Some concrete steps
So we met Dr A and here's what he said:
(1) Re my dad's red eyes: nothing to do with cancer but need to seek help from an ophthalmologist immediately.
(2) Re my dad's left leg: almost certain there's cancer on the neck of the left femur. As at now, it's not endangering the bone but if left untreated, it can cause fracture of the bone and that will be catastrophic since it's a weight-bearing bone. "Strongly" suggested radiotherapy to treat it.
(3) He was worried about the spot in the lymph node near the right kidney bed. So at this stage he recommended chemotherapy that helps to control the growth of the cancer. There is usually no or only mild (and hence tolerable) side effects. He, however, did advise us to take a little time to consider whether dad wanted chemo or not.
We asked what's the expected remaining life. He asked whether we really wanted to know and which party wanted to know. My dad confirmed that he himself wanted to know as he would want make plans accordingly. Answer: 2 years. Without chemo, it's 1 year. He, however, encouraged my dad not to give up as there were patients who lived for, say, 5 years.
As we know the treatment at that hospital is expensive, Dr A was understanding when we said we wanted to check out another hospital and he recognised Dr D from that hospital ("ah yes, she's a nice lady"). Our plan was to have chemo at the nearest public hospital if there's no long waiting time. If not, it'll be at that other private hospital. Dr A is willing to write a referral letter if needed.
Since we had few hours before meeting Dr D, we quickly visited Dr W, an ophthalmologist, at Dr A's hospital. After 2 check-ups (the second time after dilating the pupils and waiting for 30 mins), Dr W concluded that it was an infection. Prescribed medicine and asked us to get Johnson Baby No-More-Tear shampoo for cleaning.
Hours later, after giving Dr D all the necessary info, she said this:
(4) Aim of treatment during stage 4 cancer is to (a) prolong life, (b) maintain quality of life, and (c) manage symptoms. So she too recommended radiotherapy for the left leg.
(5) On the other hand, she differed in opinion on the likelihood of cancer in the lymph node. Given the aim stated in (4) above, she recommended an initial 2-monthly CT scan to check for anything serious.
(6) The eventual chemotherapy programme would be the same as what Dr A recommended. We can of course to choose to start anytime we like, instead of waiting for when there's multiple metastasis.
For certain, dad wants the radiotherapy to treat his leg as it's causing him severe pain and affects his sleep significantly. As for chemotherapy, we'll wait until his leg has at least significantly improved.
On our side, we have many things to do to enable my parents to permanently move to my sister's place in Butterworth.
(1) Re my dad's red eyes: nothing to do with cancer but need to seek help from an ophthalmologist immediately.
(2) Re my dad's left leg: almost certain there's cancer on the neck of the left femur. As at now, it's not endangering the bone but if left untreated, it can cause fracture of the bone and that will be catastrophic since it's a weight-bearing bone. "Strongly" suggested radiotherapy to treat it.
(3) He was worried about the spot in the lymph node near the right kidney bed. So at this stage he recommended chemotherapy that helps to control the growth of the cancer. There is usually no or only mild (and hence tolerable) side effects. He, however, did advise us to take a little time to consider whether dad wanted chemo or not.
We asked what's the expected remaining life. He asked whether we really wanted to know and which party wanted to know. My dad confirmed that he himself wanted to know as he would want make plans accordingly. Answer: 2 years. Without chemo, it's 1 year. He, however, encouraged my dad not to give up as there were patients who lived for, say, 5 years.
As we know the treatment at that hospital is expensive, Dr A was understanding when we said we wanted to check out another hospital and he recognised Dr D from that hospital ("ah yes, she's a nice lady"). Our plan was to have chemo at the nearest public hospital if there's no long waiting time. If not, it'll be at that other private hospital. Dr A is willing to write a referral letter if needed.
Since we had few hours before meeting Dr D, we quickly visited Dr W, an ophthalmologist, at Dr A's hospital. After 2 check-ups (the second time after dilating the pupils and waiting for 30 mins), Dr W concluded that it was an infection. Prescribed medicine and asked us to get Johnson Baby No-More-Tear shampoo for cleaning.
Hours later, after giving Dr D all the necessary info, she said this:
(4) Aim of treatment during stage 4 cancer is to (a) prolong life, (b) maintain quality of life, and (c) manage symptoms. So she too recommended radiotherapy for the left leg.
(5) On the other hand, she differed in opinion on the likelihood of cancer in the lymph node. Given the aim stated in (4) above, she recommended an initial 2-monthly CT scan to check for anything serious.
(6) The eventual chemotherapy programme would be the same as what Dr A recommended. We can of course to choose to start anytime we like, instead of waiting for when there's multiple metastasis.
For certain, dad wants the radiotherapy to treat his leg as it's causing him severe pain and affects his sleep significantly. As for chemotherapy, we'll wait until his leg has at least significantly improved.
On our side, we have many things to do to enable my parents to permanently move to my sister's place in Butterworth.
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