This was the day that we are going to meet the consultant and his doctors of the liver surgery team. I think I did not go in the noon to see my dad as we are going to see him together with the doctors.
My sisters took half day leave, and we sat in a room, with a Dr.Low and Dr. Lee. Dr. Low the consultant started explaining to us on what they have found.
This Dr. Low is more or less sure that there is a cancerous tumor in my dad's liver, very close to the artery and is quite big. He gave us few options.
One, is go for operation, to head for a complete recovery. This includes removing at least two-thirds of my dad's liver. Adding on the tumor is close to artery, the operation would be a major one. Also my dad is not that young anymore, any small mistakes could take my dad's life.
Second option is going for chemotherapy. This is only to slow down the growth of the tumor and cancer cells, not going to heal him.
Lastly, is not doing anything, just grabbing on the last few months of his life and fufil his dreams.
Of course if an operation is feasible, we would go for the operation. However, this is the first time that my dad heard this piece of news so its some kind of shock to him as he has never thought that he could be in this kind of situation- as in either he can prolonged his life for sometime or going to another realm soon.
Why do i say this. Cuz around him, he has a friend died of liver cancer some years back and his good friend, Uncle Eddy, his daughter just passed away recently. This Uncle Eddy flew to the States within the shortest time possible but was not in time to see her daughter for the last time.
He had the thinking he would be alright after so many years of consistent drinking and smoking. We too in a way did not anticipate that this would come so fast in fact. We all actually want him to leave this world peacefully, like had lived for long enough. But, this is not happening to him now.
The doctor asked him for his opinion, he was speechless. He did not know what to say. He don't even know if he wants to go for an operation as he already planned to go Vietnam on the 10th December 2011 with a few friends.
Upon hearing this, the consultant actually said that he prefer his patients to go for a holiday before going for an operation as the attitude and health would be generally better than those stayed in the hospital before an operation. But the tumor could be drawing near to the artery so it is not advisable and 10th Decmeber is so far away which feared the doctors that a good chance could be missed. So we told the doctors to let him consider for a few days.
We also saw the scans that my dad have done. The tumor is in his right liver, so his left part of the liver actually grew bigger to replace the fuctions of the right failing liver. This is a good sign as removing the failing liver would in a way post no additional challenges to the remaining liver in terms of the functions of the liver.
However, adding on to the scans, the doctors saw something around his intestines that could indicate a spread of the cancer. But they are unsure as the lymph nodes are too small to be seen and detected. They say they would remove this lymph nodes during the operation to test to see if the operation can be continued. So a cut would still be sustained no matter what.
We all want him to go for the operation. If he never try, he will never know the result as the lymph nodes cannot determine anything now. The doctors are looking at 28th November 2011 for an operation.
