(UPDATE) MY ONLY SON HAS CANCER OF THE COLON

UPDATE (My only son has colon cancer)

On September 2, 2026, Nader returned to work at Mandaluyong City Medical Center (MCMC). Three months earlier, he had returned to work, but MCMC sent him home to rest more. Nader was eager to return to work. He was losing strength and gaining weight from inactivity.

During the first 3 days back at work, the entire hospital staff and personnel trooped to the Emergency Room to welcome him, touch him, and pinch his face, if only to make sure he wasn't an illusion. 

He is cancer-free, Alhamdulillah!

A few weeks after my son’s chemotherapy, I received a call from my eldest daughter, Norayda, from California, USA.

“Dad, I have terminal cancer.” The tears she had been holding back suddenly burst. I was stunned, speechless, and shocked. How would a parent respond to that? When she first complained to me about a swelling over her right neck and then the left, I said maybe it’s parotitis. It didn’t go away for several weeks. She went to see her doctor, who scheduled her for a biopsy of her swollen lymph nodes. It’s stage IV-B squamous cell carcinoma.

We were back to the same heightened emotional state we had several months earlier when my son was diagnosed with colon cancer.

When she first arrived in the USA, as if she had a premonition of what was to come, she bought the most expensive medical insurance the agents offered. Luckily, she is undergoing a 3-week, 6-cycle treatment that costs $70K (2.4 million pesos) and a work-up that costs $17K each time. The day the insurance company received her diagnosis report, they gave her $20K for what, I don’t know (LOL).

Although her carcinoma is stage IV, it is the type commonly associated with Epstein-Barr virus and is highly responsive to chemo/immunotherapy. Her medical workup confirmed this, with a 5-year survival rate of 86%. After her third cycle of treatment, her metastatic cervical lymph nodes disappeared, and her Epstein-Barr virus load was reduced from high to none detected. Alhamdulillah!

When she first called me, she was inconsolable: “My son,” she said, “is still young.”

I said, “Death is not in my prophetic dreams; you will be fine.”

“If I survive this,” she replied, “it will be a double whammy (referring to her brother), too much of a blessing for the family in a single year.”

GOD DOESN’T SET LIMITS.

Lessons I learned from all this: Cancer occurred in pairs in the family. I lost 2 of my brothers to liver cancer. If one of your siblings has or had cancer, consult a doctor to screen for any DNA markers you may share.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PRAYER

MY ONLY SON HAS CANCER OF THE COLON

My son is a nurse. I didn’t want him to be one, but I wanted nursing to be his pre-med. For some reason, he didn’t make it to the college of medicine. The salary for nurses is meager, so he instead worked as a call center agent. For 10 years, he enjoyed his work, but after the Pandemic, the demand for nurses became acute worldwide, and salaries rose to an acceptable level; he decided to answer his calling. He is an ER nurse (Medical Department) at Mandaluyong City Medical Center (MCMC).

Four weeks ago, or so, he had blood in his stool. As a nurse, he has easy access to medical care. He was diagnosed with Salmonella infection. He received treatment, and although he had IV lines on his arms, he continued working. The bleeding stopped, but the pain didn’t. His ER head nurse was getting worried, so she virtually dragged him to the medical specialist at the OPD. On the same day he was admitted for severe abdominal pain, a colonoscopy was done.

“Nader,” the doctor said, “has a tumor that is blocking 90% of his colon.” Skyfall is no longer a 007 movie; it is for real, and it was raining on my head.

“Is it possible, it’s not malignant?” I mumbled.

He gave me that look that says, “Are you joking?”

I didn’t know how to break the news to my wife and our other children, but I did. I am an MD, and although it is different when you are directly involved, I’m still used to it.

My son has a mysterious colon cancer. A series of tests and 2 CT scans were performed. His tumor marker test result is below 1, when the high normal range is 4. Although 30% of malignancies have normal values of tumor markers, 70% have high tumor markers that are also used to measure your response to treatment. Of the many signs of Colon cancer, my son didn’t have any except the pain. Doctors kept coming back asking Nader if he had this or that, which he didn’t. Even the surgeon wondered why he couldn’t palpate any tumor mass despite the finding of 90% blockage on colonoscopy, and why Nader had no bowel movement problem at all.

A day before surgery, another CT scan with contrast was done, and yes, the biopsy of the tissue from the colonoscopy also came.

My son has “Well Differentiated Adenocarcinoma.”

I had a glimmer of hope the moment I read “Well differentiated…”

I had 2 hours of sleep. It’s late in the afternoon, and although I still have hours to kill before I drive to the hospital, I had to go. When I checked our group chat, everyone was crying. The result of the CT scan with contrast wasn’t good.

Believe it or not, driving alone is my moment of solitude. I worked in Saudi Arabia’s mountainous region for 32 years, and truly, driving in the mountains gives you peace and the aloneness that gives your mind limitless space to wander.

In a moment of crisis, driving in the mountains is no different from the bustling traffic of the Metro.

“God,” I said. “I am an old man. Please take me instead of my son. If I am among the chosen ones, my mission is complete. The blessed ones will find the message in the more than 700 blogs and seven (7) books I have written.”

I said, “Chosen ones, I summon you to rescue my son from this cancer malady.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROMB_McCT9s

Friends and relatives assumed the CT scan result, which mentioned the fibrosis and nodules in the lung and two small cysts in the liver, as metastases, so the sorrow that broke them into tears.

At 7 PM on Saturday, October 25, my son was wheeled into the OR for hemicolectomy. I expected him to be in the OR and recovery room for no less than 12 hours, not to mention the ICU, which was also prepared to receive my son if he needed it. To my surprise, my son was back in his room shortly after midnight.

The surgery was very successful. Another CT scan, this time for the lungs only, with contrast, was performed to confirm that the previous CT scan's findings were likely a post-infection nodule. (I, too, have that tiny nodule that disqualified me from working in Qatar despite having been issued a working visa)

Whatever the result of the specimen’s histo-pathology, the future is bright. The type of cancer my son has is the lazy one. It is less invasive, growing very slowly. You can have it for years without knowing.

I need to say “thank you, Mr. Salmonella.”

With a successful surgery, my son may not need follow-up chemotherapy. It will all depend on what the Oncologist recommends. 

https://beyond666-acson005.blogspot.com/2013/01/golden-boy-strange-story-of-my-son.html