A male internal plumbing problem

Of late, the posts in this blog has been getting sparse. From a regular posting every 3-4 days, it has now dropped to once a week.

The past fortnight was a bit more hectic than usual. Work commitments aside, a large part of the last week was spent attending to my father-in-law's medical condition. He suffers from prostate cancer, considered the most common cancer disease afflicting men, especially those aged above 50 years old.

We have known about this ailment for some time. My FIL had undergone treatment at a few specialists before but nothing much could be done primarily due to his advanced age. He is 93-years old. When we received news the previous week that he was admitted to the district hospital in Mersing due to urinary complications, we knew the advanced stage of the disease has begun.

After a few days at Mersing Hospital, we transferred him to the Johor Specialist Hospital in Johor Bahru. The Consultant Urologist at JSH reviewed my FIL's case and advised that a prostatic stent be inserted to relieve the blockage caused by the enlarged prostate. This procedure does not involve surgery and in my FIL's situation, the only practical option available. The insertion of the stent however, does not treat the prostate itself. It is just a measure taken to enable my FIL to pee. The application of drugs to treat the prostate has shown mixed results and in any case, takes too long to be effective.

The insertion procedure was carried out yesterday afternoon. My FIL is now recovering but the full effect of the process is yet to be seen. As I've mentioned, we still need to consider the state of the cancer of the prostate itself. It seems that nothing much can be done about that. There will come a time when there is nothing else that we can do, but pray.