Ros is 55-year-old Indonesian lady. In early January 2016, she found a lump in her left chest just above her breast. A doctor in her hometown requested her to do a biopsy. She refused. She did nothing after that.

Some eight months later, Ros had no choice but had to consult the doctor again since the lump had grown bigger.

A biopsy was done, followed by a total left mastectomy.

Histopathology confirmed a malignant tumour — ER negative, PR negative and HER-2 positive.

After the surgery Ros had to be hospitalised for one month due to complications with her diabetes.

Two weeks after being discharged, Ros had to be hospitalised again for 27 days due to fluid accumulation in her breast.

By November 2016, Ros was okay. She was scheduled for 6 cycles of chemotherapy. She refused the treatment.

I asked her: Why don’t you want to go for chemotherapy?

Ros replied: My son works in the hospital! I saw patients who had undergone chemotherapy. The treatment did not cure them.

Ros and her family came to seek our help in mid-December 2016 after being told by another patient about us.

Six Months Later

Ros’s daughter came back to see us again. Her mother’s health was restored.

I asked: Is she better now compared to the time when she first came here?

Daughter: She is far better off now than before taking the herbs.

Her back pains are gone. Stomach discomforts due to wind was resolved. Her CEA is at 1.9 and CA15.3 at 6.2.

Comments

So far so good. Everyone is happy. But let me remind all patients this. This good time may not last forever. Please take care of yourself. Ros is not out  of the woods yet. Her healing journey has just started. The cancer can recur anytime if she is not careful.

Many patients assume that they are “cured” after awhile. Then  they will go back to their own ways of life and eating habits. Some would stop taking the herbs.

Well, we have a choice. We can do our best to heal ourselves or we can go back to our old ways of life.

In Ros’s case, I have a few concerns.

1. Ros is obese. I am afraid this is not a positive factor for her healing. She has a long way more to make her life heathy.
2. The good part of this story is that Ros had undergone a mastectomy. We hope that all the cancerous tissue had been removed. But who can say that with certainty?
3. The bad part of this story is that we don’t know if the cancer had already spread elsewhere. No one can tell. When she presented with back pain, I feared that the cancer had gone to the bone? But with the herbs, the pains were gone.
4. The doctor said it was a Stage 2 cancer. But how “correct” is he in his prognosis?
5. Will the cancer come back again? We hope not but the chances could be high that this can happen. We need to take note that this is a double negative tumour.
6. In this case, would it not be better if Ros undergo chemotherapy as a “double” insurance? Your guess is as good as mine. In fact, during her daughter’s visit, she brought another case of breast cancer. This patient had undergone rounds and rounds of chemos (about a dozen cycles at least). The treatment did not cure her.

So, Ros understood what chemo could do for her!