Bye Bye 2012

Just want to say Bye Bye and thanks to 2012 .

Is it a great year for me ? In a way , it is Yes and No.

For my Living with Lung Cancer journey , 2012 is a tough year .

In Feb. I hv the worst chemo experience, with the extreme pain, I ended up with request to doctor to refer me to Hospis Malaysia . Thanks God, with Hospis help, manage to get pain under control and subside . Praise the Lord.

In end June, my brain MRI scan reported the small 'c' show up in my brain and say ' hello SK , I am here ' . After consulted with doctors and also reading sharing in cancer forum, decided to proceed wih WBR ( whole brain radiation ). I expected it may cause side effect, but, never expected it's tough . Feeling weak , loss appetite , loss weight , headache . I decided to delay my chemo until I feel better. It took two over months for me to feel ok ( from July to Sept ) .

In Sept., start chemo with Alimta and change the drug to Gemzar + Vinorelbine in Oct.

And today, I spend my New Year eve writting my blog in hospital , cause I have delayed my chemo from last week due to low blood count. Praise the Lord ! Everything goes well today.

With God , what I mentioned above is nothing to compare to the blessing from God and make it a great year for me.

I have learned new things in this journey.
What is Pain management.
What is WBR and how to deal with it .
How to plan ahead with precaution by having necessary equipment to avoid fall, when suddenly few weak .

I make new friends who share with me their thought and experience in living with lung cancer.

With Hospis arrangement, I meet Prince William . Thanks Hospis Malaysia .

I have regained my feel in colour pencil drawing and improve.

I managed to have a enjoyable vacation with my family to Shanghai.

Wow ! Feel Good , Feel Great , Feel so thankful .

Praying 2013 be a great year to all of us and may God blessing to touch upon us and bless us and our family with Joy , Happiness and Good Health .

God Bless !

Busy , busy , busy and feel happy and good .

Been very busy for the last two weeks, trying to get things organise before yesterday chemo .

Praise the Lord !

Most of the things settle down .

Thanks Lord bless me with wisdom and keep my body well.

Yesterday chemo treatment goes well , as usual stay a night for observation and will discharge today.

Maybe is already few cycles of chemo since Sept. this year, feel more tired , but, overall all well, as normal, pray for less side effect .

With Lord , all will be well ... Lord is Great, he is our healer .

Wow ! Christmas is near , very near . It is special for many people and it is special for me too . It is my 4 1/2 years living with lung cancer on eve of Christmas , just feel great .

Feel thankful and grateful with the healing and blessing from Lord .
Feel thankful and grateful with the love , care from my family and friends.
Feel thankful and grateful with the peace , love , mercy , grace from Lord .
Feel thankful and grateful with everything and the change of my life .
Feel thankful and grateful with my oncologist and all nurses in Pantai KL cancer centre and nurses in ward C and D in 6th floor .
Feel thankful and grateful with the love and care from Hospis Malaysia .
Feel thankful and grateful with the love and care from friends in Treatment Diaries
Feel thankful and greatful with the infor, sharing from Cancer Grace ( cancergrace.org) it help me a lot, doctors and moderators are great , they are so helpful and caring.

Life is great ! Cancer is not the end .

Believe and have Faith .

Wishing everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year .

Let's celebrate with LOVE .

God Bless !

Some of my colour pencil art

This is one of my favourite .

I named this " Wake up and LIVE the colourful LIFE " , don't give up, LIFE is colouful, in whatever situation .

This is for all the doctor , nurse , everyone in healthcare industry and in Hospis Malaysia. I appreciate their caring to us

My first colour pencil drawing

This is also one of my favourite

The firsth BIRD I draw

PEACE

My first black and white colour pencil art

One of my ball pen art , when I am taking a flight back from Vietnam

To be continue ..........

Swim out and set free from cancer

Hi All,

Have this drawing done sometime back and would like to share with you .

I named it " Swim out and set free from cancer "

Wish all cancer warrior have a good day .

Lord will lead us the way to swim out from it and set us free from cancer .

Believe and have Faith .

God Bless !

Believe and have Faith

Glad to share with you that I have my chemo treatment today and thanks God, it all well, FEEL GREAT .

It is not easy to accept when doctor inform us the news of lung cancer and especially it is stage 4 . Then, with our question of how serious is the case , doctor will answer for stage 4 , if no treatment, it's 3 to 6 months, wih treatment shud be 1 year , it is as per statistic .

Many patient can not accept the fact and worry about it .

I would like to share with you that only God know how long we will live in this world and not anyone else .

So, never give up , never let worry ; fear , our number 1 enemy to upset us, make us feel depress, and add more stress to us .

Accept the fact and pray to God for healing, blessing, guidance, wisdom .

Believe me , if we ' Believe and have Faith ' , God will guide and lead us how to live thro' this journey and to walk out from darkness to LIGHT .

Live our day with Faith , enjoy our day with God guidance , let the Grace; Mercy; Peace and Love from God touch us everyday And bring us Joy and Happiness .

4 over years of journey Living with Lung Cancer with quality of life most of the time is impossible without the healing and love from God .

During the journey, I went thro' different type of side effect of chemo drug, side effect of whole brain radiation , different kind of pain , until at a stage I told my self what life is this , but, I am thankful that God guide and bring me back and I am stronger now and I ask for forgiveness from God .

With going thro' what I have mentioned above, today I have the experience not only share with others about my journer walking wih God, but, also share my experince with other patient the side effect of treatment, of different chemo drug, of whole brain radiaion . I am also now can understand how other patient going thro' all the side effect and pain .

I am so thankful that God give me the chance to experience the different type of the side effect thro' stages and understand it well , before I can share with others.

Keep Believe and have Faith , we will make it .

Cancer is not the end .

Believe and have Faith .

God bless .

Ready for tomorrow Chemo

It is chemo again . Yes ! I am ready for it .

Chemo suppose to be last Wednesday and I decided to delay it for a week with two reason . Blood test on last week Monday show that my hemoglobin is only 8.8 and RBC 2.7 , it is too low to have chemo, then, beside of blood count, I feel good and start to have appetite to eat . Instead of blood transfusion of injection of booster , doctor discuss with me and I will eat as much nutrition food for a week and to have blood test today and to decide .

Praise the Lord ! Thks for Lord's blessing , all the prayer and food , today blood test show that my hemoglobin 10.1 and rbc 3.36. Feel great that I do not need to do blood transfusion of booster injection .

Pray that Lord will bless wisdom to doctor and nurse tomorrow to carry out the chemo procedure smoothly.

Believe and have Faith .

God bless .

Feel better .

Overall feel better and manage to finished some outstanding issues today .

Tomorrow morning will proceed for blood test, chemo appointment on Wednesday 14th .

I am praying for a good blood report where Hemoglobin , RBC , WBC all back to normal level , and a good decrease of CEA reading.

Missed driving , as it is about a month now, I am not driving .

Meantime, breathing is not getting better for upto today, for a short walk distance, it is fine for me, but, walking on slope or shopping, it is a no no for me at this moment, so, I arrange to buy a wheel chair to keep in the car, so that, if I follow my family to shopping, it'll help .

Believe and have FAITH .

God Bless .

All good with minimum problem.

The side effect for until now is bearable.
Today I did not take Ultracet ( painkiller ) , so far, can bear with the stomach pain. Not sure can do away with it .
Anyway, will take small portion each meal.

Side effect of bone and body ache should strike me by today or latest tomorrow, as per last week experience. Anyway, I am ready for it .

Pray everything goes well and minimum side effect .

May Lord bless all of us have a joyful day .

God bless !

Glad to have smooth chemo today

Feel great , chemo procedure goes well with Lord's blessing.

The only issue I facing today is stomach pain because of gas/ wind.

Just like yesterday, have to take one tablet of Untracet (pain killer) to get it settle down. It happen immediately after breakfast. Thanks God , it can settle down .

Pray that it will be healed fast, if not may have to follow doctor suggestion for gastroscopy to find out whether it is due to ulcer. Hopefully, I do not need to go thro' the procedure.

As usual , staying a night in hospital for tomorrow discharge, praying for good sleep and sweet dream.

Anyway, will have two weeks rest from chemo, wish all well and have time to rebuild my body and immune system.

As per today blood test report, hemoglobin reading drop to 9.5, wish it will rebuid in next two weeks back to normal level.

Glad with the CEA tumor marker reading, as it drop back to 3300 level from the last report 3800 level after the first chemo with Alimta ( before first chemo it read as 3600 level ) Hope that it is the sign of this two drugs is working.

Okay ! Time to rest , good nite.

God Bless.

