Smooth chemo procedure today

Today proceed with the schedule chemo with Alimta and all goes well .
Until now , beside a bit of tire , all well . Only problem is can not sleep, hopefully can overcome it and have good nite rest.
Have received CEA tumor marker blood test reading today and it happen like the situation in Sept last year . CEA reading shot up after chemo , but, this time the increase is about 70% , from abt 1000 to abt 1700 , break the new record.
Hopefully the reason is due to the chemo drug working in destroying cancer tumor .
Anyway, most important is the scan report .
So, will leave this matter aside and monitor on next blood test and to make decision whether proceed CT scan 3 weeks later or to do it after another cycle of chemo.
Thanks Lord for his blessing for my smooth chemo procedure .
SK

Am I really strong and no fear ?

Am I ?
Am I no fear in facing the result of scan report ?
Am I no worry when fluid buidling up in lung ?
Am I not scare to say yes and proceed for the procedure to drain out those fluid from lung ?
Am I no fear to start chemo again and worry about the side effect ?
Am I ... Am I ... Am I ... Am I really so strong ?
No ! I am still worry .
No ! Fear still disturb me .
Some time I am scare to take the test because I am worry about the result.
So what ! ... I am just a normal human being .
It is nothing wrong to have fear , to worry and to feel scare. I am not robot.
What is important is to have the support to help me to do away fear , worry and scare.
I am so grateful that Lord is there for me whenever I am in fear and worry .
I am thankful that Lord always there to give me strength to overcome it and bring me joy to live my life the way he want us to live.
Pray to Lord for his mercy, peace and love from Lord will fall on us and we will feel the peace of mind .
Praise the Lord !
Wish all of us will enjoy our day and use our strength to do good .
God Bless !

Alimta ( Pemetrexed )

This round of chemo with Alimta give me new experience with side effect.

I have posted in GRACE some question and get some sharing of information that I think it is good to share with you.

You may click on the link as follows :-

1) Alimta ~ A different experience of side effect http://www.cancergrace.org/forums/index.php/topic,6722.0.html

2) Alimta ~ what is maximum dose for me http://www.cancergrace.org/forums/index.php/topic,6720.0.html
( read the sharing from Joe and click on the link item 3, to link you to the Dose calculator )

3) Alimta ~ Folic Acid and Vitamin B12
http://www.cancergrace.org/forums/index.php/topic,6690.0.html

SK

Chemo Update Day 9 ( 29/10 )

Great !
Still tire, but, feel much better.
Manage to have about an hour of brisk walking.
Can eat well .
Rash start subside , but, some new rash show up at my back. Anyway, I can cope with it.
Overall good and I think it is almost over now.
Will get body system up to get ready for next chemo .
Thanks God .
SK

Chemo update Day 7 (27/10)

It is a surprise for me. Been doing so well on day 1 and 2, then, day 3 feel a little tire and day 4 morning feel very good with proper exercise as usual and having dim sum for breakfast, suddenly , thing change so fast, in late afternoon, body ache + muscle pain and feel very very tire and stomach upset.
Go to bed , rest and sleep , and no appetite .
Luckly that manage to sleep as when feel tire and day 5 ( Monday ) is the worst, feel so tire and just sleep , rest, sleep and rest the whole day . To avoid serious weight loss, start to look for food that can suite my taste .
Thanks God, with grace manage to cope it .
Yesterday morning , feel better , but, still very very tire and sleep/rest a lot .
Rash start to show up in my neck and upper body in late afternoon.
Manage to sleep for one to two hours, as when I am tire.
This morning, feel better and just wish that side effect start to withdraw and looking forward to a full recovery before end of this week .
Note : The side effect is different from previous Chemo with Alimta, previous chemo give me side effect latest on the 2nd day and go off by 4th or 5th day. This time, I am doing so well for the first few days and it suddenly attack me with surprise and now follow by rash ( previously no rash ) . It is what they say " The treatment is full of uncertainty "
Sk

Chemo update day 2 ( 22/10 )

Gastric start at 3 am and managed to solve it with standby medicine.
Then the expected hiccup start in the morning abt 9 am , without ginger with me, I took some fine sugar , let it melt in my mount slowly and manage to cure it. Hiccup came back after an hour, I think it is because I drink water too fast. No more sugar with me and therefore, I ate a small piece of chocolate and let it melt slowly in my mount, so amazing, It works. Thereafter, no more hiccup with a good control of drink and eat slowly.
Kind of tire , but, not manage to sleep well.
Next side effect worrying now is constipation, hopefully it will solve by tomorrow morning.
In general, I feel great .
Thanks God .
SK

Chemo today

Finally, back to cancer centre today for treatment with the chemo drug " Alimta " .

Everything fine and having very smooth procedure from admission to treatment .

No pain and minimum side effect until now, but, did feel kind of tire and can not sleep . If all goes well, will discharge tomorrow .

Anyway, in comparing with side effect of all the past chemo treatment, this is minimum side effect .

Now , just waiting whether tomorrow will have hiccup. For all the past treatment, always start hiccup on second day morning .

Overall , feel good .

Thanks God .

SK

I am ready for treatment

Having very good days for the last couple of months, busy with so many things and no time to update this blog .
Well ! Will have time to update it regularly in coming weeks or months , once I start chemo treatment by next week .
Last week have my check up and scanning, as expected , water in Lung building up ( it start building up in June this year ) , but, surprise me is that my right lung already collapse, because of too much of water.
With Oncologist advise, I make appointment with chest physician on Monday , then proceed with her recommendation to drain out water from lung by an experience surgeon.
Praise the Lord, everything fall in line and have a proper and minor procedure to drain out 2 litres of water ( fluid ) , sample send for test and it take me few days to have a proper recovery .
Feel good today and ready to start chemo by next week .
Thanks God, it is by his grace that I am still breathing normal with my right lung already collapse and I am still travelling by flight to oversea last week without any problem .
God is great .
After a year of holiday from treatment, I am back with this new experience of draining out water from lung . Wow ! it looks very simple , but, when trying to get as much of water out, it is painful . What I learn is that whenever we want to stress something to maximum, there is always a price to pay. In my case, pain . hahahahaha ! Anyway, no regret, as I have experience it now and know what to do in next round .
God bless !
SK

General Work-up and Staging of Lung Cancer : What do you need to know

If you want to have a good understanding of this subject.
Dr. Silvestri's post is very informative .
http://cancergrace.org/lung/2010/05/12/general-work-up-and-staging-of-lung-cancer-what-do-you-need-to-know/

SK

2 years after 1st chemo treatment

Friend call up to check with me some sharing about chemo treatment. When I refer to my record, notice that 23rd July 2008 is my first chemo treatment .
It is still fresh in my memory, I woke up so early in the morning to get ready to the chemo centre .
The nurses in the SJMC chemo centre is very helpful and it is a great help to take away much of my worries.
A day before the treatment, I am just like others, full of questions and keep checking on the net and with friends, try very best to know more about side effect and so on.
The treatment with Carboplatin + Taxol , went on smoothly and completed in the afternoon.
The immediate side effect surface next day morning, but, instead of the expected fever, I had serious hiccup .
Check with doctor and was informed it is not common for patient to have hiccup ( as side effect ), so, I am the lucky one .
Try on anti-hiccup medicine and it works only for 2 hours. Thereafter, start again . Finally, my wife find a solution for me . Boiled ginger water . It help to stop it and back after few hours. I goes on with ginger water and finally, it ends . ( Sometime, the natural food can do much more wonder than the western drug )
It's a blessing that other than the hiccup and some slight rise of body temperature, everything goes well for first 3 days .
Start from fouth day, I start to feel some poking pain in my bone and bone joint. Not really serious ,but , if I am going to focus and think / feel it, it is quite pain and disturbing. To solve it, I start to divert my attention to watch TV , read books , drawing . Anything that can divert my attention, I will do it . It last for two to three days and goes off.
A week after the treatment, the awaited hair loss start and I decide to shave bald to avoid hair dropping everywhere .
By then, I am back and start recovering to face the next cycle of chemo .
It goes on the same thing for the next 5 cycles of treatment.
At the end of the 6 cycles of treatment, I am bald , I am fair ( as there is no hair from head to toe, save my money for shampo ) and my daughter say that my skin is as smooth as baby skin .
About two months after the last chemo treatment, I was recommended to try the targeted drug , Tarceva . It is in tablet form and to take once a day, one hour before food or 2 hours after food. ( I check on drug information site and it mentioned that taking this drug with food can raise the levels of the drug in the body, which is why it is recommended you take it on an empty stomach. Avoid grapefruit or grapefruit juice during treatment Grapefruit and grapefruit juice are known to affect the level of erlotinib in your blood. )
A week later, I start getting the well expected side effect with rash start showing up on my face and upper body . Then, it follow by some ulcer in my mouth and next is the blister in my tongue.
There is also some infection in my throat and finally I decided to take doctor advice to proceed with antibiotic to solve the infection and reduce the rash effect on my face and upper body.
While I am on Tarceva , some good news , hair start growing . ( well, it is not becasue of Tarceva, it is normal that after you stop the chemo for carboplatin + taxol, hair will start to grow back )
Ulcer and blister take about two weeks to goes off and rash under control after 3 weeks, but, it is still there months after I stop Tarceva .
Maybe I am not suitable for Tarceva, I check on the booklet for Tarceva and note that my rash condition is consider the 3rd stage rash as far as the rash staging side effect for patient who's on Terceva treatment.
Anyway, Tarceva not helping me much and with doctor advice, I stop it after 2 1/2 month.

After a rest for 1 1/2 months from Tarceva and a nice vacation holiday with my family to Taiwan, I am back to treatment with Cisplatin + Alimta .
During the treatment , I start to undertand why doctor say different patient react differently to the drug . There is patient coping very well with Cisplatin, but, I am not . And there is patient having hard time dealing with Caboplatin, but, I am coping so well with it .
Treatment with Cisplatin + Alimta will take a long hours, about 8 hours to finish treatment.
I am having the same old problem a day after the chemo , HICCUP . And this time, boiled ginger water not working , so , I take a tea spoon of fine sugar and let it melt in my mouth slowly, it works . ( It is a treatment tips for hiccup that I learn from an old aunty when I am young ) But, it's not working again on second cycle, so , my wife start to boil ginger water again and add in lemon and honey . Amazing, it works . ( So, never give up and keep trying to find a solution, most of the side effect can be resolved )
I am having hard time with cisplatin for very bad nausea and feeling tired . But, manage to cope with it by keep thinking of what is the food that I can eat and my wife will cook or buy it for me. This help me to maintain my food intake and keep my body fill with energy to chase away the feeling of tired. ( So, don't give up eating when you have strong nausea or vomit side effect, keep trying different type of food or cooking. We need strong body and healthy body during treatment to cope with the side effect . Ice Cream , Chocolate is my good companion during treatment )
After the 3rd cycle of treatment and CT scan show there is no significance improvement , I decided to stop the treatment and take 3 months rest to have a recovery of my body system and immune system . ( After the 3rd cycles , I feel weak , it may not all because of the cisplatin, as I am already treated with 6 cycles of Carboplatin + Taxol and 2 1/2 months of Tarceva. So, it is time that I need a good rest with proper diet , exercise and so on to rebuild my body and immune system. Anyway, I discussed with doctor and he agreed with my plan and advise me to keep very close follow-up and not to rest too long from the treatment )
In Sept '09, I am back in treatment again with only Alimta . The side effect is minimum and I am coping very well with it . After the 3rd cycle, I took CT scan and again the result show no changes in size or quatity of the tumour, everything is stable. So, I decided to take a rest from treatment and spend my time to build my body / immune system .

By now, I am already 9 months out of treatment ( from my last chemo on mid Oct '09 ) . God bless, everything goes well and I am living my days with the tumour and cancer cell still inside my body .

What I learn in this 2 years about treatment is to be balance in everthing we do.
There is no guarantee answer to the curing of cancer . Doctor , reseacher are working round the clock to keep finding new treatment options , new drugs . Clinical trial is going on everyday around the world for modern or traditional therapy .
We just have to continue to pray and continue to keep our body stay strong, until the day when God give wisdom to someone to come up with a cancer treatment that will guarantee to cure cancer .
There is many opinions about cancer treatment . There are groups who oppose to chemo / surgery / radiotherapy and suggest only alternative therapy with traditional herbs or natural food, fruit juicing and so on . And, there is groups who suggest only chemo / surgery / radiotherapy as treatment options and totally disagreed to any alternative treatment option.

As layman in medical field and following are purely my opinion as a cancer patient, I feel that chemo/ surgery / radiotheraphy is still the main stream treatment. No doubts that there is lots of side effect during the treatment . But, there is no guarantee that alternative therapy not having side effect, just that it is not reported . It goes the same theory with chemo drug. Each patient will react differently . So, some patient will do very well with some of the alternative therapy and some not.

But, the bottom line is that we need to have healthy and strong body to cope well with the treatment. Be it Chemo/Surgery/Radiotherapy or any alternative treatment .

Then, question raise. When a patient have cancer, means he/she is sick, so, what are we talking about healthy body. My opinion is that "Cancer" is defined as the uncontrolled or unregulated growth of cells. It is not a disease . If we can change our diet gradually , our lifestyle gradually , we can rebuild our body/immune system and it will help to improve our self healing system to repair our body and once our body system improve, it will restore the healthy environment which will deter the cancer cell to grow . Cancer is not any bacteria or virus and it is not form just in one or two days ago. The lung cancer professor told me that it take years to form the size of tumour for my stage 4 NSCLC. So, it is possible to rebuild and restore our body system. Don't give up .

Meantime, complementary therapy, such as Qi gong , Yoga , Foot and Body massage , Acupunture and many others which is recommended by oncologist are good to assist patient to reduce side effect and rebuilding of body system.

Anyway, it is our body that will tell us whether the treatment is suitable for us , whether it works for us , whether it help us and therefore, to learn how to listen to our body is much more important than anything .

Doctor will give us advice and prescription base on our feedback , base on our scan and blood test report and base on our syndrome, without guarantee or confirmation that it will work for us. Same goes to the alternative treatment, the person who recommend us to the alternative treament will not guarantee that it will work for us.

So, be patient and attentive to take note of any body changes during treatment and after treatment . If possible , keep a daily record of how you feel in the morning , afternoon , evening and during the night . Then, keep your weight record ( fix a time of the day ) daily , keep your blood pressure daily ( I take record of blood pressure in the morning , noon and night , during treatment . And still continue to take once a day until now ) . It is important not to be panic when you find something wrong , as sometime we will become too sensitive, when we start being too attentive to the body changes. For example, when you wake up in the morning and suddenly feel chest pain , pls do not be too panic and start thinking about the tumour in lung start deteriorating. As it could be due to some excessive exercise you did for the past few days or because you carry some heavy stuffs a day ago. So, be calm and analyse it , monitor it and recall what happen for the past days . If it persist , take a drive to check with doctor for advice, instead of start worry . Remember that fear and worry is the worst enemy for us .
I feel great for still being around living my days with cancer and thanks Lord for his grace , blessing and healing .
I am looking forward to be here to continue my sharing and wish God blessing for all of you.
God Bless
SK


Special Note : Each patient have different reaction to chemo drug, side effect . Therefore, what I have experience, may not be the same as other patient. I have read sharing from other patient, who have minimum side effect and good response with Carboplatin + Taxol ; Tarceva ; Cisplatin + Alimta or just Alimta . So, please just take it as my sharing and it is not any medical advice.

It is June again ...

June ...
It is June again ...It is the month that change my life .
It is the month that change my view of many things .
It is the month that bring me to Lord .
It is the month that I know I am surrounded by loving and caring people .
It is the month that I know more about Love .
It is the month that I get to know wealth means nothing without health .
It is the month that I fully agree , what's matter most is how we live our life and not how long we live .
It is the month that I know how fortunate I am to have Chris ( my wife ), she's been so supportive and keep walking with me without looking back .
It is the month that I know that it is so great to have Natalie ( my daughter ), she bring joy to me.
It is the month ...
It is the month ...
It is the month that I know what is CANCER ?

I love June , because it change my life.
I love June , because it is the month I am looking forward every year .
I love June , because every June I live thro' , means Lord have answer my prayer and Lord is so graceful .
I love June , because June means celebration .

I pray that Lord will bless me and continue to heal me, and I look forward to be here to tell you in coming years , " It is JUNE again "

God Bless

SK

What is 'C" - cancer to us ...

'C' bring fear n worry to many of us
'C' means disastrous to many of us
'C' cause mental torture and physical suffer to many of us and
'C' always link to death for many of us ...
This is what many of us think of it, when someone mention 'C'

Time to change on what we used to think of 'C' .
Time to change on what we used to do.
Time to tell ourself that
'C' bring us back to healthy diet , healthy living .
'C' means caring.
Because of 'C', we receive all the caring message and it confirm that the world is still full of caring and loving people and it is care with sincere loving heart.
'C' cause us to value life and everything we have , more than what we did before.
Someone wrote" The value of a good Lung is measured after losing it ",
I would say " Value our lung and life, we should not wait till the 'C' to tell us how to value it "
'C' link to Alarm , not death. It is the alarm telling us , there is something wrong with our body, which may cause by stress ; environment polution ; our diet ; our lifestyle and the usual wear & tear after years or by many other possible unknown reason. The only set back is that, most of the time , this alarm come too late and give us too short of time to get things organise for the repairing work.But, on the other hand, we should be grateful that atleast the alarm still working and we've been given a chance to get it repair.So, let's not link it to death and just start repair it with the time we have.

To all the cancer warrior ,
- Let's not give up
- Let's not fear n worry weight us down, let's unload it from our back
- Let's continue to go forward with the repair work
- Let's continue to open our hand and our heart to receive love and support from our Lord , our family, our friends and live our days with joyful and happy mood during this long journey
- Let's value the chance that we've been given to carry out the repair .
- Let's be grateful that our alarm's still working and we been given chance/time to do something.
- Let's be thankful . There's many other sickness take life away from our love one without chance to say Good Bye. But, we been given a chance to get it repair .

And l am thankful to Lord . It is by his grace and mercy that I am still living happily and be able to share with you.

Just remember that we are not alone going thro' this long journey, we are together supporting each other and with the mercy of Lord , we will walk out from the darkness to light.

Today is a joyful day and with Lord everyday will be .

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

God Bless
SK

Keep going with faith ...

Feel kind of depress with news of friend's family member been diagnosed with cancer ; recurrence of cancer ; metastasis of cancer ; lossing the battle, all within a month .
And I am so thankful to Lord . It is His mercy and grace that keep me doing well and strong .
Feel great when Lord give me some good news to cheer me up ( after all the negative news ) with the result of my CEA blood test reading. The reading reported reduce of 43 points from 1443 to 1400. It is still high or so call very high , but, to be able to keep it stable without treatment, it is amazing . Praise the Lord.

Feel Great

My posting in Cancer Compass :-

1st April 2010 :- ( http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,45526,0.htm )
Sleeping in hospital bed and wake up at 2 a.m. and can't sleep again is no fun .
Thanks to all your posting here to give me strenght .
Feel great now and looking forward to a good scanning in the morning .
Anyway, I hate the fasting , As I can't eat for until about 11 am with the schedule CT for lung on 9 am and brain MRI 10.30 am .
Looking forward to the good result by noon today .

2nd April 2010 :- (http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,45555,0.htm )
Finally I get my CT and MRI scan all settle by late morning yesterday and can happily enjoy my breakfast after a long fasting.
But, the long wait for hours waiting for the report make me feel tire and boring.
At last the report was out , 5 1/2 months after the last chemo, the CT lung show stable , no major changes to the size and quantity of tumor ( it is just like all the past report since '08 )
With the advice from oncologist, I decided to take brain MRI and CT scan for neck + abdomen to confirm whether any sign of metastasis, since my CEA reading ( as per blood test 3 days ago ) show going up to new level of 1400+ .
Great result, scanning show no sign of any metastasis .
Praise the Lord for his healing , blessing and always answering our prayer .
Thanks all of you for all great encouraging message posting , it keep me be positive .
And have to thanks my loving and caring wife, who take care of me with love and great support. For many people, they will wonder why am I so happy, when there is no improvement after 22 months of treatment .
But, for me, it is a good news when the condition is under control ; I can eat well , sleep well , moving around freely , travel , enjoy my family life ( which I hv missed so much for the past with crazy working life ) and I feel good everyday.
Have learn to live with cancer in my lung and I know one day it will disappear, as the 'C' will find that it is no fun staying around when this guy have so much of support and have no fear & worry about lossing life to cancer.
I pray and wish all of us here will get well soon with the blessing & healing from Lord Jesus and the support to each other and continue to figth the 'C' without fear and worry .
It is a happy and joyful day and with Lord everyday will be .
God Bless
SK

Will too much reading cause worry !

My answer is " YES "
Most of us will start doing our reseach thro' reading and net browsing when diagnose
with cancer .
I start with the following site recommended by oncologist :-
http://www.cancer.gov/
http://www.cancer.net/
It give me a very good overview about cancer with general information like ;-
What is cancer ; Treatment ; Coping with cancer ; Prevention, Genetics, Causes ;
Screening and testing.
It also give me overview of all type of common cancer , for Lung cancer, the site
provide very details informations as follows :-
The Lungs - an overview of lungs ; Cancer cells - How's cancer begins in cells ;
Risk factors ; Screening ; Symptoms ; Diagnosis ; Staging ; Treatment ; Second opinion ;
Comfort care ; Nutrition and so on .
Thereafter, I start browsing to look for sites in Malaysia and I manage to find the following
> National Cancer Society of Malaysia ( http://www.cancer.org.my/ )
> Cancerlink Foundation ( http://www.cancerlinkfoundation.org/ )
> Makna <> ( http://www.makna.org.my/ )
> Malaysian Oncological Society ( http://www.malaysiaoncology.org/ )
And other sites that I used to get update informations as follows :-
> Nasional Cancer Centre Singapore ( http://www.nccs.com.sg/ )
> American Cancer Society USA ( http://cencer.org/ )
As for information of Chemo drug and the side effect , I log in to :-
http://www.2ndcanceropinionusa.com/drugdb.htm

Those are all the official site for cancer treatment or cancer care and it give us good information
about standard treatment or approved treatment by government and also all the approved or recommended
complimentary treatment .

After I start with Chemo Therapy and have so much of time at home resting and to cope with side effect,
I start do more reseach by reading books ; articles ; web sites , about story of cancer survivor ; about alternative treatment ;
about why we should not accept the standard treatment like surgery , radiation therapy, chemo therapy ; about there is no
cure for cancer, all treatment is just to prolong life for couple of months or the target of 5 years ; about changing our diet and
mindset to improve our immune system to regain our health and we will be fully recover ; about how to live with cancer in a peaceful
way and so on ...

Be frank, as a layman in medical field, I am getting confuse and wondering what is the right decision .

How to overcome it ?

When I am confuse, I pray to Lord and ask for wisdom ; knowledge and to guide me for the right tretament decision.

With wisdom from Lord and his guide, I find Cancer Compass ( http://www.cancercompass.com/ ) , it give me a better view
after reading all the posting from patient and care taker in cancer compass community and the sharing ; support from the community
is a great assistance to me and clear most of my doubts .

My opinion to share after reading all the informations about cancer treatment as follows :-
> Tell our self that Cancer is not a disease, it is our cell and it can be repaired if we give ourself a chance to do so.
> Tell ourself that cancer is not the end of our life, it is an alarm to inform us there is abnormal cell in our body system
( Cancer begins in cells, the building blocks that make up tissues. Tissues make up the organs of the body.
Normal, healthy cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them.
When normal cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place.
Sometimes, this orderly process goes wrong. New cells form when the body does not need them,
and old or damaged cells do not die as they should. The build-up of extra cells often forms a mass of tissue called a growth or tumor. )
( Cancer is defined as the uncontrolled or unregulated growth of cells. )
> Be it standard treatment or alternative tretament, the most important and immediate action should take is to improve and rebuild immune system.
Cancer patient can not afford to have more sickness during treatment, so, we have to stay as healthy as possible.
> Do away all fear and worry and set a positive mind-set to face the treatment
> Have proper and healthy diet
> Listen to our body and rest when we are tire
> Exercise to keep our body healthy ( simple brisk walking is good and do not need to force ourself with excessive exercise )
> Have faith with our Lord and pray for wisdom and healing.

Meantime, we should accept the fact that be it standard treatment or alternative treatment, non of the treatment is suitable for all,
as each patient react differently to the drug ; herb or cancer diet, because of our body system condition ; our race and background ; weather ; living and working environment .
Therefore, the correct way to deal with it is to listen carefully to our body and discuss with doctor and choose something that suit us .

God Bless

SK

Why back to old lifestyle after all the suffering ...

Have came across patient having recurrent cancer just couple of months of confirmation by doctor that they have fully recover with full remission ( after chemo and radiation therapy ) and the reason of recurrence is due to they are back to their old lifestyle immediately .
( Note : Not all the recurrence was due to patient back to old lifestyle, my share of opinion is about some of the recurrence patient )
Poor Diet, Lack of Physical Activity, or Being Overweight
People who have a poor diet, do not have enough physical activity, or are overweight may be at increased risk of several types of cancer. For example, studies suggest that people whose diet is high in fat have an increased risk of cancers of the colon, uterus, and prostate. Lack of physical activity and being overweight are risk factors for cancers of the breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, and uterus.
Many will back to their pre-treatment lifestyle , back to the food they like , back to full working life with all the stress .
Work ... stress
It is difficult for many to avoid back to work immediate and also many have to continue working while they are on treatment.
So, stress is unavoidable , what we can do is to reduce or minimise it. Pray and ask for wisdom and knowledge to assist us in our work , to reduce our stress .
Food , exercise , smoking , drinking .....
Many will say that once back to work, it is difficult to control on kind of food or diet and always tempted with all the good taste but bad for health.
And some will say " Life is short , let's enjoy food that I like "
And many will give excuse for no time to continue daily exercise.
For those who say " Life is short , let's enjoy .... " will be tempted to take up old habits again, i.e. smoking , alcohol .
Beside of stress from work, all the excuses given for foods, exercise, smoking , drinking are all unacceptable .
And I just wonder why ?
> Why we have forgotten the pain, worry, fear during treatment
> Why we have forgotten the pain, worry, fear we brought to our spouse, children, parent
> Why we have forgotten all the promises we make during the treatment that we will make a change if we been given a chance to recover
And WHY we are so forgetful , we are so irresponsible to ourself , to our spouse, to our children, to our ...
It is sad , but it is happening everyday .
It also alarm us that many of us will forget our Lord after our recovery, after we are out from trouble water.
Lord , please guide us to learn from our past that have caused us into trouble and thanks to bring us out from the darkness to light . Please also lead us not into temptation .
Thank you Lord in Jesus name, Amen.
God Bless.

Amazing ..

It's so amazing that result of my CEA ( tumor marker ) reading reduce for nearly 200 points after taking a rest from Chemo treatment since last treatment in mid Oct '09.
After the visit to Singapore, it take me days to think should I proceed for treatment immediate or I should stick by my plan ( 6 months treatment leave with close monitoring ) .
But, with the last blood test in early Jan '10 reported the raise of CEA reading and comment from doctors that it may be one of the indication of increase in cancer cell activitiy, it's really a concern for me to make a good decision whether to take the CT scan ; MRI and proceed treatment.
Thanks Lord for His mercy , love and give me peace, so that, I manage to avoid making emotional decision. I pray and ask for Him to show me the way through the CEA reading and on 28th Jan '10 morning, I receive the message that it is the time to take the test and I told my wife, let's go for the blood test today ( She been asking me many times whether I've decided when to go for the test and what is my decision for treatment ) and the CEA result will be my guide for treatment decision .
It is also amazing that it's the first blood test that I feel so relax, easy, without fear or worry of " What if ..... "
After waiting for two hours for the blood test report to release by lab, when I read it, I just feel great, the kind of feeling is wonderful and I know that Lord is with me .
Praise the Lord for His healing for me and may Lord will continue to touch me with His healing power and let it flow through my body and restore me to full health .
Lord , please also touch everyone in my prayer , everyone in cancer compass community and everyone who ask for your healing and let all of us receive your mercy , grace , peace , love and be healed and restore to full health.
Thank you Lord in Jesus name , Amen.
God Bless.

I make it by seeking Him to guide me .

Feel great ! Just back from Ho Chi Minh , Vietnam . A short visit to office ; meet up with customer ; partner and staffs for dinner and discussion.
Beside of minor sore throat ( could be due to dehydrate and polluted air ), the whole trip doing well .
Start my vege/juice cleansing today and will have simple meal with lots of vegetable and fruits for next couple of days to ensure my immune system back in top condition.
With my regular brisk walking and to catch up with good rest and sleep, I shud be back in top condition in next two days.
The great feel is that I make it for the trip without any problem , Praise the Lord !
Before heading to HCM, I meet up with two oncologist in Singapore for their opinion about my condition and their suggestion for further treatment options. Also to gain some information of what is the latest available drug and new treatment or clinical trial for Lung cancer.
Both oncologist have given me their valuable opinion and as normal , it make me start thinking about my condition ; about my next treatment option and about many many things .
Some would say stop thinking too much, it will make us feel more worry/fear, and some may say, it is important to think about it and organise all the opinions and workout a proper treatment plan .
I think both are right . Most of the time after discussion with doctor, we tend to think of . " What if ."
- What if we not follow the Doctor opinion and situation turn worse ?
- What if we don't do it immediately and the delay cause tumor grow faster or cancer spread ?
- What is we take the recommended treatment or drug and we are the odd one suffer with unknow side effect ?
- What if we maintain doing nothing and we can live better with quality life ?
So, there is a long list of "what if .." and we will keep asking ourself and end up we get very very confuse and finally we are lost .
When there is too many " What if .. " , we tend to develope worry and it then turn to fear and it affect our sleep and it affect our immune system and so on ... . So, it is not wrong to say , if we think too much it will make us feel more worry/ fear .
Well, I also agreed with others, who say that we should think about it and start our plan for the treatment options . It is true that we can not just lay back and put everything behind us and live our life like nothing happen , because it is a matter of fact that we must know how to live with the " C " . To live with the " C " , means we must know the character of the cancer that living with us . ( each of us live with cancer with different character and it is the reason why we read articles about cancer treatment ; about new R & D report about cancer , read message board and forum to know how other cancer patient doing , read about all the success stories of cancer survivor and also why we spend money to have 2nd ; 3rd or 4th opinion from different oncologist.)

