Boldly Go Where No Others Have

This trip to Singapore is a little tiring for me. The night before, I did not sleep well. For this trip, I have suspended my therapies and only followed the diet.

My shoulder pains a little probably from carrying my backpack which was not that heavy as I was travelling liget, only sufficient cloting for 1 day plus some food to eat along the way. Pain at other parts of the body was also at minimal although I did experience a little poking pain around my rib ribs every once in a while, as if someone using the finger to poke at me. There was also a little cough but otherwise, I felt good.

I met two of my ex-colleagues, Mark and Ellen from Singapore and they have been my strong supporters all this while, urging and encouraging me to fight on. The night before, I met with Allen who has just reported to work in Singapore two days before. I am very fortunate to have such good friends.

To Do Or Not Do ? - Part 3
The prognosis has not changed but I would still describe this meeting as a good outcome. The 3rd urologist is the most open, confident and positive compared to the other four I have seen so far. It appeared that these Malaysian urologists are far more conservative and more go by the book kind of urologists.

I asked for my options and this is what he has to say. Under conventional treatment, the odds are straggering against me. Surgery or no surgery, the odds are the same and you are looking at 6 months or less. Surgery plus Sutent targeted therapy, life expectancy could be extended by a few months (ranging from 3 months to 2 years, average being about 10 months). These patients are on normal diet. He did however disclosed that he has one patient (similar case to mine) that went for surgery but no other treatment and today, 3 years later he is still alive although his condition is now deteriorating. He only practiced qi gong. If I debulk by removing the kidney tumor and then continue with Gerson Therapy, would my outcome be better than what is already known?

This urologist being much more open was surprised to see me (last saw him one year ago) still alive and when he found out that I was not on any conventional medication, he was curious to know what therapy I was doing. I told him Gerson Therapy. He said there a other schools of thoughts that believe diet could play a role because there are chemicals in the food that they yet do not know that may be helping. But this cannot be verified. Similar to the oncologist, he feels my tumor is slowly progressing and he said I could continue to do what I am doing. It's entirely my decision. I learned something new from him. When we say 6 month of life left, the 6 months is not necessarily from day of discovery. Like me, he said I could go on living for another 1 to 2 years before anything happens. So the 6 months starts to count from a trigerring event. In my case, the triggering event would be my lung nodules that caused a serious problem to the lungs and from there the condition deteriorates.

I have also tentatively booked my surgery to take place on 26 November 2010, National University Hospital, Singapore. This is so that if I decide to go ahead with the surgery, I would have no problems securing a slot for the operation. Their operating theatres are fully booked for a solid two months ahead!

The End Game
In Chess, the end game's primary goal is to checkmate the opponent. I am now considering my options and if I proceed with the surgery, it may as well be described as an end game. This would accelerate much faster, it could mean a recovery or a checkmate for me.

I would be writing on a separate post on my thoughts on whether to proceed with the surgery or not. I will need sometime to consult my family members and some close friends to get thier input before I decide.