Happy Sunday to everyone .

So fast , it's Sunday, two more days have to proceed for another chemo treatment .

So far, I am okay with the side effect , except that my stomach always full of gas/wind. Still try to figure out whether is chemo effect.

For contipation, I manage to deal with it with medicine from doctor and so far works well, and I stop the medicine yesterday night ,to see whether is it the drug give us stomach problem, but, looks like not, as stomach pain still continue, anyway, it's bearable, just that it disturb my food intake. Will monitor for another day, if nothing to do with the drug, will continue it tomorrow.

Thanks Lord's blessing for minimum side effect and pray that my stomach problem will be heal before Tuesday , chemo day .

Please find here infor for the chemo drug that I am taking for this treatment :-

Note : information from American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/guidetocancerdrugs/index

1)

Gemcitabine
(jem-site-uh-bean)

Trade/other name(s): Gemzar

Why would this drug be used?
Gemcitabine is used to treat pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and lung cancer, and may be used for other cancers as well.

How does this drug work?

Gemcitabine is a member of a general group of chemotherapy drugs known as anti-metabolites. It prevents cells from making DNA and RNA, which stops cell growth and causes the cells to die.

Before taking this medicine

Tell your doctor…

If you are allergic to anything, including medicines, dyes, additives, or foods.
If you have any medical conditions such as kidney disease, liver disease (including hepatitis), heart disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, gout, or infections. These conditions may require that your medicine dose, regimen, or timing be changed.
If you are pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or if there is any chance of pregnancy. This drug may cause birth defects if either the male or female is taking it at the time of conception or during pregnancy. Check with your doctor about what kinds of birth control can be used with this medicine.
If you are breast-feeding. It is not known whether this drug passes into breast milk. If it does, it could harm the baby.
If you think you might want to have children in the future. Some drugs can cause sterility. Talk with your doctor about the possible risk with this drug and the options that may preserve your ability to have children.
About any other prescription or over-the-counter medicines you are taking, including vitamins and herbs. In fact, keeping a written list of each of these medicines (including the doses of each and when you take them) with you in case of emergency may help prevent complications if you get sick.
Interactions with other drugs

Any drugs or supplements that interfere with blood clotting can raise the risk of bleeding during treatment with gemcitabine. These include:

vitamin E
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn), and many others
warfarin (Coumadin)
ticlopidine (Ticlid)
clopidogrel (Plavix)
Note that many cold, flu, fever, and headache remedies contain aspirin or ibuprofen. Ask your pharmacist if you aren't sure what's in the medicines you take.

Check with your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist about other medicines, vitamins, herbs, and supplements, and whether alcohol can cause problems with this medicine.

Interactions with foods

No serious interactions with food are known at this time. Check with your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist about whether foods may be a problem.

Tell all the doctors, dentists, nurses, and pharmacists you visit that you are taking this drug.

How is this drug taken or given?

Gemcitabine is given as an injection in a vein over a period of 30 minutes. Pancreatic cancer patients are given gemcitabine once a week for up to 7 weeks to start, then a week without treatment. After that, the dose is once a week for 3 weeks followed by a week off. When given for breast or ovarian cancer, it's usually once a week for 2 weeks, then 1 week off. For lung cancer or other cancer patients, it usually is given weekly for 3 weeks with 1 week off. The dose depends on your size, your blood counts, how well you did on the last cycle of treatment, and the cancer being treated.

Precautions
Your doctor will likely test your blood throughout your treatment, looking for possible effects of the drug on blood counts (described below) or on your liver or kidneys. Based on the test results, you may be given medicines to help treat any effects. Your doctor may also need to reduce or delay your next dose of this drug, or even stop it altogether. Be sure to keep all your appointments for lab tests and doctor visits.

This drug can lower your white blood cell count, especially in the weeks after the drug is given. This can increase your chance of getting an infection. Be sure to let your doctor or nurse know right away if you have any signs of infection, such as fever (100.5° or higher), chills, pain when passing urine, a new cough, or bringing up sputum.

This drug may lower your platelet count in the weeks after it is given, which can increase your risk of bleeding. Speak with your doctor before taking any drugs or supplements that might affect your body's ability to stop bleeding, such as aspirin or aspirin-containing medicines, warfarin (Coumadin), or vitamin E. Tell your doctor right away if you have unusual bruising, or bleeding such as nosebleeds, bleeding gums when you brush your teeth, or black, tarry stools.

This drug may lower your red blood cell count. If this occurs, it is usually a few weeks after starting treatment. A low red blood cell count (known as anemia) can cause shortness of breath, or make you to feel weak or tired all the time. Your doctor may give you medicines to help prevent or treat this condition, or you may need to get blood transfusions.

Do not get any immunizations (vaccines), either during or after treatment with this drug, without your doctor's OK. Gemcitabine may affect your immune system. This could make vaccinations ineffective, or could even lead to serious infections if you get a live virus vaccine during or soon after treatment. Try to avoid contact with people who have recently received a live virus vaccine, such as the oral polio vaccine or smallpox vaccine. Check with your doctor about this.

Avoid pregnancy during and for at least a few months after treatment, since exposure to this drug may harm the fetus. Talk with your doctor about this.

Possible side effects

You will probably not have most of the following side effects, but if you have any talk to your doctor or nurse. They can help you understand the side effects and cope with them.

Common

low white blood cell count with increased risk of infection*
low platelet count with increased risk of bleeding*
low red blood cell count (anemia) with symptoms like tiredness, weakness, or shortness of breath*
nausea
vomiting
loss of appetite
tiredness (fatigue)*
fever
swelling of the arms and legs or other parts of the body
abnormal blood tests which suggest that the drug is affecting the liver or kidneys (Your doctor will discuss the importance of this finding, if any.)
Less common

diarrhea
sores in mouth or on lips
flu-like symptoms (headache, muscle aches, fever)
trouble breathing or shortness of breath
skin rash
infection*
swelling of hands, ankles, or face
hair loss or thinning, which may include face and body hair
itching
Rare

sleepiness or drowsiness (sedation)
numbness or tingling
bleeding*
allergic reaction
death due to kidney failure, liver failure, lung damage, infection, or other causes
*See "Precautions" section for more detailed information.

There are some other side effects not listed above that can also occur in some patients. Tell your doctor or nurse if you develop these or any other problems.

FDA approval
Yes – first approved in 1996.

Disclaimer: This information does not cover all possible uses, actions, precautions, side effects, or interactions. It is not intended as medical advice, and should not be relied upon as a substitute for talking with your doctor, who is familiar with your medical needs.


Last Medical Review: 02/01/2010

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
2)
Vinorelbine
(vin-o- rel-been)

Trade/other name(s): Navelbine, vinorelbine tartrate

Why would this drug be used?
This drug is used to treat non-small cell lung cancer. Your doctor may also use it to treat other types of cancer, such as breast cancer.

How does this drug work?

Vinorelbine is a type of chemotherapy drug known as a vinca alkaloid. It is thought to work by interfering with the cancer cells when they are dividing into 2 cells. This eventually leads to cell death. Because cancer cells divide more rapidly than normal cells, they are more likely than normal cells to be affected by this drug.

Before taking this medicine

Tell your doctor…

If you are allergic to any medicines, dyes, additives, or foods.
If you have any type of liver disease (including hepatitis). This drug is cleared from the body mainly by the liver. Reduced liver function might result in more drug than expected staying in the body, which could lead to worse side effects. Your doctor may need to adjust your dose.
If you have any other medical conditions such as kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes, gout, high blood pressure, or infections. These conditions may require that your medicine dose, regimen, or timing be changed.
If you have ever had numbness or tingling, or weakness of the hands or feet. This drug can cause this problem or make it worse, and your doctor will want to watch you closely.
If you are pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or if there is any chance of pregnancy. This drug may cause problems with the fetus if it is taken at the time of conception or during pregnancy. Men and women who are taking this drug should use some kind of birth control during treatment. It is important to check with your doctor about what kinds of birth control can be used with this medicine. In pregnant women, treatment with this drug should be used only if the potential benefit to the mother outweighs the risk to the fetus.
If you are breast-feeding. While no studies have been done, this drug may pass into breast milk and affect the baby. Breast-feeding is not recommended during treatment with this drug.
If you think you might want to have children in the future. This drug can affect fertility. Talk with your doctor about the possible risk with this drug and the options that may preserve your ability to have children.
About any other prescription or over-the-counter medicines you are taking, including vitamins and herbs. In fact, keeping a written list of each of these medicines (including the doses of each and when you take them) with you in case of emergency may help prevent complications if you get sick.
Interactions with other drugs

Some other chemotherapy drugs, including mitomycin and paclitaxel, may raise the risk of certain side effects from this drug if used at the same time.

