Leukemia?

We arrived early in SDMC. Spoke to Dr Sharmila for a brief moment. She pretty explained what she spoke through the phone yesterday, but she felt sorry that he "Had to be so rare, and that as doctors they are still constantly learning".

We were then referred to a Dr Haris, consultant haematologist. He kindly but clearly explained that the tumour found in Min Ser's duodenum was granulytic sarcoma (chloroma) which points to the cause being a form of leukemia (AML to be exact) and not lymphoma. The rare part is for a tumour to form outside the blood before showing signs in the blood. As of today, Min Ser's blood counts are still normal, save slight anemia. Even rarer for it to appear in the gastrointestinal tract. Usually it's found in the skin or other major organs.

He suggested that as there is still some time (it has yet to manifest in the blood) we might like to have 2nd or 3rd opinions, and even fresh biopsies of the sample. Dr Haris does not recommend any treatment until we are 100% sure of the diagnosis. For the very reason that there is no localised trestment for leukemia. The treatment itself carries risk of mortality caused by infection. This is because the treatment is crude and untargeted. Killing the cancer cells involves killing the healthy cells completely. Leaving him with no immunity. But his advantage is that he is young, and likely to have less complications.

In the meantime we will still proceed with the spyglass procedure tomorrow, and a bone marrow sample will be taken the next Monday for a clearer picture.

We walked out feeling numb, yet calm. The diagnosis just kept getting worse and worses, but I felt that God has already told me in my heart that the diagnosis wouldn't be something simple. Yet hoping for the best and not wanting to be negligent, we will proceed to arrange for more opinions.