On a bright spring afternoon in June 2017, Ms. Chen, who had just undergone surgery, talked about her treatment experience at Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University. This is her second time coming to the hospital for treatment. Compared with the first time, Ms. Chen's mental state has improved significantly. When faced with the author's questions, she was calm and calm, answered the questions meticulously, and had a loud voice. No one would have thought that she had been on the verge of death once.
The story begins three years ago.
In April 2014, 57-year-old Ms. Chen, who lives in Jiangsu, suddenly developed symptoms of fever, cough and asthma, so she went to the local hospital for examination. "A small amount of effusion in the chest" was found. After returning home, Ms. Chen didn't pay attention to it. "She found a local Chinese medicine doctor and prescribed some traditional Chinese medicine for conditioning."
But what happened next became more serious. Ms. Chen developed severe high fever, diarrhea, and asthma. Due to severe difficulty in breathing, her family members called 120 to rush Ms. Chen to the local hospital for emergency treatment.
During that rescue operation, the doctor pumped out 10,000 ml of fluid from Ms. Chen’s chest. After providing symptomatic treatment, Ms. Chen was discharged from the hospital. Three months later, in September 2014, Ms. Chen, accompanied by her sister, went to a local hospital for a PET-CT examination. The results were unacceptable.
CT showed that Ms. Chen had "an irregular mass in her pelvic cavity." The doctor initially determined that it was late-stage ovarian cancer, accompanied by multiple lymph node metastases throughout the body. In order not to worry Ms. Chen, her sister hid her condition from her.
In October of that year, Ms. Chen began receiving treatment at a large hospital in Wuxi, Jiangsu. In the following year, Ms. Chen received a total of 21 courses of gamma knife treatment. However, in October 2015, she finally had to give up because she couldn't bear the pain caused by the side effects.
"I have been having diarrhea and have no appetite for anything. I really can't stand it anymore." Seeing Ms. Chen's weight loss, the two sisters were very anxious.
In December 2016, when Ms. Chen had another abdominal CT examination, she found that not only was her condition not under effective control, but it was getting worse. There were many adhesions between the huge tumor in the body and the abdominal colon, which made the operation more risky and difficult. Due to the complexity of the condition, local hospitals believed that Ms. Chen had no further treatment value.
Ms. Chen was unwilling to give up, so in the following days, her sister started running around with all of Ms. Chen’s medical records. But my sister visited major hospitals in Shanghai and Jiangsu, and the answers she received were "it has no therapeutic value" and "the tumor is too big, and surgery is risky."
Regarding her understanding of her condition, Ms. Chen told the author: "When I was having an examination at a local hospital, the doctor called my sister out alone. At that time, I knew something was wrong." Although her sister never told Chen Ms. Chen could already guess the lady's true condition from her sister's anxious eyes.
The doctor's advice was to let Ms. Chen "live with the tumor." "I was desperate at that moment and felt like the sky was falling." Ms. Chen said expressionlessly, with a hint of helplessness in her eyes.
Is there really no hope? Just when Ms. Chen and the two sisters were in despair, CCTV's "Everyone" column broadcast the deeds of Xu Kecheng, the "model of the times." The touching experience of giant tumor patient Peng Ximei being successfully treated by Xu Kecheng on TV made the two sisters A glimmer of hope was rekindled, "What CCTV introduced is correct."
Without a moment's hesitation, Ms. Chen immediately contacted the hospital. After learning that President Xu Kecheng was out for outpatient service, the two sisters decided to leave for Guangzhou.
After a brief contact, Tsui Kecheng left a deep impression on the two sisters. "Dean Xu has profound knowledge, he is a veritable 'master', and he is very approachable." Ms. Chen commented.
In January 2017, Ms. Chen went through the admission procedures and, accompanied by her sister, came to Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital to prepare for further treatment.
After consultation and discussion by many experts, Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University formulated a detailed surgical plan for Ms. Chen. The surgical team was composed of experts such as the honorary president of the hospital and surgical expert Professor Wang Jiannan and a gynecologist.
In January 2017, after more than four hours of hard work, they successfully removed a cystic mass of about 20 cm in Ms. Chen’s abdomen, as well as the surrounding omentum, appendix, bilateral appendages and uterus. The total tumor size was 4.4 Kilogram, the surgery went well.
The treatment plan of surgery combined with chemotherapy allowed Ms. Chen's condition to be effectively controlled. A few months after the operation, Ms. Chen's appetite gradually improved and she returned to her home in Jiangsu to rest.
However, in March this year, Ms. Chen repeatedly developed symptoms of fever, vomiting, and coughing, and each time she coughed up white foamy sputum. Ms. Chen came to Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University again. CT showed that there was a tumor about 5 cm in size in the lungs, and Ms. Chen needed another operation.
"Every time when I was desperate, the doctors at Fuda never gave up and kept working hard for me. I was very touched." In May this year, Ms. Chen underwent a thoracotomy at Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University and removed the A tumor located in the middle lobe of the right lung.
Ms. Chen, who is currently recovering from the surgery, told the author about her entire illness. Facing the torment of illness, Ms. Chen felt deeply: "I came to this hospital at the right time." Ms. Chen has great respect for the staff at the hospital.
"The big professors here don't have any pretensions and make people feel very comfortable. Even the cleaning aunts are very polite." She mentioned many times that the doctors in the hospital treat their work as a career and always consider their patients. These are all Something she hadn't seen in other hospitals.
During her stay in the hospital, Ms. Chen witnessed a scene of a professor and a doctor eating lunch together, which she remembered deeply. "Really powerful people are so humble and capable."
