Reports

June 6, 2014.

We received the report from Dr. Baruchel (Oncologist) yesterday. Having heard to his explanation to Cass's pathology report and her situation, the first thing I said to Cass was: "You really need to pray and leave everything to God for your daily life". My feeling is complicated and I still think it's too hard for Cass's life. We have mixed news, but we thank God anyhow for what we believe is still a good situation.

Cassidy is currently tumour-free. As far as the doctors are concerned, all the osteosarcoma cells have been removed (in good margin). Cassidy will be classified under "constant observation" for the time being to ensure she is completely clean. Both cancer cells previously detected were indeed “osteosarcoma”. Since those cancer cells found in Cass's two turmors did not respond to the chemo drugs, there would be no effective chemo drugs which could effectively deal with these bad cells. Hence, the hospital had decided to remove them with surgery rather than applying chemo drugs. During such time, I was scared when I heard from the oncologist that surgery was required instead......There's no precaution, no chemo drugs, no study for Cass's case of her late relapse in soft tissue. Now I understand why we call it "絶症" in Chinese.

Cassidy's case is a medical anomaly to the doctors at Sickkids. They have never had a patient whose late relapse of cancerous lesions or tumours have grown in soft tissue. Cassidy has been declared to have a 40-50% chance of another relapse (although it will be like this relapse) that could possibly have more tumours returning in the soft tissue of her body. However, the hospital would plan to remove any tumours that could ever be found in Cass again in the future by surgery. From now on we will need to see the oncology team more often. Besides this, will go for the physical check up and X-Ray or CT scan every three months. There will be two meetings to follow up with Cass’s case: first with a surgeon and afterwards with a genetics doctor. They will update us on Cassidy's return to swimming and the possibility of finding out more about Cass's cancer and her relapse in the future, respectively.

If I could rephrase what I talked to Cass after the meeting with the doctors, I would have said: "Give it everything you’ve got, and trust God for the outcome...to hope, to love, to serve. Live one day at a time."

Please continue to pray for Cass. This is the battle she is called to fight for. "Right now we can’t see a cure for cancer, not literally in front of us. But the vision is there, and countless teams of individuals — doctors and nurses, scientists and researchers — are living the vision. They see a day in the not-so-distant future when we will live in a cancer-free world."