My aunt passed away late last night. Once more, Cancer had taken another member of our family.

My aunt’s cancer this time around began in her uterus. How sad though that she thought of seeing a doctor only after 2 years of excessive bleeding. We’ve been through enough cases of cancer of the uterus in our family to immediately recognize the symptoms of its beginnings. Of all the cancers, cancer of the uterus is one of the easiest to treat. When all else fails, a hysterectomy would have been more than sufficient to prevent its spread to other organs.

Her surgery and Chemotherapy were just sadly, too little too late. 

Her cancer though was not as advanced as dad’s was.

Which was why for all of us, her sudden death remains to be an alarming shocker.

She was rushed to the hospital late at night on Sunday since her blood pressure had plummeted. She had a case of UTI (urinary track infection) which on normal people would be nothing… but because her immune system had been compromised from her last chemotherapy session, her white blood cells and platelets were close to none.

Her condition stabilized a few hours later.

Tuesday morning, the doctors had already planned on sending her out of the Intensive Care Unit since she seemed to doing fine.

Until an hour or so later when her blood pressure plummeted again. By this time, the bacteria from her UTI had spread to infect her blood. Because of this, her kidney failed. Her lungs were struggling. It didn’t help that she was diabetic.

A few hours before midnight, her heart just stopped.

Complications from chemotherapy was the cause.

I wrote about chemotherapy sometime last year when we were contemplating treatment options for dad. I’m no doctor so don’t take my word for it. But if you’re reading this and are in a predicament where you have to deliberate on chemotherapy or no chemotherapy, this is my advice:

Research first. Study. Know what it is you or your loved one are getting into. Chemotherapy for most does more harm than good. While it is the “one in a hundred shot of a possible remission”, for most it just intensifies the pain they go through, and frequently hastens death. 

My aunt is the 3rd close family I’ve lost to cancer. My grandfather spent a year having chemotherapy. He died after one year. Before his death, he told my mother that he regrets having gone through it.

Chemotherapy is not for the weak, nor for the faint-hearted. The few I’ve known who survive chemotherapy whose lives are either saved or prolonged are those who have the spirit and will to keep fighting even it means bearing with all the agony treatment will put them through.