plant. It sounds silly but it works! I went to see the Ustaz every week day by day the pain went away and as at now I don't feel any pain anywhere. Though I went for an alternative treatment, I still seek the conventional method. During an appointment with the surgeon, he advised for another round of chemo to shrink the lump before having a mastectomy. I have no other choice and agreed to his proposal.

I started on an oral chemo with six cycles of xeloda. During each cycle, I took three tablets in the morning and three at night for 14 days, rest for one week and continue on next cycle once the blood report is alright. I had to take some b6 pills to counter for the side effect of numbness on hands and feet. I did not take it regularly in the beginning coz' I don't feel any numbness anywhere. But when I got blisters on my feet, I began to take the b6 regularly :-) Other than that, the skin got extra dry that I need to apply mosturiser frequently. Appetite was good throughout ~ proven by the weighing scale :-) I'm now 57kg, gained 10 kgs from the worst reading recorded during my sickness. I'm now done with the oral chemo and the lump has shrunk to a good size for surgery. But I'm now thinking twice whether to have the surgery. Trying to run away again eh!

Sometimes in March, as I lay on my ceragem having my daily massage, I came across a blog ~ "I'm keeping them", story on an American who preserved both breasts by going through cryoablation instead of mastectomy.  Cryoablation is a procedure whereby the tumor is injected with argon and helium gas to freeze the cancer cells.  Needles are inserted to the tumor, guided by CT scan.  Once frozen, the dead cancer cells will be absorbed and removed from our body through the usual removing dead cells process.  As if I found the light at the end of the tunnel, I contacted the author for further leads and I came across Fuda Cancer Hospital where the cryoablation can be performed.

Once I got the contact, I began emailing the consultant for details.  My concern was the $$ that I would have to spend for the procedure.  They required that I do a PET/CT scan to see my current stage.  PET/CT scan was done in May and at that time the size of the tumor was around 4.5 cm.  When I sent them the result, they estimated that the cost would be around RMB 50K - 60K.  I decided to proceed with it for these reasons :

• My OKU daughter has just gone for a hip surgery which required her to be on cast for three months.  I have to manage her ~ carry her to the bathroom, bath her, feed her and basically do everything for her.  If I go for mastectomy, I wouldn't be able to do all the chores,  and who would?
• Most of the cases that I came across, who went for surgery, had recurrences on other places.  Loosing the breast is a sad thing, having a recurrence is double the blow! 
• People I know who went for surgery, had a tough time during the healing process.  It was really scary to learn about other people's experience & I can imagine myself going through it! I chicken :-)
• And one last thing, as long as I live, I'd rather spend my hard-earned money to my benefit :-)  Believe it or not, people tend to take advantage over our sickness ~ I nearly lose some money due to a dishonest buy & sell transaction!

Got to stop here, will update on my experience with the cryo :-)