LY

LY is a member of The Revival Connection. She had just completed another course of chemo - I am not too sure if it's her second or third. This last course comprised of 6 doses of docetaxol (taxotere) + carboplatin + herceptin - which was what I had.

I had spoken to her recently and she had told me then, that her CA153 marker had gone down to 10.+ after her last dose of chemo, but she also had water retention on her legs and left arm.

Then, she had also asked me about the traditional herbal medicine that I was taking, as her son was quite impressed with my progress when I met them some time ago in NCC, and he had LY asked me about it. LY said that $180 per dose per week was too costly for her so she decided to stick with Thong Chai Medical, where they have 3 cancer specialists there. The problem is that due to the number of cases now, her appointments are scheduled at 1 1/2 months apart. I always feel that when treating advanced cancer cases, appointments should be scheduled closer to enable better monitoring. However, it is a sad but true fact that there are so many cancer cases now and treatment of cancer is so costly that a lot of people will head for Thong Chai which provides free medical treatment.

LY called me again on 7 May, Thursday, and told me that the ct scan done after the completion of her chemo showed that the cancer had spread to her brain. She was to go for MRI that day for more details. In the meantime, she was only given steroids to try and control the growth.

I called LY this morning. She said the MRI confirmed that the cancer had spread to her brain and that she had multiple small tumours all over her brain. The radiation oncologist prescribed 12 doses of radiation for the whole head over 12 days and she is scheduled for her first dose on 13 May. Each session is supposed to last for 15 minutes.

I don't understand how while undergoing chemo, the cancer can still spread to her brain, and yet her CA 153 marker is so low at 10.+. LY did mentioned that her onco said that her combination of chemo drugs for this round would not affect the brain. Does that mean that it will not kill the brain cells, but how about the cancer cells then? Did she have too much chemo that now her immune system is unable to fight back? She also had cancer spreading to her liver, though I cannot remember which relapse it was now.

For LY, this is not the first time she had tumours in the brain. It had happened once before. She also had just completed her chemo for breast cancer, when tests done post chemo found that the cancer had spread to her brain.

I had spoken to M (another member of TRC) about LY's case and M had asked how I felt. Of course, there is disappointment and frustration, especially when I had recovered well enough to be discharged from hospice care. M had mentioned that we have to be prepared that things can go either way. It is true. We were never meant to be on this earth permanently. It is just that some people have a harder and shorter time here while others have an easier passage. In the meantime, life has to go on and we have to do justice to it by trying to live it in as meaningful a manner as possible.

However, I do wonder too, that for now, if I was just lucky to have been able to escape from the clutches of the vicious cycle of cancer -> chemo/radiation -> relapse -> chemo/radiation......, or was it because I made the right choice of treatment?