Please read my little story and I need your kind help.
On June 10 this year, I was invited to a meeting room by my doctor at Toronto and was informed of the final diagnosis: stage IV hypofractionated gastric cancer. The doctor told me: you have to decide whether to start treatment here as soon as possible or go back to your home country, because once you start chemotherapy, you may not have a chance to get on the plane back to your home country if you develop serious complications.
Because of the COVID, I didn’t have any family or friends with me in Canada, I had a 20 cm long incision on my stomach from the biopsy, and I was facing the news alone in a hospital in a foreign country with pain, I was shocked, disbelieved, and devastated until I finally calmed down.
I was only 25 years old, I had just graduated with a master’s degree and passed the CPA exam, and I thought I was about to start my career, but this accident completely disrupted my life plan and made me realize what the world is like.
During this period of time, illness and torture filled almost every day, because the spread of cancer cells compressed the urinary system and produce a lot of ascites, had to insert several tubes in the body to live; because of chemotherapy immune deficiency constantly infected hospitalized on the operating table up and down more than hundreds of needles all over the body, almost all the veins in the arm were picked open ……
It is not always optimistic and strong, it is not that I have never closed myself off, it is not that I have never thought of giving up, this matter of fighting cancer, only those who are experiencing it know how cruel and torturous it is.
The good thing is that I have the greatest parents in the world, who have gone to great lengths to encourage me and take care of me from across the ocean. I also had the strongest family and friends in the world, countless video calls, flowers, gifts, letters of encouragement, giving me unspeakable love and courage. And the doctors and nurses who treated me, non-family members but dedicated to their work.
So I can’t give up. I am still young, and if I persist, I may be able to wait for a miracle. So many researchers all over the world are working on cancer drugs, maybe next year, the year after, the year after that or some future drug will be suitable for me to be cured. I know that fighting cancer is a long and arduous journey. But it’s always wonderful to have hope, so go for it and be brave with the love and support of so many people!
I would like to share my symptoms before my diagnosis. There is no history of cancer in my family. I had trouble swallowing food for a few months before I was diagnosed. I thought it was gastritis and I didn’t want to go to the hospital because of the epidemic, so I didn’t go for a gastroscopy until I had some pain in my abdomen at the end of May and I thought it was appendicitis, but on the third day after the pain didn’t decrease, I was urged by my mom to go to the hospital.
Many symptoms of gastric cancer are similar to gastritis and gastric ulcer, so many people are diagnosed in the middle and late stages. I hope you must pay more attention to your body and seek medical treatment in time if you have any discomfort.
I’ve had seven chemotherapy sessions, and I’ll have a CT exam in November, so I hope there’s good news. Go for it đź’Ş
Finally, may the world be free of cancer