A young mom's fight against cancer: Wendelyn Siano Capistrano

To all of our dearest friends and family, we are knocking on your kind hearts for the radiation therapy and chemotherapy of my eldest sister, Wendelyn Siano Capistrano, or may be known to you as Wendy/Weng/Ate Wen.

She was diagnosed with Stage IV Nasopharyngeal Cancer.

It started months back that she suffers from frequent headaches and sinusitis. She said that her head feels heavy and her sinus is painful. She thought it was a simple cold and ignored it for a while, but then she started to have slight nosebleeds.

She started seeing an ENT doctor here in Batangas and the doctor prescribed her strong antibiotics and nasal meds, saying that it was just sinusitis. After completing the said meds for a week, she still complained that her headaches persist and the bleeding was still there. The doctor ordered her to have a CT scan but because of lack of money, she decided to postpone it.

She, then, decided to see another ENT doctor. She had a nasal endoscopy and the doctor's findings was Chronic Sinusitis and prescribed another set of meds, excluding the antibiotics saying that she had enough antibiotics. Alongside the meds, the doctor also advised her to have hot compress for the pain on the left side of her face. Ate Wendy said it worked and the pain subsided but would always come back if she failed to put the hot compress.

Days before she was hospitalized, she would stay most of the day inside her bedroom together with Martha (her 3 year-old baby) and would just lay there saying that she felt dizzy. Then on the night of April 28th, when I got home, she already had her bags packed with Jessa and Martha because she said she cannot take the pain anymore and she wanted to be brought to the hospital right away. Her left eye also started to crosseye. Kuya Andrew's uncle from Tanauan picked her up from our house and brought her to the emergency room in Dasma.

The ER doctor gave her pain reliever and had a Cranial CT scan and the result is negative. The next day, another ENT doctor (Dr. Carpiso) saw her. The doctor already knew that it was cancer after seeing her symptoms but still double checked it and had her undergo multiple lab tests and a PNS (Paranasal Sinus) CT scan. After the results were cleared, she had a biopsy at Paredes Primary Center for 4 hours. She was sent home after but was brought back to ER the following night in Medical Center Imus (MCI) because of severe headache and vomitting. Arcoxia was not working for her pain anymore. She was admitted and her ENT dr referred her to a neurologist. She had MRI and the results showed that Ate Wen had a large mass behind her nose that it also affected her brain. Then she was referred to an Oncologist. After 4 days of waiting, the biopsy result confirmed that she is positive of Stage 4 Nasopharyngeal Cancer. Her case is rare as this illness is more common to males who smoke heavily. Ate Wen does not smoke nor drink alcohol. As per her doctors, this can be treated through a series of radiation therapy and chemo therapy.

She is yet to be scheduled for a PET CT scan to know if the cancer cells has spread through her body. Her first chemotherapy needs to be started as soon as possible to prevent the cancer cells that already reached her brain from spreading.

This would cost a lot and we are asking for your prayers and financial aid. Her husband, Kuya Andrew Capistrano, was away when all of this happened as he has just started working as an overseas filipino worker in Korea this March 2019. Please help Ate Wen and our family win this fight and complete the necessary treatments. If you can spare any amount no matter how big or small please consider sending it our way - the kindness of strangers really will mean the world to Ate Wen and our family! God bless us all!