In a day the doctors see somewhere around 150 patients a day. Many of those go home with a treatment for a disease that can be cured, others go home with medicines for a chronic condition (like high blood pressure), but some go home after hearing that medically we can do nothing more for them because they have cancer that we can’t treat with surgery or chemotherapy. Too many go home hearing this. In one day I saw . . . A 30 yo female, the mother of a 4 yo, walks into my room thinking she is pregnant but also being concerned about some fluid draining she has been having. I find that she is 3 months pregnant, but that she also has cervical cancer. There is no easy answer here. The cancer is nonresectable and any treatment you give to mom will hurt the unborn baby, but realistically not sure either will be alive in 6 months. A 30 yo male comes in complaining of abdominal pain after eating. I examine him and wasn’t real impressed, thinking he likely had reflux and was planning on giving him some medicines and tell him to avoid spicy food. Instead, I bring him to the ultrasound room and find a mass in his liver. We don’t have any treatment options here for liver cancer, we only can over supportive care and prayer. He was with his pastor, so the prayer part was easy, but telling this young man that he would…
Source: Too much cancer from Erin Meier – Asia Pacific