These drugs may cause earlier or more severe side effects if taken while being treated with vinorelbine:

the anti-depressant drug nefazodone (Serzone)
antibiotics erythromycin, clarithromycin
anti-fungal antibiotics such as ketoconazole and itraconazole
certain blood pressure medicines such as diltiazem and verapamil
HIV drugs such as indinavir, ritonavir, nelfinavir, amprenavir, and others
There may be more drugs that interact with vinorelbine. Check with your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist about your other medicines, herbs, and supplements, and whether alcohol can cause problems with this medicine.

Interactions with foods

No serious interactions with food are known at this time. Check with your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist about whether some foods may be a problem.

Tell all the doctors, dentists, nurses, and pharmacists you visit that you are taking this drug.

How is this drug taken or given?

Vinorelbine is given as an injection in a vein, usually over 6 to 10 minutes. Tell the nurse if you feel pain, burning, or discomfort in the vein when the injection is given. The dose and how often you get the medicine depend on your weight, your blood counts, how well your liver is working, and the type of cancer being treated. This medicine may be given along with other chemotherapy drugs.

Precautions
In some cases during an intravenous (IV) infusion, the drug may leak out of the vein and under the skin, where it may damage the tissue. This may cause pain, blisters, or even open sores or scarring. Tell the nurse right away if you notice redness, pain, or swelling at or near the IV site.

You may have nausea and vomiting on the day you receive this drug or in the first few days afterward. Your doctor may give you medicine before your treatment to help prevent nausea and vomiting. You will likely also get a prescription for an anti-nausea medicine that you can take at home. It is important to have these medicines on hand and to take them as prescribed by your doctor.

This drug may increase your risk of constipation, which in some cases can be severe. Your doctor will likely prescribe a laxative or similar medicine to help prevent this from happening. Let your doctor know if constipation starts, especially if you have pain.

This drug may cause damage to certain nerves in the body, which can lead to a condition called peripheral neuropathy. This can cause numbness, weakness, pain, or feelings of tingling or burning, usually in the hands or feet. These are sometimes related to being exposed to hot or cold temperatures. These symptoms can sometimes progress to include trouble walking or holding things in your hands. Let your doctor know right away if you notice any of these symptoms. If they are severe enough, this drug may need to be stopped or the dose reduced until they get better.

In rare cases, patients have developed severe lung disease during treatment, usually about a week after this drug. Call your doctor right away if you notice any possible symptoms of lung problems, such as shortness of breath or a new cough.

This drug may increase liver enzyme levels in your blood. Your doctor will likely check your liver function with blood tests on a regular basis. The drug may need to be stopped if the changes are severe. If you have liver metastasis or other liver problems before starting treatment, the doctor may need to monitor you more closely.

Your doctor will likely test your blood before and during your treatment, to check for the effects of the drug on blood counts or on blood chemistry levels. Based on the test results, you may be given medicines to help treat any effects. Your doctor may also need to reduce or delay your next dose of this drug, or even stop it altogether. Keep all your appointments for doctor visits and lab tests.

This drug can lower your white blood cell count, especially in the weeks after the drug is given. This can increase your chance of getting an infection. Be sure to let your doctor or nurse know right away if you have any signs of infection, such as fever (100.5° or higher), chills, pain when passing urine, a new cough, or bringing up sputum.

This drug may lower your red blood cell count. If this occurs, it is usually a few months after starting treatment. A low red blood cell count (known as anemia) can cause shortness of breath, or make you to feel weak or tired all the time. Your doctor may give you medicines to help prevent or treat this condition, or you may need to get blood transfusions.

In rare cases, this drug may lower your platelet count in the weeks after it is given, which can increase your risk of bleeding. Speak with your doctor before taking any drugs or supplements that might affect your body’s ability to stop bleeding, such as aspirin or aspirin-containing medicines, warfarin (Coumadin), or vitamin E. Tell your doctor right away if you have unusual bruising, or bleeding such as nosebleeds, bleeding gums when you brush your teeth, or black, tarry stools.

Do not get any immunizations (vaccines), either during or after treatment with this drug, without your doctor’s OK. This drug may affect your immune system, which could make vaccinations ineffective, or could even lead to serious infections. Try to avoid contact with people who have recently received a live virus vaccine, such as the oral polio vaccine or smallpox vaccine. Check with your doctor about this.

Possible side effects

You will probably not have most of the following side effects, but if you have any talk to your doctor or nurse. They can help you understand the side effects and cope with them.

Common

constipation*
nausea and/or vomiting*
feeling tired
feeling weak
low white blood cell count with increased risk of infection*
low red blood cell count (anemia)*
abnormal blood tests which suggest that the drug is affecting the liver or kidneys (Your doctor will discuss the importance of this finding, if any.)*
Less common

pain or redness at the infusion site*
numbness, tingling, or pain in the hands, feet, or elsewhere*
loss of appetite
diarrhea
hair loss or thinning, including face and body hair
Rare

low blood platelet count with increased risk of bleeding*
shortness of breath
allergic reaction (may include rash, fever, rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, throat swelling, dizziness)
pain or trouble urinating
jaw pain
muscle or joint pain
skin rash
severe lung disease with shortness of breath and cough*
death due to infection, lung disease, damage to intestines, or other problems
*See "Precautions" section for more detailed information.

There are other side effects not listed above that can also occur in some patients. Tell your doctor or nurse if you develop these or any other problems.

FDA approval
Yes – first approved in 1994.

Disclaimer: This information does not cover all possible uses, actions, precautions, side effects, or interactions. It is not intended as medical advice, and should not be relied upon as a substitute for talking with your doctor, who is familiar with your medical needs.


Last Medical Review: 12/18/2009
Last Revised: 12/18/2009

So far doing good .

Praise the Lord !

Glad to inform that so far doing good, side effect like tired , constipation are something can not avoid, I can cope with it. Appetite is good, but, because of constipation , I have to control my diet.
Overall doing well since Tuesday until now . Yesterday 9 pm suddenly feel very very sleepy and glad that manage to sleep, wake up two times, but, manage to get back to sleep .
Now start feel tired again, time for me to take a nap ... :)

Pray for Lord blessing for side effect to goes off fast, so that I will be ready for next Tuesday chemo .

Cheers !

Praise the Lord , I am back .

It's 20 days no posting from me , since last chemo.

On 4th Oct '12 , just two days after chemo, right upper back pain strike me and I suffer one of the worst back pain ever have during my journey with lung cancer .

It is hard and because of the pain, I have to take painkiller , Ultracet every 6 hours to get pain subside and slowly increase it to 7 hours and more hours in between. Then, I try to be smart after couple of days and try to do away Ultracet and I feel the withdraw sympton make me very very tired and weak. Finally after two days I surrender and be good boy to make sure take it every 6 hours with one panadol . About a week later, I start again to take it every 7 or 9 hours and meantime take away panadol, well, thks God, it works and slowly adjust the time , then, finally I manage to stop Ultracet last Thusday and I start to feel better, regain some strength , when I am on Ultracet, it really make me feel weak the whole day.

Thanks for Lord blessing and healing , and his guidance for me to learn how to be patient and get thing done step by step , no rushing . Well, it is a process for me to learn how others patient feel , when they have pain during or after treatment. Think about it, the pain is bad, but, I learn and know that it is time to learn more about pain management and this will not only help me and I will be able to share with other patient . Praise the Lord ! And I pray that Lord will continue to guide me and bless me with wisdom, heal me, so that I can recover from cancer and share , support other cancer patient .

Today, my chemo day again and I use a different drug this time . Gemzar + Venorelbine ,
I will post the infor for the two drugs for reference, maybe tomorrow .
Both the drug have to take on 1st day and 8th day , then, rest 2 weeks . Means today I am chemo, then, next Tuesday I have to come back for chemo and rest two weeks. Or it means two times in 3 weeks ( or a cycle ) . Very troublesome, but, since I do not have many more choice , unless go for drugs under trial, so, lets give it a try and I pray that Lord will guide the drug to figth and destroy the cancer cell and tumor, and set me free from cancer and let me be well.

Great to share with you that the chemo treatment procedure today is good and smooth, feel great.

Already check in my hotel room ( hahaha, hospital room ) for a night and will discharge tomorrow . Then, back here next week .

Will update again and really hope that it will not for me to take 20 days for one update .

May Lord bless us to have a Joyful week .

God bless !

Home sweet home

Great !

All well and discharge this afternoon .

