The appointment with Dr. Peixoto, the oncologist, was at 9 am yesterday (Friday, Nov 28th) on the 4th floor of the Fairmont Medical Building on Broadway. I am familiar with that place. Later I've learned that that particular floor is part of the BC Cancer Centre.
The very first impression of the place was there were quite a few Chinese there, patients and staff. The young nurse assisting dad was able to communicate in Cantonese fluently although with a very light and distinct accent of a CBC. Dad was 47.9 kg and 163.5 cm! he was at least 25 pounds less and almost 9 cm shorter than his healthy and younger self!!! Aging is indeed a horrible thing.
After the questionnaire and the vital readings, a young guy came in introducing himself to us as Andy, "a senior student doctor working with Dr. Peixoto". For the next half hours or so, he clearly explained everything to us with great patience, from the surgery report to the next recommended chemotherapy. He paid extra attention to allow time for me to translate for dad, which I appreciated a lot. Usually most doctors would just talk to me when they knew I was the primary caretaker and dad's English was limited. This student doctor showed great empathy, one of the the most important traits in a good doctor, I believe.
Based on the surgery report, dad had Stage III colon cancer. The surgery removed the tumour and 18 lymph nodes nearby, of which 7 were found to have cancerous cells. After the surgery, 99% of cancerous cells had been removed. A "gentle" chemotherapy was recommended to clear the remaining cancerous cells so as to decrease the chance for the cancer to come back in 3 years. Without the chemo, there will be 50% to 75% of chance to have the cancer to come back. The chemo will decrease that by about 10%. All are just probabilities and numbers. No one are certain about anything or guarantee anything.
The chemotherapy will be in the form of taking pills at home, two weeks on with one week resting. A 3-week cycle for 6 months, 8 cycles in total. Blood work, CT scan and re-assessment at the doctor's are every 3 week before the new cycle starts. Due to dad's age, a "gentle" drug called capecitabine is used. All chemo has side effects. For this particular one, diarrhea, nausea and hand-foot syndrome are the most common possible side effects.
It's recommended by the doctor; it's "gentle"; it's in pill form; it's not a commitment, meaning dad can stop whenever his body can't tolerate it or quality of life is affected. Although the information was new to us, how things were supposed to be done was not. We agree to start the chemo on Monday, December 1st.
Dr. Peixoto came in at the end to wrap up things with us, assuring everything would be in good hands and arranged.
We left the office at 11.
After lunch at home, Justin and I walked back to the Cancer Centre to pick up the prescription, getting ready for the change.
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