Family Update No. 5

So no updates for a while. Kinda of strange. Before I started this blog, there was so many stories and adventures that I felt I wanted to tell, and yet now that this blog is up, there either hardly seems to be anything to say, or something mundane but time-consuming happens.

So, two updates regarding Mum this time round, both again with words from Dad. The first email is dated Oct. 1st, which seems like ages ago now:

“Mum made her scheduled visit to the oncologist’s office yesterday. However, no chemo was given because she had developed a deep-seated dental abscess which requires surgical drainage. Her oncologist, after consultation with the oral surgeon, has therefore decided to suspend her chemo until the dental abscess has healed. Her surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday. Incidentally, her latest CXR showed no significant change as compared to the previous one (taken about 6 weeks ago). Specifically, the opacity at the left upper lobe remained at 3cm. and no new lesions were seen. For the moment we can only console ourselves by saying that at least she is not getting worse.”

So it looked like things were looking better. Mum’s cancer certainly wasn’t getting worse, and stopping chemo temporarily would be a relief for family finances for a while, at least.

Then, this email came up a few days back…

“things seem to take a turn for the worse for mum. We have just been dealt another blow, because what was supposedly to be a routine surgical procedure for a dental abscess turned out to be something more sinister. Firstly, mum told me that the oral surgeon informed her that she was having a dental cyst and not an abscess. Anyway, the surgeon removed the cyst, but at the same time sent a sample of the tissue scrapping for histology (i.e. to study under the microscope). We were totally shocked when the histopathology report stated that the tissue sample contained undifferentiated cancer cells. Now even the oncologist is confounded as he is not sure whether this is a new entity or a metastasis (as the cancer cells are different from those from the breast and the jaw-bone is an unlikely site of metastasis for breast cancer). Mum says that the oncologist will only resume her chemo when her gum has completely healed. In the meantime, he has recommended that mum should go for a PET scan (which can only be done at a private hospital in P.J) to determine whether other parts of the skeletal system are involved, as his next course of action would depend on the result of the scan. Again, we are keeping our fingers crossed.”

So it looks like hope was premature.

Somehow, there’s now cancer in her jaw-bone.