Last Thursday was a busy day for me, I had several surgeries and some endoscopies. As I was about to settle down just before midnight (malam Jumaat beb), a lady was brought in with difficulty in breathing. She was pale as a sheet, her hemoglobin was 3.2 gm/dL(normal > 11). As I was asking where and what could be the source of her chronic blood loss, I smelled something bad from her body; smell of necrotic tissues.
After much persuation and explanation including by her sister (whom I thought I've seen before)she reluctantly showed me this;
After much persuation and explanation including by her sister (whom I thought I've seen before)she reluctantly showed me this;
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The usual thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . !
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Advanced ulcerating cancer of the right breast with chronic bleeding from the ulcers.
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If you observe the surrounding skin, there were multiple nodules. There are cancerous metastases called stellite nodules. The other breast were also involved, with peau d'orange (skin lymphatic infiltration)
She forewarned me not to do anything to the tumour as she was at present on treatment; homeophatic medicine and after this is going to another bomoh in Melaka. All she wanted was the treatment for the breathlessness.
The breathlessness was caused by severe anemia. So I transfused her with 4 unit of concentrated blood (packed cells). When she felt better, she insisted on going home. I asked her who was doing the dressing all the while, the answer; my sister. I turned to her sister; have we met before? Yes, I was a head-nurse in xxxxx department when you were in the university.
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Oh Tuhan, apa dah jadi ni? (O God, help me!)
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I put much efforts to make Malaysian ladies seeking proper treatment for their cancers, to avoid unnecessary deaths and morbidity. I gave lectures to nurses and women groups. Promoting breast-self-examination and mammogram screening. But now I have a senior nurse who I knew personally, yet is 'encouraging' her own sister to go to the bomoh. No wonder, there are bomoh bragging that doctors and nurses are among their patients. Once I had a patient (hernia surgery) who is a bomoh patah(he treats fractures) himself, he boasted that many doctors went to him for their fractures.
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Common chaps, if you don't believe in what you practice (modern medicine), then stop practising. Don' t misled others. Go out and do something else !
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As for the lady, she chooses to end her life in a miserable way with other people avoiding her due to the foul-smelling cancer on her body.
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As for me, I am tired and feel betrayed by my own colleagues . . . .
1 comment:
Hello. My friend(27 years old) was hospitalized because of an ulcerated breast tumor. A lump she felt in her breast in August, ruptured and grew huge and tore open her breast. Cancer runs on her dad's family. She is young and the tumor grew so fast! : (
Yesterday the DR.s ran pet(cat?) scans and found out cancer spread to her back also. She's going to have more tests done tomorrow or Tuesday. Could it be that she has mutated genes that caused the tumor to grow so rapidly and spread throughout some parts of her body or did she not seek medical attention in time? She never self examined her breasts. I believe she didn't seek help until she could see a lump or broken infected skin. She had fever everyday for 1 month or 2. Do you think it's too progressed and she's going to die? We live in Alabama. Te Dr.s are saying that it's possible it's not cancer. She has a lump that is palpable in her other breast. Its not like it could be anything else. I'm just worried and nervous. They're going to tell us if she can have surgery, chemotherapy or both. She had her biopsy done yesterday. Thank you very much!!!!
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