It’s hard to face how liver cancer can strike anyone at anytime. Little habits that we do unnoticeably can build up into killing our system with liver cancer cells and it is no joke.  I would like to take a short piece of this tech blog and share some important factors I’ve learned as well as the sad and good memories I had with my dad in his last days.  He has faced liver cancer with a lot of faith and courage and the 5-6 months of 2009 that our family devoted to my dad were the finest months, not only for my dad but for all of us as a family.

I made this post telling my dad’s story also as support to my friend Will and his project on brain cancer awareness and the harmful effects of Aspartame and Fluoride in toothpaste which can also lead to brain cancer.  Reading the information in Will’s site is a MUST if you care about your family.  Please show your support!

To avoid liver cancer or how to deal with it for those who are already diagnosed, let me share a few highlights from experience:

1.  Liver Cancer Symptoms and Diagnosis

I remember my dad first felt pain in his lower right abdomen.   We thought it was something he ate, but then he was coughing really bad, followed by overall body weakness by sleeping most of the day.  He was given meds for what the doctor thought was just a plain cold but his symptoms still showed for about a week so he needed to undergo tests like x-ray and ultrasound where nodules were found in his lungs and liver.  According to my dad’s oncologist, the nodules have three possible diagnoses: liver cancer, tuberculosis or hepatitis.   The only way to find out is for my dad to undergo liver biopsy.  At this point, we are starting to worry.  We were never ready for something big like this and I felt my dad is trying to hide his fear from us with his occasional goofy smile.  I remember telling my dad, “Don’t worry dad, it’s just a pimple… the doctors are just going to pop it!”  I know it sounds stupid to crack something like that as such a moment, but reassuring words from loved ones help uplift your faith a bit, and at this stage, he will need more encouragement than negative thoughts while there is no final diagnosis.  The doctor we found is the country’s best oncologist, Dr. Antonio Villalon, and he has a way of breaking the tension from their patients while explaining about their condition.   After the third biopsy was done, it was finalized.  My dad had Liver Cancer Stage 4. It is a stage where liver cancer cells have spread and climbed up to the  lungs.  It really hurts to find it out and as much as I want to stay strong for my dad, when I got in the car on the way home, I burst into tears. Its something we all could not accept, but its already given.  Despite these hard times, our family did a lot of research on the net, asking friends and relatives so we become aware of liver cancer and help our dad get through it without too much physical and emotional pain.  Most of all, not getting through it alone.

2. Liver Cancer Stage 4 Awareness

People should watch what they eat.  There are foods that if you take them excessively can possibly lead to liver cancer like: peanuts, alcohol, foods with toxins or in other words foods that are about to get spoiled like with algae in bread.  If you see that green stuff forming in your bread, dont eat it and throw it away!  Even when the bread smells like algae. And always eat your food while theyre fresh.  As much as possible, dont eat leftovers.

My dad was given three choices of chemotherapy to treat his condition: oral, radiation or intravenous.  The new cancer drug that time was Nexavar, a treatment for advanced renal cell cancer.  It is a targeted therapy meaning, unlike radiation therapy that kills both good and bad cells, Nexavar will fight only the bad cancer cells.  Chemocare listed all the side effects of Nexavar, but its possible to not have all of them.  But I recall my dad having hair loss and poor appetite.  He kept saying his stomach is full but its only the feeling he gets from the effect of the drug.  If this happens, always eat together as a family and have as much quality time.  During this one month under medication, the most memorable time we all had was when we went to Tagaytay.  Its the perfect place to get away from everything and just spend quiet time together.  My nephew was 2 months old back then and it was touching to see my dad having the time of his life with his first ever grandson.  He even tried to carry him with little strength left.  If you have a cancer patient in your family, dont treat or make him feel that he is sick.  Talk to him like how you do everyday and give him the best time of his life.  This is the perfect time to create new memories together, recall old ones and mend broken relationships.