Good shower at home and rest , but, can not sleep , chemo side effect ... :)

Pray that tonight can have good sleep .

Feel dehydrated and do my bestto drink lot of water , not so tired yet ( Maybe today still taking steroid ), appetite not bad ( hungry very fast, what I do is small meal and eat more, whole meal bread and prosure milk accompany me ) .

Okay ! Let see how's reaction tonight and tomorrow and looking for NO SIDE EFFECT with Lord blessimg.

And thanks for all your prayer .

Thank you .

May lord bless everyone with JOY ... Cheers !

Chemo day again , ALIMTA.

Finally , I am finally back on chemo, after so much of delay of the treatment date since last chemo in March ' 12 .
Be frank, I feel kind of uneasy yesterday, maybe I think too much of the side effect or body reaction during treatment, or, maybe because I stop taking painkiller since 3 am Monday to see whether my body can do away with the drug and stay well.
Yesterday night, I have some problem to sleep, pain start, but, not a major one, but, affected my sleep . Finally, decided to take pain killer and God Bless , it works, I manage to sleep, but, wake up every 2 to 3 hours, it is ok , as the 2 to 3 hours is a good sleep . Sweat a lot and it is one reason I have to wake up . Everytime, wake up, I feel great, because of sweat .
Chemo for today went well, very well, smooth procedure . Today using single drug , ALIMTA , 800mg.
Thank You Lord !
Now I am in hospital room , will stay for a night and discharge tomorrow morning .
Pray for good rest, no side effect, feel good & comfortable, eat well and HEAL ... :)

BELIEVE , it will happen . Lord is great, he is our healer .

God Bless !

Whatever happen, Lord will guide us , BELIEVE !

After back home with all the scan report and decision to start chemo on next week Tuesday, I am very happy , because I have make the decision of what to do , because my pain was so well control and manage to have scan procedure carry out smoothly.

Well ! It may surprise you, if I told you that I am not sleeping on Tuesday night after scan , because of back pain again ... :) . But, it's true that pain strike again and I not manage to sleep at all .

Anyway, Wednesday night, manage to rest , but, not a full rest . Even the painkiller, Ultraset, not helping me .

On Thursday morning, call up Hospice Malaysia and after discussion with Hospice nurse, I proceed with previous arrangement, 1 tablet of Ultraset + 1 tablet of Panadol every six hours once . Well ! It works , pain slowly under control, but, 6 hours once make me too tired and decided to change it to 8 hours, and finally, change it to 7 hours once , as of now, it is the best arrangement.

How I feel now ? One word ... WEAK .

Anyway, what is important now is to get pain subside or to minimum , once under control, can start to work on rebuild body energy . Hopefully , all well control before Chemo on Tuesday .

What make me so confidence ? The answer is LORD .

Whatever happen, Lord will guide us .

BELIEVE !

Scan procedure goes well .

Feel great ! Scan procedure goes well, excep for MRI scan, as it took overall about one hour and can not move , then, my back getting cold, so, slight pain cause me very uncomfortable, but, manage to overcome it and have a proper complete scan.
Follow by CT scan, well, it is perfect and all well .

Waiting for about 3 hours for report and then, another hour for doctor for discussion .

As per my feel, right lung condition will not be good and will have to proceed for chemo .

For Brain mri, it is quite a surprise for me that there is some stable under control and some show minor progression. Anyway, looks like no big deal for time being as per discussion with doctor and will have to closely monitor it .

For neck spine mri, good thing is nothing show pressing in spine, more on the pain due to some pressing by muscle to nerve . But, spine condition is not really on good condition too. So, must monitor it very very closely.

Some new things , abt 5 , show up in liver, but, looks like will not give problem for time being and other parts not really have big difference comparing to previous sca, except for Right Lung , condition is very bad and therefore immediate action to proceed Chemo hv to go ahead .

Lengthy discussion with doctor, will proceed chemo with single agent, Alimta for 2 to 3 cycles and have scan or tumor marker to decide .
Took my B12 injection and will start to take folic acid daily, schedule for chemo by Tuesday.

Sometime I feel that it is a relieve after make the decision for what to do, instead of hanging there and not to make up my mind.

Thanks so much for Lord blessing and leading.

Look forward for chemo next week .

God Bless !

Life goes on and scan arrange for tomorrow

Finally I decided to visit oncologist today afternoon and after short discussion, we agreed to proceed for MRI brain and neck ( basically already 2 months for whole brain radiotheraphy , time to scan and see the result, as for neck, as I have shoulder pain , back pain and right arm pain, onco suggest to take mri for neck too. )
Meantime, will also take CT scan for chest , pelvis , abdomen as follow up.

Good thing is that the checking on breathing is about the same as previous check up and my breathing level still show 98 %.

Yesterday I went to see Chinese doctor for treatment and to take medicine, and told him about what I went thro' for last couple of days. First time, he told me that he will add in some anti pain to the medicine and see whether it help. But, he did told me, basically his previous medicine do not have anti pain substance and it is for body recovery only, if the medicine for this time can not settle my pain, he suggest me to visit western doctor immediate, as chinese medicine take longer time.

Anyway, looks like his medicine work, as I start to feel better with my pain and really hope that tomorrow is a good NO PAIN day.

It's great blessing that I doing better today when waiting for onco , and pray that Lord will bless me to be pain free and I can sleep on scan machine without problem tomorrow.

With Lord blessing , I can make it .

Pain , Pain go away and never come .

God Bless !

Pain, it strike again .

It coming back and give me great disturbance for atleast 2 nights until now.

Keep finding ways to get it away , but until now, have not get the right way. With panadol , not success this time and yesterday I change it to Ultracet , one tablet, first time, it help for 2 to 3 hours and did help me to have a good sleep for 3 hours . Second time , when I took it by 5 am this morning, it loss the magic and funny thing is that I only feel tired after 3 hours ... :).

Manage to catch short sleep and just have my breakfast.

May Lord guide me and bless me with wisdom , how to overcome this round of pain attack .

Anyway, painkiller make me really tired, to regain energy, must get it off my daily life soonest possible.

Join me to sing the song ... ' Pain, pain , go away ... ' and pray to Lord , pain will go away and no more coming back .

God bless !

Tell cancer , we are not worry .

I believe no one like cancer .

Or maybe ... Drug company involve in cancer drug, like it.

Or maybe ... Doctor involve in treating cancer, like it.

Or maybe ... People involve in marketing of cancer related product, like it.

Just joking , be it drug company , doctor or those involve in marketing cancer related product , no one will like cancer .

Cancer cause worry, cause stress, cause financial problem, cause ...

In short, cancer bring us nothing good.

But, we should not let cancer crash our life, we should learn how to deal with it .

Cancer do not mean it is end of the world, with all the new tech and new drugs, many patient prove to live beyond the statistic , and therefore, we should not let statistic make us worry and give up life.

So, what should we do when doctor confirm we are cancer patient ?

My sharing as follows :-

1) Accept that we have cancer and not to blame or keep asking , " WHY ME " . It will not change the fact, it only make us feel upset and depress , then, follow by fear and worry .
Start to do reseach and study for kind of cancer and staging we have , treatment options , get 2nd or 3rd opnion before start treatment .

2) Accept that have or do not have cancer, we will leave this world one day. So, death will not be a subject for us to worry. Anyway, easy to talk than to act, but, once we accepted it, slowly we will fully accept it. Anyway, God will decide, not us.

3) Start to do reseach and study for the side effect of kind of treatment that we are going to do and also what is the side effect and how long will the side effect last. Learn as much as possible kind of treatment and kind of drugs and it side effect. We should take note that different type of cancer, use different type of chemo drug.

4) Time to change to healthy life style , sleep early, exercise, gradual change of diet. Drastic change may not suit everyone, and it may not help. So, the right way to do is gradual change .

5) Start treatment to ensure condition under control .

6) Learn to listen to our body during chemo treatment and discuss it with doctor, as tolerate level for each patient to chemo drug is different.

7) Accept the meet up with other patient who is willing to share their experience, but, do not mean that we have to fully follow to their advise, as each of us react differenty to treatment.

For me, this is the basic things we should do to keep us have a direction to deal with it and we learn along the way of treatment for how to counter each side effect and also pain management .

Meantime, Lord is always with us and he will guide us, lead us to walk out from darkness to light, he will also bless us with wisdom and knowledge when he walk with us for living with cancer journey.

I pray to Lord for his mercy, grace, peace and love to always touch upon us and keep us well .

Thanks Lord .

God Bless.

Malaysia day 16th Sept.

