Please Pray For My Daughter Azura

When Azura my eldest daughter called us that her third child will be a boy we were so overjoyed with it. This is God's gift to her after having given birth to two girls Nur Alia Jazleen 8 and Nur Farhana Jazreen 6 both of them I lovingly referred to as Budak Puchong.
Though she works in Kuala Lumpur, she prefers to deliver her babies at University of Science Malaysia Hospital in Kota Bharu. She intends to deliver the third child at the same hospital.
While still in Kuala Lumpur, a check at the hospital there showed that the baby was in a breech position. This is a bad sign as the baby's head should be pointing downward towards the cervix, the exit from the uterus. Her due date was barely a month away and in the breach position, the baby is definitely in the wrong position to join this world.
This is the age of modern medicine with all its sophistications, a breach position means caesarian delivery. The baby will have to join this world not by the normal way but a via a cut in the mothers stomach which will leave a scar for life.
The traditional midwife still plays a part in the delivery of a child. The important part played by the traditional midwife is in correcting a breach position. So far the taditioanl midwife has never failed to correct this problem in any of our family members including my own wife. The first attempt to correct the breaching position by a midwife in KL succeeded for a short while but the position reverted.
With the due date getting nearer, we asked her to come back to Pasir Mas to get it done by a midwife who was known to have been correcting the breaching postion of babies due for delivery all the time. The baby returnrd to the breeching position after being corrected by the midwife. She refused to make another attempt for fear that the umbilical chord maybe a factor in the failure.
Since Azura's husband works in Ipoh and cant be back yet, I had to take Azura to HUSM for the check up on 18th March 2008. We went there very early in the morning arriving at HUSM a few minutes past 8 am. There was already a long queue at the outpatient department but at the Oncology and Gynaecology clinic the crowd was quite normal at that early hour.
Since her appointment was with the specialist, it took quite sometimes for her to be examined. Having the child for more than 36 weeks means she was due anytime and by right the baby should be in the correct position for delivery.
The doctor who examined her decided to retain her for observation in the ward. She was admitted into Ward Akik on the second floor and was scheduled to be operated on the next day which was the 19th since there will be a holiday for Maulidurrasul on Thursday the 20th of March. A holiday on Thursday to be followed by the weekend on Friday and Saturday means three non working days. The hospital will be short of staff if the operation was not done on Wednesday before the extended weekend begins.
Azura (second from left) with the family members in the ward at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia.
On Wednesday the baby turned and prepared to exit into this world. We were overjoyed, natural birth was possible. But the doctors needed to see how stable will the baby be in this position as attempting a normal delivery was dangerous if the baby turn to a position of breach again. An endoscopic examination was done to find out if the channel of delivery was ok. Then the worst thing happened, my daughter started to bleed. The kind of bleeding never associated with predelivery of a baby. Another examination was carried out by the gynaecologist on duty and Dr. Ramli Ibrahim found a 2 cm tumour at the cervic! It was this tumour that was bleeding. The baby had been turning away from the tumour. Thats the reason for the breech. Nature ensures that a certain signal is sent when condition is not normal.
Samples were taken of the tumour and sent to the lab. Since it was already evening, the lab staffs have left for home and tests can only be done on the samples by the earliest on Sunday. The doctor supervising my daughter is Dr. Kumar. So friendly was he that he was willing to share all the informations that he knows and answered every one of my questions and my son inlaw's question however silly some of them were. He undestood that under the circumstances, our minds were one of absolute turmoil. His answers eased our mind.
If the cervical tumour growth was malignant tumour, which means cancer, the following procedures will be followed: caesarian operation will be done to bring out the baby. As the trauma of childbirth will result in swelling of all the blood vessels and thus the operation to remove the tumour will not be done at the same time and must be done later by a specialist. Its not just the removel of the uterus but also the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes if not removed will be the entry point for the cancerous cells to invade the rest of the body. When that happens, nothing can be done to save the life of the patient. The operation to remove the uterus and the lymph nodes can only be done after about 2 weeks of the delivery by caesarian but not later than 4 weeks. Too early an operation means not letting to allow the swollen blood vessels to recover from the trauma and too late may mean the exposure of the rest of the healthy body part to cancerous cells which are already within the body.
Of paramount importance is the confirmation by the pathologists on the status of the tumour. Only by culturing the cells will the confirmation be made. The 3 days holiday wasn't helping matters at all. Now a week is necessary. If the tumour is cancer off stage one, removal of the uterus will more or less remove the cancer for good, otherwise chemotherapy is the only other available cure.
Chemotherapy with all the side effects is dreaded. In essence chemotherapy is like killing the cancer cells by burning them. To ensure all of them are cleaned, more than the infected cells must be destroyed. The side effects are too numerous. At a comparatively young age of 33, chemotherapy will result in so many undesirable effect without even the guarantee of obliterating the cancer. She could live better without a uterus and forgo all future chances of having another child.
With already 2 daughters and a son, my daughter's family is quite a family already. Saving the baby's life and her own life is of paramount importance. It doesn't matter if she can't reproduce again. My own is only a family with 4 children including Azura herself. So having one less children than me won't make her any worse. There are others out there who are not even blessed with a single child.
Dr. Ramli took another sample on the afternoon of 20th March. He can't wait for the lab result. He will do a microscopic study to satisfy himself that a caesarian operation was the better option and the sooner done the better.
At exactly 4.00 pm Azura was wheeled into the operating theatre with the blessing of all the family members including Jo her husband.
An hour later a 3.1 kg baby boy with matted black hair was taken out of the operating theatre with perfect body part. The child is beautiful. Thank you Allah for saving the child.

Two hours old Mohamad Aqil.

Half an hour later one by one the immediate family members were allowed to enter the room outside the operating theatre where Azura was lying on a hospital bed before being taken to the recovery ward. She was operated on while being conscious. Only her lower half of the body was under anaesthesia. She felt no pain at all while the operation was being done. Azura recuperating after the operation.

Lis and As looking at baby brother Mohamad Aqil

We stayed with her till the end of the visiting hours at 7.00 pm. My wife Fatthiyah was allowed to stay with her in the ward to be with her for the night to lend her support with whatever way she could. The painkillers helped Azura through the night.
21st March, we visited Azura again at the ward. She was feeling better. She problem, the baby was not suckling much since early morning. It was important for the baby to have the mothers first milk which is called the colustrum containing rich antibodies essential to ward off any disease attack on her. After 6.oo pm, we told her to change to the sitting position and allow the baby to suckle while being cradled in her arms. Alhamdulillah the baby started to suckle and slowly Azura's mammary glands started to lactate. Muhamad Aqil fell asleep after getting a stomch full of his mother's milk.
Aqil having the first feed of his life.

One day old Mohamad Aqil

To all dear friends, I beg you all to pray for my daughter's well being. Let the tumour be benign. If it is malignant, let it be in stage one so that an operation to remove her uterus and lymph nodes is all that is necessary for her to carry on living to look after her 2 daughters and the newborn baby boy.