Updates on Grandfather's condition

I received a call from the hospital in the morning informing that grandfather can be discharged. We are requested to arrive at 1pm as the doctor would like to see us. In the end, we met the doctor only around 3pm. It was a long and hungry wait. we left the hospital only around 5pm because we had to wait for the pharmacy to deliver a chemotherapy drug which the oncologist has prescribed. More on this later. Oncology is the study of cancerous tumours.

The CT Scan, which was done the night before, showed that grandfather's liver have been affected as well. In medical terms, this is called metastasis or in simpler terms the cancer has spread. So grandfather has metastatic colon on colorectal cancer. From this point on, there is no turning back ie no cure technically and whatever medicine can do is to make his life easier.

Grandfather was insistent on not having surgery. From the doctor's point of view, the immediate risk is that should the tumour in the colon swell, the colon will be completely blocked and could lead to a rupture of the colon. There are two options. First, chemotherapy to try to reduce the swelling of the tumour. Second, inserting a stent at the location of the tumour to allow waste material in the body to continue to discharge to the rectum. However, inserting a stent is not always possible and make not always work well. It is definitely a short term mitigation.

Thankfully, grandfather was receptive to chemotherapy. The good news, as the doctor shared, was that chemo has advanced so much that it is now possible to take the drugs orally compared to intravenously in the past. Xeloda was presecribed. Our concern is whether grandfather will take the drug obediently. We just have to hope that he does.

This round of medication will take 3 weeks. Review is in 3 weeks time and the doctor mentioned that a CT scan will be carried out again to ascertain whether there is shrinkage of the tumour.