Good afternoon ! It's Malaysia Day, it's Sunday, glad that it is not a hot day . Just finished my brisk walking and some light exercise .

Make some mistake two days and two night going thro' back pain again, anyway, manage to deal with it and hope that pain will go away today and I can sleep as normal again, if not panadol will have to accompany me .

Overall I am doing good, except my breathless seems getting bad when I walk, I means walk a little fast or talk while walking . Really need to find a way to improve condition, if not, my plan for next month travelling have to cancel .

Body still weak. Sit on chair, sleep on bed, walk within house, driving not a problem, as it's not much of movement, but, once walk outside, sometime will forget that I have to walk slow, breathless will start, and have to slow down or stop for a while .

Anyway, condition is much better than last couple of week , Thanks God .

Today I read an article about Lung Canver in The Star paper , Fit4life . Name of the article ' A target to aim for ... Exploring the paradigm shift in treatment of lung cancer '


http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2012/9/16/health/12029493&sec=health

The article give some good infor about lung cancer , targeted drug or chemo for early or advance staging , also what to expect . If you are interested, may log in and read it.

Lastly, would like to share with you, I am glad to be invited to join the Royal Visit by Prince William and Kate on Thursday 13/9/12 to Hospis Malaysia. Have a short chat with Prince William during his visit .

Feel great ! Thanks Hospis Malaysia invited me and thanks Lord for His plan for me .

Looking forward to have pain free day in coming weeks and pray to Lord to bless me regain more strength and no more breathless when I walk or run .

May Lord bless all of us to have a joyful Sunday and Malaysia day .

God bless.

It's Wednesday again

Wau ! So fast, one week gone .

I have good day for last week, with some pain on some of the day , but, I can managae it .

Praise the Lord ! Thanks for guiding me how to deal with the pain and manage it well.

Body system is getting better now and looking forward to have a good recovery from coming days .

My target is to start travel again by next month .

Working hard on it .

Better control
==============

Thanks God !
I have better control of pain today with panadol ( one tablet everytime) before pain start and so far it works well. This morning I took one and just take another one .
But, I feel very tired today, is it because of the panadol ? Not so sure , normally one tablet can not make me so tired .
Anyway, no pain is definitely better than pain ... :)
Try very best to rest and reserve my energy as much as possible today .
Let see what happen tomorrow and hopelly have an answer .

How nice to be healthy
======================

How nice to be a healthy person .
When you are healthy
- you feel great
- you can walk in the rain as when you like
- you can run ,jog , walk fast as you like
- you can eat things you like without think so much, as you can detoxic it the next day
And you can ...
Just so many things a healthy person can do .

So, when we are healthy, appreciate it , and if we are not so healthy now, time to do something to revamp our body health.

To be a patient , there is just too much of retriction and too much things to think before we act.

Not all cancer patient feel it, but, one day, when body system getting weaken, we just have to accept it , accept the fact that we are not the same person before we diagnose with cancer .

We can be strong, but, we must learn how to plan ahead and strategise it, so that we can avoid all the surprise , all the worry , fear and panic .

I pray to Lord to continue to lead and guide us how to plan ahead and to have faith for his healing .

God bless !

Pain

Pain is the most difficult things a patient have to go thro, especially when it is the first time patient going thro' the pain with surprise and do not know why it happen .

Most of the time, pain can subside with pain killer, but, we know that pain killer solve our pain problem, and may cause other side effect .

For cancer patient, the additional problem to deal with pain is that we do not know what is the main cause. Is it from the cancer , is it from the side effect of drug , is it ...

There's many possibility and each pain killer suite to some patient and not all .

For the last few days, pain suddenly attack me on neck area and it caught me in surprise, as the pain normally attack me on right side , but, this time it's on left side. Try to put ointment and rub it, it's normally what I did for right side of my neck, but, this time not work and give me more pain . Luckly that wisdom from Lord guide me to take two tables of panadol , and pain under control .

Funny things happen yesterday . Pain on neck under control with panadol, but, I have a sudden pain on my left chest after my shower after brisk walking . It is a great surprise to me, as the chest pain should happen on my right, not left. Just can not imagine how pain is it and breathing was affected. No chooice, took immediate two panadol and pain slowly subside in 30 minutes. Reason ... Be frank , I do not know .
Lord is great, he again guide me how to deal with it . I feel good in the evening, took one panadol for my neck about 9 pm to let it relax. Unexpected that pain on left chest attack me again about 11 pm and lucky that with one more panadol it help to get it subside in 30 minutes .

Seriously, until now I am not so sure about the reason. I meet Chinese doctor today and he told me it is due to my heart too weak , so , he add something to medicine today to strengthen my heart. Hahahaha, once he add something to strengthen my heart, it cause pain to my right lower ribs , like before . Now I am thinking, whether to try the medicine again for tomorrow ... :)

Today afternoon , doctor from Hospis Malaysia visited me and I discuss on this subject wih her . After discussion and body checking, I was told the pain may cause by cancer , the answer is 'may' . Be frank I fully agreed with doctor that even my oncologist may not be able to give me a proper answer.

Anyway, let's see what will happen in next two days , hopefully, all pain will go away and I am back .

I took two panadol just now and the pain on my lower right rib is much better now.

' PAIN , PAIN , go away ... ' , I will sing this song for all cancer patient who are in pain .

Brother / Sister , don't worry , Lord will take pain away from us , Lord will continue to heal us , and we will be okay , we will be fine .

God bless !

Speak for the cancer patient

Dealing with cancer never easy .

It is a matter of fact that the journey with cancer is never easy at all, as patient have to deal with so many types of situation and to make decision .

If patient suppose to under chemo / surgery or radiatheraphy, patient have to decide whether to proceed base on he or her body condition and kind of side effect of the treatment . Meantime, financially, are they ready for it with insurance or cash. If patient is rich and ready for it, it is a blessing, or patient equip with health insurance which have a good or full cover for the treatment, they are fortunate. Some chemo treatment cost patient ten thousand of Ringgit Malaysia a month or more, it is depends on kind of chemo drug to use .

If patient decided to go for natural theraphy, patient have to weight what is the effect and also financial involvement of the natural theraphy. Put it this way, not all natural theraphy is easy or FREE/ CHEAP. Patient have to understand what need to be done everyday and whether patient have time or strenght to deal with the theraphy everyday. Meantime, most natural theraphy is not free, and it is quite expensive for patient to pay for the organic vegetable , organic fruits , blender/juice machine , supplement and so on. Some of it may cost the patient at least a thousand Ringgit Malaysia every month, and some therephy cause more.

Then, most patient will be advised by family member or relative or friends to take supplement during their treatment to strengthen their body system, so that, they can recover fast for the next treatment, this especially happen to the Chemo treatment, as the treatment will kill not only the cancer cell ,but, other good cell too.

Overall , cancer journey need money . As I say, for patient who have insurance or fund, it's not so stress, but , for majority of the patient in Malaysia, it is never easy.

During the treatment, be it in hospital or natural theraphy, patient have to go thro' all type of uncertainty and surprise, as doctor will never able to tell patient all possible side effect or reaction during treatment. since each patient may react differently to the treatment. So, for patient or their caretaker, who spend time to understand all types of possible side effect and listen to body reaction , they will have less worry/fear/panic , if not, they may always worry and go thro' all types side effect .

I am 4 over years living with lung cancer stage 4 and regret to say that until today, I am not sure what will happen tomorrow ? Tomorrow will be great day ? Tomorrow will be bad day ? Be frank, I am not sure , as there is so many things in cancer treatment I have not go thro' yet. Example to share, I have whole brain radiation last month and I have read lots of forum sharing , articles and so on to get myself and my family to prepare for the worst to happen after radiotheraphy. Lord is great, I have minimum side effect during the treatment, but, I am tired after the treatment , someday feel good and someday feel bad . I do not know the reason, whether it is because of the treatment or it is because of my body system or it is because of the cancer . I am not sure and it is not easy to find out . Anyway, what I can do is find a way to deal with it and pray to Lord and hope that the pain or side effect or weak will go away soonest possible. On Tuesday, I feel good, yesterday I feel very weak and today looks like I feel better than yesterday . I have delay my chemo for almost a month now, should I go ahead with it or take times to get my body system repaid first ? Well, I do not think any of you can answer me, as it is depends what I want , QUALITY OF LIFE or Longer Life ?

I am not sure what is in the plan for our Government to cancer patient ? Hopefully 2013 budget can see some light on this issue .

To most of the NGO , hospital and charity home, I would like to say that you have did a very good job for Breast Cancer, be it awareness , care or donation.

