Published in 2010
Looking at the bigger picture
23 Dec 2010
There is a saying that to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And so, the reason why oncologists rarely fail to diagnose a cancer is because cancer is foremost in our minds.
Pregnancy and cancer
28 Oct 2010
It is always a joy to see a newborn baby but this 2.9kg boy was really special. I remember the first time I saw his mother - she was 31 weeks pregnant and about to go bald from the ravages of chemotherapy. She was just 36 years old.
Bedtime stories
09 Sep 2010
A patient who had stomach cancer said to me matter-of-factly in Mandarin: ‘I have asked him to sleep in the next room because I am afraid my cancer will come back if we have sex. So I tell my poor husband to take care of business himself.’
Walking Miracle
12 Aug 2010
Madam Ang, a Malaysian patient in her 60s, recounted: "I was told my nose cancer had spread to the bone and that I had only 18 months to live."
Hoping for the best
29 Jul 2010
The wife of a patient wrote: “Let me tell you, doctor, in my view, you’re either a hypocrite or totally ignorant of reality”.
Never say die
15 Jul 2010
When I saw my young patient, My Thuy, she had already been given cocktails of chemotherapy drugs. She and her father had come here from Ho Chi Minh City more than two years ago because they had heard about the good medical care in Singapore.
Gems in Science
01 Jul 2010
There is a lot we do not know about cancer, and I often make the point in this column that treating it can seem more like an art than science. But once a year at least, I am reminded that much of oncology is hard, rigorous science, with new discoveries that offer widespread and real benefits to cancer patients.
Teamwork saves lives
17 Jun 2010
My patient was bleeding to death as I struggled with a decision – her leg or her life?
Plucky Girls
03 Jun 2010
My Linh and Thanh Tam are two Vietnamese girls whom I have looked after for the past four years. Each Time I see them, I feel a sense of joy and satisfaction that their cancers have remained in remission and in all likelihood have been cured.
Beating the odds
20 May 2010
What do you do when you know you only have one month to live? Do you wait out your time? Or do you opt for treatment even though the chances are very slim?
False hopes
06 May 2010
My patient asked: "Should I go there for treatment?". Christopher is a Filipino-Chinese with advanced stage lung cancer, currently on combined chemotherapy and radiation treatment in Singapore.
Gift of the gap
22 Apr 2010
Mr Tay arrived at my clinic with two big containers filled with pig trotters in soya sauce. "My treat! Enjoy it," he said in his trademark stentorian voice. Mr Tay, a rotund man with a shiny face, is a popular bak kut teh hawker in Sembawang. Beaming, he was obviously in a celebratory mood.
Costly wait
08 Apr 2010
A patient whom I saw recently steeled my determination to bring a difficult issue out into the open. This Column is one I had wanted to write for a long time.
Miracles
25 Mar 2010
“Happy Chinese New Year!” greeted my patient Hong Boon, as he walked into the consultation room. “I have extended this greeting to you ten times before,” he grinned. “Am I a miracle?”
Finding Closure
11 Mar 2010
It was supposed to be a morning of parades and celebration. My alma mater was celebrating her 124th Founder’s Day and being on the school Board of Governors, I wanted to attend. I had rescheduled my clinic patients to come at 10 a.m. so that I could go to school for the parade and thanksgiving service.
Read between the lines
25 Feb 2010
A patient with pancreatic cancer said to me: "But I don't even take soft drinks."
Second Opinion
11 Feb 2010
The family came without the patient. He was warded in another hospital and apparently too ill to come.
Balancing harm and cure
28 Jan 2010
Johnny (not his real name) was really sick when he first came to see me in 2007. He was breathless, his legs were swollen and he struggled onto the examination couch, investigations showed that he had a large tumour in the right lung, next to his heart.
Family
07 Jan 2010
I was not feeling well over the New Year holidays. I felt hot inside but cold outside, my body ached and I felt lethargic.