3. Liver Cancer Advanced Stage

One month medication was and up and we went back to my dad’s oncologist to show him new test results, if my dad’s lung and liver cancer cells are decreasing from Nexavar.  It was found that the size of his nodules increased by only a few millimeters.  So my dad agreed to undergo intravenous chemotherapy every 2 weeks.  He stopped the Nexavar intake and we spent overnight at the hospital for his intravenous chemotherapy through a drip.  Important lesson:  Patients who have undergone intravenous chemotherapy will need a lot of rest the next day.  Possible side effects can include loss of appetite and overall body fatigue.   My dad had a good response when he woke up the next day feeling good but we saw him shaking all over hours later, losing his balance and coughing small amounts of blood.  So we rushed to the hospital to have him confined again.  We found out his sugar level was unstable so he was given insulin shots.  Intravenous chemotherapy can have different side effects on liver cancer patients depending on how strong their system is in tolerating them.    We got home with our own sugar level testing kit, some insulin and 3/10 mL/cc (30 units) syringes with half-unit markings.

4. Time Came for Self-Sacrifice

My dad’s delicate condition and continuing spread of liver cancer needed more attention.  It was suggested by family and friends that we hire a personal nurse to pay close attention to my dad, help us take care of him and organize the schedule of his medication.   My dad appreciated the help but he requests not a nurse to take care of him.  He wants us, his family in his last moments because my dad felt he has little time left.  Let me ask you now.  Do you think at this stage that hiring professional help would be better in helping him more than family members working together?  In my experience, if I didnt serve him the way we all did, then I wouldnt feel what its like to take care of my dad who gave so much for us since we were young.  I stopped work for a few months and put everything on old.   There also came a point where I need to give up my personal relationship as well.  Relationships may be replaced, clients may be replaced, material things may be replaced.  But your dad is and always will be your one and only.   Adjustment period will be difficult with these changes, you may have lost everything, but you will not regret it in the end because you did the right thing.

5. Ongoing medication and Nutrition Supplements

While my dad was continuing medication, we heard from friends of my sister who are doctors that there is a safe nutrition supplement for cancer patients.  First of all, while this is proven safe, as for other ‘miracle drugs’, don’t believe anything you read over the internet.  Most of these are scams and they use people’s despair on immediate cure to make money.  This is probably the WORST way ever to make money compared to all scams combined!  This nutrition supplement I was talking about which is safe is called ProSure, a dietary supplement for cancer-induced weight loss.  This is what my dad has been taking during his last few months when muscles in his body start to shrink making him unable to walk properly.  It helps build body mass and increases appetite.  It also improves physical activity and quality of life for cancer patients.   My dad said it tasted like ice cream and he said that like a happy kid :) Other than directly taking it as is, you can also have your own recipe with ProSure mixed in it.  My advice is that if you want to try something that has already worked for everyone, ask your oncologist first.

6.  How Strong Is Your Faith?

Liver cancer and other cancer types on patients at stage 4  are always and should be spiritually prepared.  My dad is a quiet person but he is always positive no matter the situation.  I guess it comes with being a military man.  I see him occasionally doing walking exercises by himself and he doesnt want to be held or assisted.  But my mom and I were watching him while he walks and make sure we are there before he starts to lose his balance.   After the first chemo, he started having fever of 38 degrees which is caused by the nodules inside his body.  So we check his temperature a few times a day and we apply him sponge bath to lower his temperature.  I’m the only one in the family with a med tech background so the nurse taught me how to give my dad insulin shots.  I apply the shots on the tummy just around the bellybutton and make sure you change to a different spot when you make another injection.   Whenever my I finish applying the insulin, I would never forget how my dad keeps thanking me with an expression of love and appreciation that you would get only from you own dad.   At that time, we cannot help but call to God and ask for a miracle.   We would pray the novena each night together before going to bed, hoping the process of liver cancer even at stage 4 reverses itself with whatever reason that only God knows.