But, how about other type of cancer, I believe you can help to bring up more awareness for Malaysian to other type of cancer , you can help to bring in more donation to patient with other type of cancer In Malaysia, they too need help , they too need more awareness, they too need more counselling / forum to understand type of cancer and prepare for it.

I seriously hope and happy that if anyone reading this posting can help to bring it up to authority in Government , NGO / Charity home.

I pray for Lord's healing and blessing will continue to touch on all cancer patients and heal them from cancer, from all side effect of cancer treatment, bless them and their family with Joy , Happiness and Good Health.

Amen.

God bless !

Headache

Last few days headache is my biggest problem, manage to control it with two tablets of panadol .

But, this morning is bad and really have no chooice and to take panadol, then jump on bed to get a good rest to get headache subside, lucky that it did subside , but not fully go away. Anyway, I still manage to brisk walk for 30 minutes after it subside and also to take my chinese medicine by 11 am.

Can't figure out what cause the headache, maybe it's side effect of whole brain radiotherapy, whatever is it, just pray that Lord will take it away and I can back to normal again.

Looks like I have better appetite at home now and hopefully it will continue .

May Lord bless us to have Joy and Good health. For those who's tavelling during this long holiday in Malaysia, I pray to Lord blessing for them to have a safe journey .

God bless .

It happen and we should accept it.

Last month I lost a friend of stage 4 lung cancer and this month I lost another one , and just receive a msg that another cancer warrior may leave soon and all depends on his fight and condition.

Lord will receive two of them home and glad that they are no more suffering with the small 'c' anymore , and may Lord bless their family and lead them to walk their life that Lord want us to live.

This is life . It did make us feel upset when receive the news, but, we should not let the feeling with us for too long.

Pray to Lord to bring us back and lead us to share our life with others who's there waiting for us .

I have decided to go back to Chinese doctor medication and the theraphy, it is not the natural theraphy not good, but, it's not easy to follow and it make me feel very tired . So, I decided that I should stop it and get back to my normal arrangement .

I am not sure whether what I decide is right or wrong , but, I believe that with Lord , everything is possible .

But, there is some good infor I learn from the natural theraphy , I will continue with it .

Whatever is it, what I need is to continue my life wih quality and relax as when as I can , therefore, any theraphy that going to give me too much restriction in daily life and going to make me too tired to follow, I should think about it , anyway, it is only my opinion.

May Lord bless all of us with good health and joyful mood .

God bless .

Natural theraphy

Finally after 4 years, I decided to give it a try for one month and see wheher it will help me better than chemo theraphy, so, I decided to delay further my chemo theraphy.

I took blood test last week and so far all in order , not much changes and CEA level drop for about 10 percent, but, still over 3000 points.

With the natural theraphy, I did some changes to my diet, I drink some vinegar and oil, I star to take spicy food . Meantime , I take some special wash lotion for my shower, I apply oil or cream before shower, I rinse with cow milk and wash it away after minutes.
I exercise , walk under hot sun, and get body sweat out as much as I can , and I drink lot of water, fruit juice , eat as much possible fruit , vege , to get body heat release. Yes ! I did ear ozone .

So far I am fine with it after a week and hopefully it may help more . Only thing is that it did make me tired, since doing so many things and execise ... :)

Anyway, whatever type theraphy we decide, I strongly believe that we should have very close monitoring and listen to our body the reaction of the treatment. As when there is some changes that we are not feel good with it we should stop it and discuss with the person who set the treatment for us . If it is not convince, we should stop it altogether, or to stop the particular arrangement only.

I pray to Lord for wisdom to guide me and show me the way for all the treatment that I am doing now.

May Lord bless us with Joy , Happiness and Good Health.

God bless .

Delay my chemo treatment

Since my condition still unstable , I decided to call off next week chemo and inform to cancer centre to reschedule it to the following week, hopefully I can have a better and stable condition by next week .

I am not sure what I did is right or wrong, what I feel is that if I were to go ahead wih chemo with the current condition, my condition can be even worst and I will not be sure whether the side effect during chemo is because of chemo or because of the whole brain radiotherapy .

Anyway, whatever the condition for next week, I think that I should go ahead wih the blood test to check what is my blood count.

Very looking forward to have my body system back to normal .

Two days ago, I start to do some light exercise and also breathing exercise, then, I went for foot massage . Yesterday, I feel better and I do the same thing again , plus 1/2 hour of brisk walking . Last night I feel okay, but, too bad, I wake up about 2.30am , and can not sleep well until this morning . So feel so tired now .

Maybe I should proceed with the breathing exercise and jump on my bed for a nap .

What I learn for the past years is to always listen to our body, when our body scream 'I am tired, need to sleep ' , we better do it ... :). So , I will take my nap first, and have my breathing exercise later .

Good rest !

Condition is not stable yet

Living with cancer is really have to prepare for changes to happen anytime , you can feel good when wake up in the morning and suddenly feel very tired right after breakfast and the balance of the day you just want to sleep .

Or, you feel good for a day or two and feel so energetic, then, the next day you wake up feel like a sick man and just want to sleep and rest on your bed , no appetite or feel nausea .

After whole brain radiotheraphy, thing looks good and I did feel good, but, condition is not stable at all. On Wednesday I am okay and have lunch with friends, then , yesterday and today, I just do not like to move around, kind of tired .

But, whatever happen, I should not complain , as my overall condition is so much better than other patient . I should be grateful of my overall condition.

Hospice visited me today and took some photo for their magazine, actually I miss the daycare life in hospice and hope that I can attend it next week .

Will monitor more closely on my condition and pray to Lord to guide me how to overcome it .

Will now maintain my chemo on 6/8/12 , since my condition still not stable .

Be prepare , be ready , we will manage to have a better monitoring of our condition.

God bless .

Good news

After two very tired day, yesterday , I decided to pay a visit to Chinese doctor for treatment and pick up some medicine .
It works .
Right after the treatment I eat my lunch with good appetite.
Reach home took my Chinese medicine and feel quite okay !
The only problem is can not sleep until I finish my movie by 2+ am , thereafter, I sleep okay and wake up abt 9am this morning .
Having my breakfast now and everything just feel good !
Praise the Lord !
Lord is great, he always there to guide and lead us to find a solution to get our day better . Thanks Lord .

Praying for everyone to have a great week .

Praying my energy is fully recover .

God bless.

Feel tired

Since yesterday after breakfast, I feel tired and have to jump on bed to nap and rest.

After rest for more than an hour, the whole day still feel very tired.

At night minor headache strike, took panadol and have a good sleep for about 3 hours, wake up at 1.30am and found that my T shirt is wet ( I always sweat after taking panadol or any pain killer ) . By about 5 am, wake up and feel the minor headache is back. Continue sleeping until 8 am, all fine .

After breakfast , I again feel tired. Back to bed for a rest .

Praying to Lord, my body will recover from all the side effect before I start chemo theraphy in next two weeks.

Complete my 10 days Radiotheraphy

Yesterday I completed my 10 days whole brain radiotheraphy treatment .
Thanks Lord .
Thanks all the prayer .
All goes well with minimum side effect during the treatment.
Now is to closely monitor for next two weeks for any side effect from treatment.

One important thing I learn is radiotheraphy is as tired as chemo theraphy and I am the lucky one with blessing from Lord with very minimum side effet , except for on off headache and some nausea , other than that all well .

I have an appointment today afternoon for doctor follow up, and doctor is happy with my overall condition and will have mri brain in later stage to check on the radiotheraphy result .

We have set the chemo treatment date to start either in a week or two weeks, all depends on my overall condition in next one week.

Last two days I have problem to clear phlegm and feel very uneasy, Sometime I cough until I feel breathless and it not clear out. Finally this morning I find a solution, I lay on bed with body to one side , then, slowly cough, God bless, it help and I manage to do it slowly , take my time , and clear off most of the phlegm , feel so relief.

All well and I am driving again today with my wife beside of me .

Praise the Lord !

Two more days .

Feel great ! Two more days will complete my 10 days whole brain radiotheraphy .

Yesterday morning I regain my strength on both my legs and no more using walking stick . Thanks Lord.

Yesterday afternoon headache is back and manage to settle with panadol.

Today condition seems better for until now, slight nausea and all well.

Looking forward to Thursday where 10 days radiotheraphy will complete and I hope will feel better and start to regain my energy , so that can start to workout my body again .

May Lord bless us with joy and peace .

God bless.

Walking stick

I am fine on Friday and Saturday after radiation , except tired and nausea.

But, this morning, experience something new, I feel that my leg is kind of weak when I want to sit down . Something like, my leg may just give way. For precaution measure, I bought one walking stick and the U stand as support when I am standing and hold on it to sit down slowly.

Overall condition is not really bad, but, I feel more comfortable with the precaution measure.

Will monitor closely .

Glad that 6 days radiotheraphy is over and leave 4 days to go.

Praying for Lord blessing to have the balance 4 days going well .

God bless !

Finally I have radiation done yesterday and today

Hospital call me yesterday about 5.30 pm to inform me I can go over for the radiation.

Then, this morning I have it early at about 9.30am .

All goes well , no headache for yesterday and today . But, today nausea and feel of vomit is bad, lucky that it happen after lunch .

Overall of the day is good, but very tired today, maybe due to the two days radiation done in less than 15 hours.

Tomorrow radiation should be late afternoon, as hospital inform me to wait for their call at home, should call me about 2 pm to confirm appointment.

Hope to rest well tonight .

Oops ! Radiation machine out of service .

This morning, hospital call up inform me to stay at home to wait for their call, as there's some problem with the radiation machine.

Later they call up again and inform me no radiation for me for today and tomorrow, and they will call me on Friday to confirm the appointment.

Malaysia Boleh , one machine only and once breakdown, all affected.

What can I do ? The answer is stay at home have a good rest , maybe it is for the side effect to go away before continue with the 3rd day radiation.

But, question of is this going to affect the effectiveness of the radiation result . Be frank, I do not have the answer, but, for sure the doctor incharge will definitely say that it's not a problem , hahahahaha, if not they will get an immediate solution for me to proceed today radiation in another hospital.

Well ! Stay calm , rest and hope that the machine will be properly fix up , well tested before they call me in for radiation again.

Manage to settle down with headache

One tablet of panadol yesterday can not solve my headache and finally get ride of it with two tablets at night before sleep .

Thanks Lord, it works well and I wake up today morning all fine .
Doing some light exercise in the morning before breakfast and proceed to hospital.

Feel much better with today radiation, the face mask still tight, but, better than yesterday and the whole process finish fast.

Not as tired as yesterday and headache start to strike me at 3pm + , with two panadol and jump on bed have my nap, wake up about 7 pm with no more headache .

Nausea and vomit feeling is my main concern now , still try to figure out what type of food can help me, as I can not afford to lose weight .

Overall condition is good !

Praying for better condition for coming days.

God bless.

Start the day of new experience

Last week is busy in getting things organise and rest , eat yummy food.

Yesterday evening, pastor , cell leader and cell group member make a visit to my house and pray for me . Feel good , Thanks Lord .

This morning get ready to the new experience in cancer treatment . Overall all goes well , except the mask is too tight and therefore, I am not so comfortable . But, since the radiation is very fast, not really a big issue.

After the radiation, I feel a little tired and just rest in the car all the way back home and immediately go to bed for about 2 hours sleep.

Once wake up, start to have headache, it is bearable, so , drink water, eat fruit and lunch .

Just take one tablet of panadol , hopefully , it help .

All goes well as of now . Time to take another nap , hopefully headache will go away when I wake up .

Lord , please continue to touch me with your healing power and take away all the side effect .

Thanks Lord.

Amen.

Ready go , go , go

Feel great !
Have settle down and finalise the treatment plan today .
Confirm go ahead with the whole brain radiation on coming Monday for 10 days .
Thereafter, will have chemo treatment, date to confirm, depends on how well I cope with the radiation side effect.

Feel great after finalise the decision and now is time to rest well and ready for it.

Reason tbat I decided to go ahead with the plan on Monday is that advice receive is to get it done when it is small and sympton not yet start to disturb me . When sympton start to disturb me, it will give me more issue to deal with, meantime, chances to get ride of all the cancer cell and tumour in my brain is higher when it is small.

Thanks Lord bless me with wisdom , guide me and have so many good friend and doctor to give me good advice .

Good night !

What is WBR whole brain radiation

Last few days, I am reading alot about WBR , what is it about and the possible side effect.

Not that I worry , but, I believe to know what will happen and plan ahead is important.

Few things I need to do before the treatment ...
- to discuss with doctor to have 10 to 15 times instead of 5 times, as I was told , it is better to have more times with lower dose, this will help to reduce side effect.
- to find out more and decide wheher to hold on the WBR until I feel not well, or to proceed with it . Reason being, I do not have any sympton yet, going ahead with WBR, means I will have to go thro' the side effect immediate. if I hold on, am I going to have more days of quality life .

Praying to Lord for wisdom to guide me.


Following are information about Whole Brain Radiation , extract from Living with Brain Mets.

http://www.livingwithbrainmets.org/brain-radiation-treatment.html

Whole Brain Radiation
Whole brain radiation consists of small daily doses of radiation delivered to the entire brain. Whole brain irradiation is frequently prescribed for patients with brain metastases. This treatment uses radiation to treat the visible lumps of tumor and the presumed invisible tumor deposits that are so small they may not be seen on even a sensitive MRI scan. Therefore, large areas of the brain may be treated to stop the spread of the tumors.

Does it work?
Symptoms caused by tumors metastatic to the brain usually respond to whole brain radiation therapy; different studies have reported response rates of 50 to 70 percent.

The Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) performed randomized studies that showed a course of 10 treatments over two weeks to give a total dose of 30 Gray the same as 3000 centiGray or 3000 rads, to use older terms was as good as more extended courses of radiation therapy that give higher doses. In some situations, a shorter or longer course of treatment than two weeks may be preferable. For patients who have a single brain metastasis that is removed surgically, whole brain radiation therapy was found in a randomized study to give great improvements in preventing cancer from regrowing in the brain and in prolonging survival.

What are the side effects?
In general, there will be hair loss, skin irritation, loss of appetite, and neurologic effects. The most prevalent side effect is fatigue which is may last through treatment and for two months afterwards. The neurologic effects most affecting quality of life are eventual permanent memory and speech problems. These are just a few of the problems that can develop.

Whole Brain Radiation combined with Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Stereotactic radiosurgery can be combined with whole brain radiation therapy for brain metastases. The whole brain radiation therapy will treat the visible metastases and any presumed microscopic tumor deposits as well. This is possible because whole brain radiation therapy is given as a low dose to a larger volume and targeted to the tumor and the area of possible tumor spread, while stereotactic radiosurgery is a high dose given to a very small volume and targeted only within the tumor itself. The two treatment techniques can be thought of as complementary in achieving control of metastases to the brain.

Whole brain radiation therapy can cause shrinkage of visible brain metastases, sometimes making them more amenable to stereotactic radiosurgery or microsurgery. The addition of whole brain radiation therapy to stereotactic radiosurgery can decrease the possibility of additional metastatic lesions and decrease the chance that visible lesions treated with radiosurgery may have recurrences after radiosurgical treatment. Omission of whole brain radiation therapy for brain metastases is slightly controversial, but this is an area of ongoing intensive research.

Recently, some investigators have tried stereotactic radiosurgery alone without whole brain radiation therapy for selected patients with brain metastases to avoid causing the side effects of whole brain radiotherapy. Because whole brain radiation therapy can be given at a later date to these patients if their metastases are not controlled by the radiosurgery, this strategy may relieve symptoms effectively while not adversely affecting survival.

There is a widely accepted belief that for melanoma, kidney cancer and sarcomas that spread to the brain, stereotactic radiosurgery may be more effective at controlling the lesions than whole brain radiation therapy. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) is evaluating radiosurgery as a solitary treatment for patients with one to three brain metastases of these types of tumors.

It show up in my brain and say ' Hello SK '

After 4 years , finally it show up in my brain and say ' Hello SK ' .

So, I reply ' Hi ! small c , you will not enjoy playing here , soon you will be burn out '

I am going to experience new thing in cancer treatment , we call it RADIATION . Doctor told me today, it will be WBR ( whole brain radiation ) to get ride of all the small c around my brain.

On wednesday, I complain about the noise of brain MRI and say that I will not do it again in future unless doctor ask me to do so. But, now, I am happy that I make a good decision to request doctor to arrange brain MRI for me . Thanks Lord bless me with wisdom and guide me to make good decision . If not, I will not know the small c already there and will end up with pain and so on in coming months. It is good to detect it fast and get ride of it immediate.

Praise the Lord ! Feel great !

In hospital today to arrange the proper set up of face frame for my WBR on 9/7/12 , if no side effect or minimum side effect, I will proceed with chemo after radiation ( 5 days with 5 minutes a day ). This time going to use Gemzar (gemcitabine) with Navelbine (Vinorelbine), maybe for 6 cycles.

Next week I will take lot of rest, eat well , enjoy my food, get things organise properly and get ready for the treatment.

