65 days since first NGPDT treatment:
Mom is doing well. Her appetite is good. Sometimes she get picky and getting a little temperamental. This is good because it's back to her old-self again (like 10yrs ago). Ha ha! 妈妈的健康是好的。她的胃口是好的。
She told me that she discovered more new hair growth on her scalp. I checked with Dr Lim, and he confirmed that this is a good 'side-effect' of the NGPDT treatment. Well, you balding people out there, now you know where to get new hair growth :-) 她告诉我她发现她的头皮上的头发更多的新增长。林医生证实是NGPDT治疗一个好的“副作用”. 你们光头的人,现在你知道在哪里可以得到新长的头发啦:-)
She is experiencing twitching at the tumor areas. And under the armpit (lymph node) it twitches as well. This is expected reaction.
Finally we found a specialist doctor in Singapore who is willing to perform a pathology on the tumor (and subsequently drain the liquid from the tumor). However, the doctor said that in Singapore, pathology report only indicate whether there are cancer cells or there is none. The report does not indicate the percentage of cancerous cells within the sample. This is not very useful as we won't be able to tell how much more NGPDT treatment we need to do on the tumor. Hmmm.... we need to find a lab which would be able to do this report so that we can tell the progress.
The problem with using alternative approach to Cancer treatment ais that there is the lack of supporting systems (eg lab, radiography and doctors) who would analyse the reports in between treatments. An breast cancer surgeon told me a few weeks ago that "we don't monitor at what happens to the tumor during chemo treatment. We will only look at the report after the complete course of the chemo". When I asked her what happens to the tumor in between the chemo course. She said, "It does not matter what happen in between. What's most important is at the end of a 6-course chemo treatment. If tumor shrunk - good. If not, we take next course of action. And the period is about 2-3months apart."
Well, the waiting period is similar to NGPDT. We cannot tell if the tumor has shrunk until 2-3months time. However, the difference with NGPDT is that we can do scans and check on the progress along the way. However, the problem is to get a doctor who is willing to interprete the report correctly.
Next action: We will look for alternate lab and physician who can do this.
Special words from Mdm Thoo:
For those of you who contacted us recently, Rowena, David, Mak, Chan family - All the best to you and your decisions forward. NGPDT feels like an unchartered territory. My advise to you all is this: It's your life. Only you can decide what's the best route to take. Weigh the options and make your OWN decision. Don't let the doctors make it for you. And do not let the burden of this decision weigh on others. Family members must support me - it is very important to have them to help me through. Fortunately for me, this treatment has no suffering and no illness. A little pain at times, but tolerable - with pain-killers. The NGPDT center staff have lots of information for me (at times too much), but better more info than less. Good luck to all of you out there. It's been 65 days for me since I started NGPDT (and 90 days since I discover I have cancer). I FEEL GOOD!
Mom is doing well. Her appetite is good. Sometimes she get picky and getting a little temperamental. This is good because it's back to her old-self again (like 10yrs ago). Ha ha! 妈妈的健康是好的。她的胃口是好的。
She told me that she discovered more new hair growth on her scalp. I checked with Dr Lim, and he confirmed that this is a good 'side-effect' of the NGPDT treatment. Well, you balding people out there, now you know where to get new hair growth :-) 她告诉我她发现她的头皮上的头发更多的新增长。林医生证实是NGPDT治疗一个好的“副作用”. 你们光头的人,现在你知道在哪里可以得到新长的头发啦:-)
She is experiencing twitching at the tumor areas. And under the armpit (lymph node) it twitches as well. This is expected reaction.
Finally we found a specialist doctor in Singapore who is willing to perform a pathology on the tumor (and subsequently drain the liquid from the tumor). However, the doctor said that in Singapore, pathology report only indicate whether there are cancer cells or there is none. The report does not indicate the percentage of cancerous cells within the sample. This is not very useful as we won't be able to tell how much more NGPDT treatment we need to do on the tumor. Hmmm.... we need to find a lab which would be able to do this report so that we can tell the progress.
The problem with using alternative approach to Cancer treatment ais that there is the lack of supporting systems (eg lab, radiography and doctors) who would analyse the reports in between treatments. An breast cancer surgeon told me a few weeks ago that "we don't monitor at what happens to the tumor during chemo treatment. We will only look at the report after the complete course of the chemo". When I asked her what happens to the tumor in between the chemo course. She said, "It does not matter what happen in between. What's most important is at the end of a 6-course chemo treatment. If tumor shrunk - good. If not, we take next course of action. And the period is about 2-3months apart."
Well, the waiting period is similar to NGPDT. We cannot tell if the tumor has shrunk until 2-3months time. However, the difference with NGPDT is that we can do scans and check on the progress along the way. However, the problem is to get a doctor who is willing to interprete the report correctly.
Next action: We will look for alternate lab and physician who can do this.
Special words from Mdm Thoo:
For those of you who contacted us recently, Rowena, David, Mak, Chan family - All the best to you and your decisions forward. NGPDT feels like an unchartered territory. My advise to you all is this: It's your life. Only you can decide what's the best route to take. Weigh the options and make your OWN decision. Don't let the doctors make it for you. And do not let the burden of this decision weigh on others. Family members must support me - it is very important to have them to help me through. Fortunately for me, this treatment has no suffering and no illness. A little pain at times, but tolerable - with pain-killers. The NGPDT center staff have lots of information for me (at times too much), but better more info than less. Good luck to all of you out there. It's been 65 days for me since I started NGPDT (and 90 days since I discover I have cancer). I FEEL GOOD!