Keeping up with daddy

Continuation from my previous post on Dad, yes, he found out a lump on his left neck and was diagnosed with thyroid cancer by the Mahkota Medical Centre.

Before we proceed with the surgery as suggested by the private hospital, we seek help from our family friend - Dr. Ben, Yvonne's husband who is attached to Sungai Buloh government hospital. He gave us a referral letter and arranged for us an appointment with the head of endocrine surgeon - Dr. Maya from Putrajaya Hospital.

On 12th Feb 2016, we met Dr. Maya and was given explanations on the types of thyroid cancer. To ensure which type of cancer and the next step, deeper biopsy needed to be done. Hence Dad did another 2 biopsy and also some checks on blood and cardiac in preparation to speed things up if the biopsy results shows that it can be operated.

On 29th Feb 2016, biopsy results were out. We were hoping and praying that it is not the aggressive type but it turn out to be. It was anaplastic carcinoma and it labeled to be stage 4 as it is very aggressive type. Due to its nature, surgery is not an option and also the growth has pushes Dad's main blood artery to the side which is high risk for surgery. It can cause stroke. The only treatment will be radiotherapy and Dr. Maya referred us to Institute Kanser Negara (IKN), oncology department which is located just next to Putrajaya Hospital.

We made an appointment with IKN and we actually not very satisfied with the results as we still think surgery might work faster in removing the cancer cells. Hence we fled to Sunway Medical Centre to seek another advice from ENT clinic. It was the same. Surgery is not advisable.

We met up with Oncology  Dr Soma and Dr. Lau. Advised 33 times of radiotherapy as chemotherapy do not work well with anaplastic cancer. The radiotherapy aims to reduce the tumor and to control it but there is no guarantee that it will disappear.

On 7th and 8th March 2016, Daddy was scheduled to do CT Sim and to do head to shoulder mask in preparation for the radiotherapy.

Starting from 31st March - 17th May 2016 was his radiotherapy sessions. The therapy is also called tomotherapy.  We said family prayer every morning before he goes for treatment.