7.  2nd Intravenous Chemotherapy:  The Day We Lost Our Dad

It was early July 2009 and it was time for our dad’s second intravenous chemotherapy for his liver cancer.  It went well and as we prepared to go home, I grabbed my Nokia N95 and took some video footage of my dad in the hospital walking around the room and waving and smiling at the camera.  For a moment he doesnt look like the guy who has liver cancer.  I still have the footage but knowing my dad who doesnt want to be seen at his weak state, I have to keep the video private.  At this stage of liver cancer, he is physically very very weak and his increasing number of nodules are already visible on his skin and on his back.  He needed more assistance in his physical activities like getting up from bed and lifting up his feet when going to bed.  There was blood when he coughs which shows that his nodules are taking over his lungs and are almost at his trachea making him more difficult to talk and breathe.

My dad told me something before we got home which made me feel that its a sign to say goodbye.  After the chemo, he said he dreamt that night that Jesus was carrying him and that Jesus looked really really tall.  I asked what did Jesus tell him when they met.  My dad said that they didnt talk and Jesus was just carrying him while He walks.   I really dont know what to say after that and I didnt tell my mom until later, because I’m sure it will freak her out.

That afternoon, the side effects of the chemo came back again, and my dad needed to be confined at the hospital for weeks.  We never went home after that and we need to watch our dad closely and have him monitored by hospital nurses and doctors.   As much as I want to stay awake until the late hours as often as needed, my body just cant.  So my mom, sis and I do shifts.   I was watching our mom never growing physically tired of attending to my dad’s needs.  She is very strong and I saw that she is not giving up on dad.  But when the time came when he is gasping for air due to the large nodule in his trachea.  Although the nurses and doctors have revived him, the 15-minute period where our dad lacked oxygen supply in his brain made him brain-dead.  We were very furious with the staff that they werent around as soon as possible.  But at the same time, I wish I could’ve done more to avoid this from happening.  I wish there is more time to talk and make it up to him.  I was unable to sleep for 3 days since this event due to shock, sadness and guilt.  He was transferred immediately to the ICU.  We were told that even if he gets to be revived and saved, the nodules from his lung liver cancer are fastly spreading and its irreversible.  The only thing we can do is pray and stay with him until the last day comes.

8. If you are given the option to let them pull the plug, will you allow it?

This is the toughest decision each family has to make.  When a liver cancer patient or any patient survives through a respirator without signs of physical improvement, the doctors give you an option to sign an agreement giving them permission to discontinue the use of respirator or not do CPR when the body shows signs of gasping for air.   How would you decide?  Let them pull the plug to avoid the patient going through more physical pain?  Or let the patient die naturally because it’s against your will and against God for you to decide to end his life?  We all agreed to let him die naturally.  Although if an event comes again where he will be gasping for air, the CPR will not be done.  Letting him stay in the ICU for a month was a very expensive task but it was all worth it.  After a month went by with our frequent visits and sleepovers, and our dad’s old friends visiting him and showing respect, his battle with liver cancer is finally over.  He passed on and died peacefully and without suffering at 11pm on August 16, 2009.

Our mourning and grieve was over but there are occasions when we cry a bit and start missing him all over again.  Especially now while I’m making this post.  I think I have never cried like 20 times while recalling memories and writing this post.  But I feel this needs to go out to help others who are currently experiencing the same thing like we did.

You can also read more about liver cancer in this extensive article provided by my sister: Liver Cancer from Mayo Clinic.

Right now, I made a banner ad for Noaspa. I read there that ASPARTAME and FLUORIDE in toothpaste can cause brain cancer.  I’ve been using Sensodyne Original for a while since it has no fluoride in it. You can ask your doctor if this can be safe for you and your kids to use.  Feel free to add the banner to your site and link back to Noaspa to show your support.

As for our dad, we cant thank you enough.

You are more than worth it.

We all love and miss you very much :) <3

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