In July 2023, my father (72) was diagnosed with cancer affecting an area of his neck. He was admitted to a metropolitan hospital. I don't even want to think about the treatment, conditions and biopsy done there... just a nightmare. The "news" hit me like a freight train, I didn't know what to do. I am writing these lines and I hope they are of help to people who may be in my situation.
My father stayed in the hospital in Sofia for about a week. They did a simple scan and took a biopsy. They had patched up the surgery site like after an autopsy... just horror.
I was looking for an option to get him out of there as quickly as possible because I was unsure what the end result would be if he stayed. He had started to become immobile. The tumor had been growing for days, pinching blood vessels to the brain, esophagus and important nerves, causing difficulty moving my left arm and left leg. Doctors said surgery was unthinkable, and the only treatment options left were chemo and radiation, and without any hope. The prognosis was that within a few months at most he would be unable to eat, suffocate, or the circulation to his brain would stop, thus losing him. I'll refrain from sharing the "flowery" expressions they used to describe what we were facing.
I started making rounds to various "luminaries" of native medicine with the scanner disk. At all of them I heard the same thing - prepare for the worst.
A few days later, a close friend of mine mentioned Stars and her team to me, and connected us. Without wasting a minute, I prepared all the research documents I had and sent them to them.
Within 2-3 days we already had detailed treatment proposals from several hospitals in Istanbul. I was faced with the difficult choice of which of the options to go with. I held my father's life in my hands. I asked Star - "Which doctor would you choose? I don't know them, I don't know what experience they have or their history" - abstracting from the purely financial terms of the various offers.
We stopped at Okan University Hospital and Assoc. Kaan Gökçe, a doctor with an outstanding track record in the surgical treatment of cancer. As my father's condition was seriously deteriorating and he could hardly walk anymore, I asked the team of Medical Karadži for assistance with transport from Sofia to Istanbul. I received it immediately.
All this organisation took less than a week and on 24.07 we were both admitted to Okan Hospital. We were met by our interpreter Hayat, a Bulgarian living there for many years, who gave us full assistance with registration and check-in. The whole ward staff from the orderlies to the nurses to Dr Kaan were very friendly to us. Compared to what we experienced in the Bulgarian hospital here we were just in another universe. All tests and procedures were explained to us in detail. We were in a private room with two beds, with a separate bathroom and toilet which was cleaned twice a day. I'll just mention that the nurses came in over 30 times a day to see how we were and if everything was ok, took blood pressure, temperature, gave necessary medications, turned on systems, etc. Consultation was provided with cardiologist, ENT, etc.
PET/CT, which was not even assigned to us in Bulgaria, revealed that my father had dissections in other organs - I had a lung, a liver, the first two vertebrae at the base of the skull - the situation turned out to be even worse, but the native medicine had not detected this unpleasant fact.
On the fifth day of our stay the surgery took place. Dr Kaan had prepared me that it would be quite severe and possibly fatal due to the advanced age of the patient. In the end, we had no choice but to take the risk.
The surgery itself lasted about 5 hours - the longest of my life. The seconds for me were hours. At one point Hyatt came into the room and said, "Dr. Kahn is calling us outside the operating room." I shuddered... What was going through my head... I asked, "Are they done? Is everything okay?" She smiled and said, "Everything went perfectly. Relax!" I sighed.
We went down to the OR floor. Assoc. Kaan came out and said the surgery was very difficult (due to the location) but successful. He and his ENT colleague had managed to remove the tumour and now had enough material to study, as the biopsy sample I had brought from the Bulgarian hospital was so superficial that it did them no good. My father was placed in intensive care and they were waiting for him to come out of anesthesia.
The next morning I was admitted in there, he was already awake, looked super and didn't even remember the surgery. I told him what had happened the day before.
A day later, the pathology results came out - it turned out to be a low grade squamous cell carcinoma. A bad variant that is difficult to treat, quickly develops and is likely to make metastases to distant organs. Another blow for us. It was clear that months of chemotherapy and radiation were ahead.
Recovery from surgery went as planned with daily care from the entire ward at Okan Hospital. We felt them as more than friends.
On the tenth day they prepared us for discharge - we took a prescription for the necessary medicines for the next month, and they helped us with getting them, they changed the bandages and then I let myself look at the big incisions from the surgery... I was amazed, there were no stitches and everything looked like from an aesthetic surgery - so fine. Perfect execution by the doctor with the golden hands.
We said goodbye to the whole team we spent more than a week with in Istanbul and headed to Sofia. The guy who drove us to Istanbul drove us back. He helped us with everything we needed.
In Sofia, I started looking for a place to continue the battle. Stars assisted me to do an online consultation and with an oncologist in Turkey, Dr. Keskin from Memorial Hospitals, for advice on a chemotherapy protocol.
At the next stage, again with her help and experience, I was referred to a doctor in a well-known metropolitan hospital in Sofia for further treatment. As my father had not yet fully recovered the first thing we were prescribed here was a course of radiotherapy, five times in total, one every day. This helped a lot to fight the metastasis in the cervical spine. Dad started to get up and walk on his own, with a cane. A small victory!
After 20 days was the first chemotherapy. Not according to Dr. Keskin's recommended relaxed method with small doses every 7 days, but according to the Bulgarian treatment protocol with standard amounts, but fortunately with the same drugs. He had a total of six infusions of carboplatin + paclitaxel, each every 21 to 28 days.
At the end of February 2024, we underwent a new PET/CT to determine the effect of treatment to date. We were delighted to be told that everything we had undertaken had had a tremendous effect and given a perfect result. There was no sign of the cancer anywhere.
That, in a nutshell, is our odyssey, which lasted about 8 months.
I hope no one ever experiences this. If it does happen - I know it's a scary blow, but don't despair. However little hope there is, it still exists. Use it! Fight! Believe! ...and look for the Stars!
If I had listened to the doctors at that first hospital in Sofia that we visited in July 2023 I would have given up long ago and lost one of my closest people.
Thank you to Stars, to all her team! I love you!
Thanks to Assoc. Kaan for his golden hands and for the perfect surgery he did at Okan Hospital! I feel him as a part of the family!
Thanks to Dr. Keskin of Memorial Hospitals for the advice on chemotherapy!
Thank you to all the staff of the ward at Okan Hospital!
Thanks to Hayat for being around us all the time during our stay in Istanbul!
Thank you Murat for your attitude and smooth transportation both ways!
Thank you to all my friends and acquaintances who were with me during one of our most difficult times!
Thank fate for meeting me with all of you!
Our battle continues! We must keep what we have achieved!
I believe that the greatest trial has passed! There are no impossible things as long as you are dedicated and pursue them with all your heart!
Greetings,
Dimitar S.
