Her son died after 4 cycles of chemo for his lymphoma

Ani (not her real name) is a 79-year old Indonesia.  About 4 years ago she felt a lump in her right breast and did nothing about it. This did not give her any probelm.

In early March 2021, Ani had her first dose of Sinovac vaccine. Suddenly she had pain on and off but she did not consider it as a serious problem. Six months later she had the second dose of Sinovac.  She suffered the same pulling effect and the lump grew bigger and became harder. She also had pain in the right arm pit.

In spite of the problem, Ani was still able to do her regular exercise.  But she developed more pain. This prompted her to go to a private hospital in Surabaya for check-up. The report of an ultrasonography done on 29 March 2022 stated :

• Mass in the right breast, size 7.2 x 6.8 x 4.6 cm.
• Highly suspicious for malignancy.
• Left breast is within normal feature.
• No specific lymphadenopathies in both axilla.
• Liver, paraaorta and both supraclavicles are within normal features.

Not satisfied Ani went to a private hospital in Singapore for further consultation.  She was asked to do a PET scan and biopsy. She refused.

Ani and her daughter came to a private hospital in Penang on 19 April 2022 (and stayed on until 23 May 2022) and decided to seek treatment here.

Blood test on 20 April 2022:

CEA = 11.0 H

CA 15.3 = 49 H

Full blood picture = Normal with platelet count = 362 (still within range).

Liver function test = Normal.

Ultrasound of both breasts indicated:

• Right breast lobulated hypoechoic lesion. Features are suggestive of an underlying carcinoma.
• Left breast cyst.
• Enlarged and lobulated right axillary lymph nodes, suspicious of metastatic lymph nodes.

Mammogram of both breast showed similar results as USG above.

Chest X-ray showed no pulmonary lesion seen.

USG of abdomen showed no focal liver lesion, normal configuration of the other upper abdominal organs.

Biopsy of the right breast lump confirmed an infiltrating ductal carcinoma.

Ani underwent a right mastectomy and stayed in the hospital was 3 days.

The laboratory report indicated:

• Invasive carcinoma of no special type (NST).
• Tumour measures 4.8 cm in greatest dimension.
• One of 17 nodes examined showed tumour deposits.
• At least Stage 2B, pT2 pN1a pMx.
• Tumour is negative for estrogen receptor, positive for progestrone receptor and negative for c-erbB-2.

The total cost of her medical treatment is this famous private hospital came to about RM20,000. The daughter said they rented an apartment and this cost RM5,000 for their entire stay in Penang.

After the surgery, the surgeon referred Ani to an oncologist in the same hospital.  The oncologist asked Ani to do the following:

1. PET scan.
2. Bone Marrow biopsy and aspiration.
3. To take an oral drug.
4. The oncologist did not mention radiotherapy.

The consultation with the oncologist cost RM300. Ani was not happy with the oncologist. The surgeon then referred Ani to another oncologist in another cancer hospital.

Ani consulted the second oncologist and was told that she had to:

1. Undergo radiotherapy for 5 weeks – possibly 30 times.
2. Take an oral drug.

The total cost of the treatment would come to RM20,000 to RM30,000.

Ani refused the suggested treatments. Then one of her sons who lives in Jakarta got to know about CA Care. I then received an email from her daughter below:

Dear Mr. Teo

My name is X. I wrote on behalf of my mother. I would like to make an appointment to see Mr. Teo. Mom has breast cancer and the cancer has been removed already. She just think of cancer  treatment using herbs. 

We got recommendations from our friends at Jakarta, that Mr. Teo can do therapy using herbs. We haven’t done any chemo yet. We just went to see the oncology doctors to hear what they have to offer. But my mom seems to believe in herbs and she would like to meet you. 

Is it possible for Mr. Teo to meet us tomorrow or on Friday.

I had a long chat with Ani and her daughter. Ani presented as a healthy 79-year. She had a bit of pain in site of the surgery. She was able to sleep well and her appetite was good. She could walk normally but felt tired and her back ached if she walked too much.

There are 3 lessons we can learn from Ani’s case.

1. There was a 7.2 x 6.8 x 4.6 cm cm tumour in her breast. She consulted three doctors and all of them indicated it was cancerous. Ani agreed to undergo a surgery to remove the entire right breast. Bravo – that is the right thing to do. Unfortunately not all women are as wise as Ani. Some women preferred to not anything with the cancerous lump until the lump burst! Most of them died due to such “folishness.”

In Ani’s case, she was indeed very fortunate.  She had a no special type (NST) cancer! She was able to live  with the lump in her breast for about 4 years. She had no problem with it and the  cancer did not spread much. Only one of the 17 lymph nodes removed was infected with cancer.

2. After her breast surgery, Ani was firm in not wanting to take any medical drug or undergo radiotherapy or chemotherapy.  I was curious why she was so firm in this. Well, we could agree that it may be due to her age – 79 what is there to fight some more?

Did she know anything about chemo or radiotherapy? Yes!  The daughter said:

• She did know because my brother had undergone chemotherapy for his lymphoma in Singapore. He died after the 4th cycle. My mother saw with her own eyes what happened and how my brother suffered from the treatment.  My brother was only 36 years old then. This was indeed a big trauma for my mother – seeing her son passed away. This tragic episode happened in 2011.

3. My next question – I am now treading on a very sensitive issue!

Let us recall again. Ani had a tumour in her breast and she did nothing. For 4 years she was living with it and it did not give her any problem. Then in March 2021 she had her first dose of vaccine. She started to have pulling pain in her arm and this problem got worse after the second dose of vaccine 6 months later. Then according to Ani, she felt the lump grew bigger. This Ani made go to the hospital for help.

Now you know what happened.  A logical question to ask is: Why?  I am not going to give my personal comment / opinion. I think there are enough comments in the alternative medical media elsewhere.

 Let me just reproduce (below)  what I got from the internet that are put out by the mainstream medical media.

Swelling of the lymph nodes after Covid-19 vaccination

Axillary Lymphadenopathy After COVID-19 Vaccination in a                                                 Woman With Breast Cancer

Diana L. Lam & Meghan R. Flanagan of the   University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle

JAMA. 2022;327(2):175-176. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.20010

Adenopathy Following COVID-19 Vaccination

Tina Washinton, Rebecca Bryan , Christina Clemow from the Department of Radiology, MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH