ABSTRACT
In 2009, Waka Matsushita 1 and her family were “living happily” in Japan when they were suddenly “thrown into an abyss” when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Waka tells the story of what followed.
From the outset, the doctors assured us they could remove the renal cancer and that she would be just fine. However, during the initial surgery, the doctor found many cancer tumors and said that he could not continue. Her diagnosis was changed from renal cancer to metastatic cancer of the abdomen, which meant that her cancer had worsened to level four, the worst possible condition. This meant surgery was no longer an option and the doctor recommended chemotherapy.
His next words were crushing. Should the chemotherapy be unsuccessful, he told us, our dear mother would only have two more years to live. Then, he told us not to lose hope, with a hopeless expression on his face.
Worried, yet determined, we looked everywhere for answers and discovered one doctor who had seen great success with the same type of cancer. This doctor was famous in Japan. He had featured on TV as the doctor “with God’s hands”. We insisted on seeing him at whatever cost, and booked his next available appointment after a two-month wait.
During the examination, the doctor showed us diagrams and illustrations that boasted a post-surgery survival rate of five years for fifty percent of his patients. To us, these odds seemed far too low for our dear mother who we hoped would be with us for another forty years. The doctor did his best in an eight-hour operation; however, even the one “with God’s hands” could only remove ninety percent of mom’s cancer.
After the surgery, placing his hand on mom’s swollen belly, he said, “Let’s see what chemotherapy can do for the remaining cancer.”
We had no idea what that meant. He told us to go to the chemotherapy room and our appointment ended.