Therefore, we must do some work to think and re-study all the informations we get and workout the plan for coming months and years..

We are not the doctor , but, always remember that we can know ourself better than any doctor, if we know how to listen to our body . Doctor will guide us and give us informations of all the available treatment options, but, to make the right decision for the right treatment, it need a very close understanding between us and the doctor. Because , doctor will not able to know exactly how we feel after the drug go in to our body and most of the time, the kind of side effect is very difficult to explain in word.

The conclusion is that we have to make a balance when we work on it and we should ask ourself positive questions when study thro' all the opinions and informations we gather , so that the negative thought have no chance to destroy our positive drive and faith for recovery .

Anyway, it is easy to say than action . But, we know that we can call for our LORD , pray and ask for wisdom , for guidance , to lead and guide us to organise and finalise a great treatment plan.



Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7 : 7 - 8 )



GOD is great and He will guide us for the Great treatment plan .



God bless to all of us and by grace we will be strengthen for great recovery.

What is cancer ?

...... Defining Cancer ......

Cancer is a term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues.
Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems.
Cancer is not just one disease but many diseases.
There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Most cancers are named for the organ or type of cell in which they start - for example, cancer that begins in the colon is called colon cancer; cancer that begins in basal cells of the skin is called basal cell carcinoma.
Cancer types can be grouped into broader categories.
The main categories of cancer include:
Carcinoma - cancer that begins in the skin or in tissues that line or cover internal organs.
Sarcoma - cancer that begins in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, or other connective or supportive tissue.
Leukemia - cancer that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of abnormal blood cells to be produced and enter the blood.
Lymphoma and myeloma - cancers that begin in the cells of the immune system.
Central nervous system cancers - cancers that begin in the tissues of the brain and spinal cord.
(For definitions of other cancer-related terms, see NCI's Dictionary of Cancer Terms.)

Origins of Cancer
All cancers begin in cells, the body's basic unit of life.
To understand cancer, it's helpful to know what happens when normal cells become cancer cells.
The body is made up of many types of cells.
These cells grow and divide in a controlled way to produce more cells as they are needed to keep the body healthy.
When cells become old or damaged, they die and are replaced with new cells.
However, sometimes this orderly process goes wrong.
The genetic material (DNA) of a cell can become damaged or changed, producing mutations that affect normal cell growth and division.
When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells form when the body does not need them.
The extra cells may form a mass of tissue called a tumor.
(Image from Understanding Cancer Series: Cancer.)
Not all tumors are cancerous; tumors can be benign or malignant.
Benign tumors aren't cancerous.
They can often be removed, and, in most cases, they do not come back.
Cells in benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body.
Malignant tumors are cancerous.
Cells in these tumors can invade nearby tissues and spread to other parts of the body.
The spread of cancer from one part of the body to another is called metastasis.
Some cancers do not form tumors.
For example, leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood.

Additional Information
Find a type of cancer:
A to Z List of Cancers
Cancers by Body Location/System

More cancer topics:
Cancer Prevention
Cancer Genetics
Cancer Causes and Risk Factors
Screening and Testing to Detect Cancer
Cancer Treatment
Coping with Cancer
Cancer Statistics
Clinical Trials
Cancer Publications
The risk of developing many types of cancer can be reduced by practicing healthy lifestyle habits, such as eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and not smoking. Also, the sooner a cancer is found and treatment begins, the better the chances are that the treatment will be successful.

Note : Information from National Cancer Institute ( U.S. National Institutes of Health )
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/what-is-cancer