In June 2022, my beloved Martha, sought medical help for suspected endometrial cancer. It took until December to get surgery in Winnipeg. By that time, it had metastasized. She developed excruciating pain in her right knee. Eventually, they gave her radiation to reduce the pain. She had surgery
on October 10, 2023 to reinforce the leg bones.
On October 19 they transferred her to Riverview Palliative Care. A week ago her bladder ceased to function and she was transferred to St Boniface Hospital for emergency dual nephrostomy to drain the kidneys.
She's feeling much better now, but we don't know how much longer.
She's in SBH palliative care now, and welcomes a few visitors a day. If you would like to see her, text me at 204-782-2112 to arrange a visit. We had hoped she could be home for Christmas....
She has spent a great deal of time at Cancer Care and continues to suffer a great deal of pain. The only treatment they can offer her now is pain control and hormone therapy until it no longer works. The cancer has become terminal.
There was hope that the new immunotherapy and targeted therapy to stimulate her immune system to fight the cancer would help. After weeks of painful side-effects, she developed immune related myocarditis. That required emergency care and hospitalization to administer prednisone to suppress her immune system.
Now we are between a rock and a hard place.
In early September she spent a week in hospital getting prednisone and scan after scan. They couldn't determine what caused the high levels of cardio enzymes, so they sent her home....
Needless to say, I'm devastated.
Endometrial cancer is usually easily treatable if surgery happens early.
Now it's costing our health care system far more money than it would have if they had sent her to a US hospital.
A slow response to cancer drags the system down, and responses get even slower and more expensive.
But the worst of it is the needless suffering the patient and her family has to endure.
Governments should send patients out of province for treatment when our system is overloaded until the backlog is cleared.
IMHO what the British government is doing is the right thing with the TWO WEEK RULE
Thank you for your prayers.
BLESSINGS!
Raymond Dueck
204-782-2112
