Tongue Cancer - Cai Jun Hui

Cai Jun Hui Taiwan 42 years old

I am a bus driver and it is very common that I would be driving long distances such as from Jiayi and Taipei. I am usually on the road for extremely long periods of the time and I have to rely on smoking cigarettes and/or chewing betel nut to keep myself up. I smoke at lease one pack of cigarettes and chew two packs of betel nuts each day. Unfortunately, I still kept the habit even if I am not in driving. As an old saying goes, “you reap what you sow”. It’s the “Cause and Effect Theory”. In my case, the smoking of cigarettes and the chewing of betel nuts led me to demise of tongue cancer.

In 1997, I can not recall the exact month, I begin to feel a dull but constant pain on my tongue. So naturally, I chewed more betel nuts to make me feel more at ease. Then one morning, when I was cleaning my teeth, I opened my mouth to look at my tongue in the mirror. What I saw was completely different from before. A large part of my tongue was completely red and black and it seemed like pus was forming. My heart literally jumped. I told my wife and then showed it to her. She was also greatly shocked and disgusted that she immediately urged me to ask for leave from work and go to the hospital to have them examine it.

She called he sister to baby sit my two children and then she accompanied me to a hospital in Taipei. Without much checking, the doctor already knew what it was. The purpose of the examination was only to comfirm what he knew already.

The next day, the doctor made his arounds of the ward, followed by a group of young doctors. He asked me to open my mouth, pointed my tongue to them and asked them to raise their opinion on my condition. Finally, he told me that my tongue had to be cut off or there’s a possibility that I might never even be able to open my mouth for the rest of my life. After telling me this, the whole group of doctors went ahead to finish their arounds. This left my wife and I face to face, and definitely in awe, not kniwing what to do. She looked me in the eyes, her tears kept running down. My wife and I quarreled many times about my smoking cigarettes and chewing betel nuts, but she had nothing to say this time. Although I was responsible for the bad habits, I am still only 42 years old and should not have to deal with cancer yet. I thought that this would only happen to whose who are over 60 years old or even older. Why did it have to get me so early?

The ‘why’ questions no longer mattered, I still have to face reality. I calmed down and related my wife that there must be other forms of treatment other than cutting off my tongue. Possibly, some friends might have some relevant information for us.

I stayed at home awaiting for my operation. One day, my sister in law brought a document about Thien Hsien Liquid. I had seen the product in magazine, but I did not trust it. It was reported that many traditional Chinesse medicines contain poisonous heavy metal content and could not be trusted. So I just put the Tien Hsien literature aside.

Luckily, my wife was persistent and took out the dokumen about Tien Hsien Liquid and read it carefully. She urged me to give it a try, otherwise there was only one other way out--- it have the tongue cut off! I agreed to ask my sister in law’s friend to buy me some Tien Hsien Liquid and Tien Hsien Supositorry.

Ten days after I took medicine, the doctor scheduled an evaluation at the hospital to prepare for the operation to take place three days later. When the resident physician examined my tongue again, he found that it was quite different than the last time. The tongue was much smoother now and only a small part of my tongue was with pus. The doctor said the operation should still be performed, but it was not necessary to cut off the whole tongue. Thus, it would not affect eating and speaking. He asked if I ate traditional medicine these days. I answered and told him that I had been drinking Tien Hsien Liquid. He smiled and said that he heard of it and then patted me on the shoulder.

As I was being pushed out of the operating room, the doctor told my wife that the festering part of my tongue had already been cut off. Care must be given from now on and cigarette smoking and betel nuts chewing must be forbidden. I am not longer able to do those two things naymore. He did say that it was up to me to decide whether or not to continue drinking Tien Hsien Liquid. After leaving the hospital, I read the introduction on the Tien Hsien Liquid again, and drank it religiously under their guidelines. I continued to visit the hospital for check-ups every three months and later every half a year. I am still drinking Tien Hsien Liquid now, but do not use Tien Hsien suppository or other medicine in the line any longer.

Thanks to Tien Hsien Liquid, I could keep my tongue. I’d like to advise other cancer patients to choose a traditional Chinesse medicine to complement the western medicine to achieve better effect and mitigate the pain side effects of the treatment.

In fact, I know cancer might attack again, but the chances are less likely if I continue to drink Tien Hsien Liquid. I’ve made up my mine to be by the side of my wife and my children for as long as I can. I won’t let the family down due to my health. I will value everyday of my life, as I value every drop of Tien Hsien Liquid.