Mother overcomes depression, together with her children to treat cancer

Seven years ago, when little Nguyen Ha Quynh Huong was three years old, Ha’s family in Thinh Hoa commune, Tay Hoa district, Phu Yen discovered a small nodule on her right arm. Thinking it was a non-serious skin injury, Ha only let her child go to the doctor in her hometown and buy medicine. Increasingly, the nodule in Huong’s hand grew and developed into a large tumor. Seeing her child complaining of pain day and night, Ha and her husband gathered money and took the child to Children’s Hospital 2 (HCMC) for examination. The biopsy results showed that this was a nerve fiber tumor, and Ms. Ha froze, standing still.

The initial treatment prescribed by the doctors was radiation therapy. The nature of her job in the army made her husband unable to accompany the mother and daughter. Since then, it has been regularly sunny and rainy. Every month, the mother and daughter pack a towel to Ho Chi Minh City for examination and maintenance treatment, gradually the baby’s situation is more stable.

In 2019, Ha gave birth to her second baby, falling into pre-eclampsia – a serious obstetric complication that threatens the life of the pregnant woman and the fetus. Having to be transferred to the hospital three times, the doctor’s prognosis “can only save the child”. At that time, she remembered that she kept engrossed in reciting Buddha’s name, begging to live to take care of her two children, and finally escaped death.

However, after that, Ha fell into postpartum depression, due to the family’s accumulated debt, the pressure of the absence of her husband’s helping hand, the worry about the first child being sick, the fatigue when the child was born difficult. raising, laying down on the bed is crying, unemployed because the agency is downsizing, her husband’s salary is not enough to take care of the family’s living expenses… It all seems to fall on the shoulders of the mother.

“At that time, I kept hiding in the toilet, afraid of meeting people, afraid of the light, thinking only of how to die. I always heard the cry of my baby in my head, many times I couldn’t control it. I almost threw my child to the ground. Every time the negativity and obsession arose, I became irritable, annoyed, kept hitting Quynh Huong. When she cried, I realized that I was hitting her, it was very painful, but I don’t know how to control myself,” Ha recalled.

One day, hearing the children’s cries, she woke up: “I wonder what am I doing here? It’s not like the children have done anything wrong to have to endure such terrible things. The eldest child knows that the mother is sick. , only dared to cry when being beaten without blaming her mother for half a word. As for me, why am I so impulsive?”. Ms. Ha ran everywhere to get treatment, and went to Nha Trang to hope for a definitive treatment. Fortunately, she responded to medication and her depression subsided after about a year.

But when the mother’s illness was in remission, the child’s health began to deteriorate. In December 2019, Huong’s tumor became heavier and grew rapidly. Sending her child to her biological mother, Ha borrowed 20 million VND and went with her child to the Orthopedic Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. The surgery for Huong lasted 9 hours, then the doctor informed her that she needed to be transferred to the Oncology hospital for further chemotherapy because she was near the end stage. Since then, the number of times she has met her child in the countryside can only be counted on one finger.

At the age of ten, having undergone 3 surgeries, 6 times of chemotherapy and 28 radiations, Huong said the smell of disinfectant at the hospital was more familiar to her than that of a tray full of family meals. However, during maintenance treatment, every time she returned to her hometown, Huong still tried to go to school. When she didn’t come to class fully, Huong asked more friends and teachers to make up for the lack of knowledge. Looking at Huong’s weak constitution, or illness, or being tired because she had to go to chemicals, many times Ha felt sorry for her child, advising her to take a few days off and then go to school, but Huong insisted on going to school.

“I just applied to the hospital’s love letter class, but now I have to study online because I can’t go to class because of the epidemic. I hope to recover from my illness, go home to see my father, see my brother, grow my hair quickly so I can go to school and go to school. continue,” said the 10-year-old girl.

In Ha’s eyes, the eldest daughter is a strong girl. Vomiting, fatigue, pain all over the body when infusion, but not once did she shed tears. Every time it hurts, I bite my lip until it bleeds. Huong tries to eat, drink, rest, count each prescription, tear up each calendar, looking forward to the day she returns home. Seeing her son courageously face the disease, Ha seems to be given strength to accompany her son.

In addition to the time of treatment at the hospital, she applied to work as a housekeeper for the innkeeper to receive a discount of 500,000 VND per month. The rest, she borrowed and then repaid the debt. Her dream now is to have good health to take care of her children and hope for some miracle to help Huong get healthy again and continue to go to school.

Doctor Ngo Thi Thanh Thuy, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, said that Huong’s tumor was a fibrous tumor in both her arm and forearm. At first, the baby had surgery to remove the tumor because it was benign. After 2-3 surgeries, the tumor turned malignant, differentiated in the direction of nerves.

The initial treatment regimen given to Huong was chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy. Currently, the baby has completed the course of radiation and chemotherapy, responding well to treatment. However, neurofibromatosis still has the risk of recurrence, so it is necessary to closely monitor for timely treatment.

Ms. Ha said that because Huong’s hands were swollen and swollen, her liver enzymes were elevated, so she continued to be treated at specialized hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. “I hope her situation improves soon so that mother and daughter can go home. I’m busy, I’m afraid that my child will forget her face at home. Both of them are more disadvantaged than other children. But it seems that the more growing up in adversity, they become stronger, says Ha.

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