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“It’s the absence of hope that makes cancer patients lose all sense of life.”
At 32, Andrew has only about four to six months to live, should his current treatments fail. He has Aggressive Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and it isn’t the first time medical treatments have failed on him. He had already gone through 10 rounds of what is supposed to be the most effective, available chemotherapy for his case, only for the cancer cells to return with a vengeance.
Within the span of less than a year, he has gone from optimistic and hopeful to terminally ill.
When I first met Andrew about 9 years ago, he was an assistant producer at the place I interned at. In short, just an ordinary, healthy person who is few years my senior. Yet, when I met him at a cafe near his home earlier last week, he had to walk with the help of a cane. What used to be the physique of a sportsman is now this frail person with a slight hunchback, pallid face, and a bare head, save for a soft fuzz of hair that has started to regrow.
He was first diagnosed with stage 1 Aggressive Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects certain types of immune system cells, last June. The tumour has since grown to a point where he is unable to ‘survive’ without the use of morphine. The tumour growth near his lungs presses on his rib cage every time he takes a breath, causing him immense pain.
Back then, it was only by pure coincidence that the doctor stumbled upon the tumor.
Stage 1 Only, No Biggie
It was only when Andrew checked himself into A&E for a high fever one night when they found out.
He had gone to the hospital as a precautionary measure, as he had a history with Pneumothorax (collapsed lung). Fearing complications that could have arose from the major surgery he did for Pneumothorax prior, the doctors ran some x-ray tests on him. The tests returned with signs of a tumour growth at the upper part of his chest.
Further biopsy tests identified it as stage 1 Lymphoma.
“Back then, the doctors were super confident—it wasn’t a complicated case. 90 percent of people who had this [cancer] at this stage have been cured.”
With that assurance and his strong belief in the medical system, he proceeded with the recommended treatments—chemotherapy—confident that it was nothing to worry about.
“I had great trust in our medical treatments. Like eh, stage one [only], what is this man! You know, I thought this will just be something like a few months ‘holiday’ where I go for treatments, then I’ll be out soon enough.”
Nobody would have expected that he was that 10 percent.
More at https://tinyurI.com/y5cytao8