Okay ! Ready go . Looking forward to face this new experience .

Thanks Lord for your healing and blessing and pray for your healing and blessing continue to touch upon me and guide me , lead me to walk thro' this journey, in Jesus name I pray . Amen.

Nice food , yummy !

Food in Pantai Hospital K.L. Is getting better and better, good improvement .
Most important is now they deliver warm food to each room, so , no need to request nurse in ward to heat up food for me .
I have chicken chop tonight, lovely and nice, like having room service in hotel .

I have my blood test and x ray report after a long wait in cancer centre for doctor since morning, as there's many patient have chemo treatment today, so , doctor have to attend to them first, before attend to follow-up patient like me .

What's the result ?

Well ! Blood test report looks ok , except the reading of tumor marker jump up to new record , slightly more than 3700. It is slightly more than 50% increase from previous reading of about 2400. Sign of activity .

As for X Ray, no significant changes, but, did show in the film for more activities compare to previous X ray in March .

Right before dinner, I have my Brain MRI scan and tomorrow morning for CT scan for chest, abdomen and pelvis.
Doctor advise me not a need for bone scan, what we will do is to see the result of CT scan, if there is sign of bone problem in certain part, then, will take bone scan on the part only . Well, it make sense for me , so , let see what happen with the CT scan result tomorrow.

I hate the sound when going thro' brain MRI scan and I do not think I will ask for brain MRI scan in future, unless doctor ask . So far, most of the time is my request for the scan, as I just want to make sure if something spread to brain, I can make fast decision to get ride of it.

Anyway, I am happy with my dinner and enjoy it, it make my day.

Looking forward to tomorrow scan and wish all well .

Good night.

God bless !

6 months scan ... Looking forward to good news

Finally I went to hospital yesterday for blood test and X ray.

Will meet doctor this morning to know the result of tumor marker and x ray.
If x ray show no lung fluid build up or lung fluid under control, I will proceed for CT scan and will discuss with doctor to include bone scan and brain mri .

This time I have some concern of the scan result, not as relax as the past few scan arrangement. Maybe it is because of the pain on my back.

Well ! Whatever the result, I have to face it.

It is eiher to start some treatment or to have another few months of HOLIDAY from chemo.

Yes ! I looking forward to HOLIDAY from chemo treatment .

Lord , please bless me to have good scan result .

........ BELIEVE and it will happen ...........

Praise the Lord ! 4th year , feel GREAT !

Feel great today , it's my 4th year.

Praise the Lord ! Thanks for his healing , his grace, mercy, love, blessing shower on me everyday .

Thanks for all the prayer .

Thanks my wife and daughter, my parent, sibling, relative and friends .

Thanks for all your care , support , prayer .

I love you all and may Lord bless you to have a great great day .

This year means lots to me, as end last year and early this year, I went thro' the high level of pain and poor body system and it take almost half a year for me to regain strength and feel good . Without the healing and blessing from Lord , support from my family and all of you, I may not be good as of today .

Look back to what happen on 24th June 2008, just feel it is amazing and it is a miracle for me .

I pray for many more years of quality life and pray fof wisdom from Lord to guide and lead me how to serve him, how to share my experience and knowledge to assist others.

Leaving Ho Chi Minh this afternoon for Kuala Lumpur . Manage to stay well for the last two nights , and will take good rest for the next couple of days, as it is very usual for me to feel tired after travelling, even for short trip.

Next thing to do is to fix appointment with my doctor and proceed with my blood test and scan. Pray for good result .

No worry , be HAPPY , eveything will be fine and looking forward to another year of good and quality life journey .

God bless !

Weather in Ho Chi Minh is as hot in KL .
Safely arrive here yesterday evening, after we miss the afternoon flight.
Well, by missing the flight, we have more time to enjoy our food in KL airport, no rushing for our meal , hahahaha, miss something and gain something.
Flight is okay , the hotel apartment we stay is nice and comfortable.
Will spend two nights here and be back home tomorrow .

Enjoy some nice Vietnamses food yesterday , yummy !

There is no changes overhere from my last visit, maybe more car on the road.
As the country open up , it is normal to see more and more rich getting richer and luxury thing getting more around the city .

God bless, my health condition for this travelling is good and pray for blessing to be good during my stay here , thanks God .

Eagerly looking forward to tomorrow , will tell you why in my next posting .

Well ! Feel GREAT .

May Lord bless us to have a joyful weekend

So, please take time for a rest and enjoy the blessing from Lord.

God bless.

Smoking kid

The campaign to stop smoking will contnue everyday , and new smoker will increase everyday too.

Lots of effort and more creative way to carry out the campaign been put in by various organisation, including the Government agencies , NGO and private sector.

I did not make a study into statistic to find out is the smoker population increase of decrease after years of effort in the campaign .

If you are a smoker and you are also worry about the inrease of young smoker or kid smoker , these is a good video for you to watch and think about it .

Say ' TAK NAK ' , time to stop smoking , if not for yourself, atleast do it for our children.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DSabd1SbyLgQ%26sns%3Dem&sns=em&v=Sabd1SbyLgQ&gl=MY

Today news in The Star Online : Foundation registers patents for cancer treatment

Foundation registers patents for cancer treatment ------------------------------------------------ Thursday June 21, 2012 Foundation registers patents for cancer treatment By CHESTER CHIN starhealth@thestar.com.my PETALING JAYA: The Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF) has registered three patents on new treatments for oral and nasopharyngeal cancer and hopes to conduct clinical trials within the next few years. “We have found proteins in cancer cells that are not present in normal cells and these can be targeted to treat cancer. “So far, we have developed new cancer cell lines from Asian patients that are being used all over the world to help us find cures for these cancers. “As Asians, our genes alter our risk for cancer and may cause us to develop or respond differently to treatment compared to Caucasians,” chief executive officer Prof Dr Teo Soo-Hwang said. The foundation's aim is to develop new targeted therapy with fewer side effects for cancers more common in Asians. CARIF is also researching over 5,000 species of local plants for anti-cancer compounds. “We are focusing on natural compounds that kill cancer cells but are not toxic to normal cells. This will help avoid the side effect of chemotherapy. “Recently, we found a number of promising candidates with anti-cancer properties and we have filed a patent for one of these.” The foundation has been conducting patient-oriented research and awareness campaigns for the past decade. It celebrates its 10th anniversary with a gala dinner today. CARIF also launched the second phase of its More Than A Mammo programme last month and hopes to recruit up to 3,000 women for a subsidised mammogram of RM50. Targeted at educating women on the importance of early breast cancer detection, the programme drew more than 1,000 participants within six months last year. “Last year's participants contributed to a study conducted in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. “Through that research, we hope to develop better ways to detect breast cancer in Asians,” she said.

Haze is back in Malaysia , it is bad for lung .

Haze is an annual affair for us in Malaysia toward the hot month in mid of every year.
It's reported in news that it's due to the burning in some area in Indonesia and the wind blow the smoke over to Malaysia.

It is hard to make decision whether to open window or just close it and stay Inside aircon room. At times, the smell from haze is terrible , kind of wood burning smell, normally towards night.

Outdoor brisk walking and exercise have to stop to avoid further damage to my lung , and need to drink lot of water. Well, it start about week, and yesterday is really bad, have to pray for rain to make air quality improve.

Hahahaha ! Finally there is reason for us to tell children stop to sing ' Rain Rain go away ' .

If situation of air quality not improve, soon the Government will call for all school to stop outdoor activity.

To all cancer patient, especially lung cancer, time to stop all out door exercise and stay indoor until the air quality improve.

Back pain ...

Lately. Back pain make a come back and it seems to cause by cold and sitting/sleeping position. Anyway, I am still monitoring closely on it.

When pain start to strike me few weeks ago, I took one tablet of panadol and manage to get it under control. It normally happen at night, when I am tired.
The same kind of pain strike me for two nights when I am in Shanghai after too much of walking , anyway, I manage to get it under control with panadol.

Last week it start to strike again at night, first night settle it with one tablet of panadol and second night , panadol only work for 2 hours and pain start to strike again. To avoid side effect of taking additional panadol with empty stomach, I sit in living hall for some food, and to my surprise, the pain go away . Then, I decided to off the aircon in my room , and it works , I sleep well without additional panadol
and pain.

Same pain still strike me any time of the day and what I do now is to wear double clothing when I am in aircon room, meantime, I will try to walk around and strech my body a bit to get the pain away before it get worst.

Well, so far it works and I plan to take a bone scan by end of this month when I go for CT scan appointment.

Praying for haze to end as soon as possible and back pain stop disturb me .

May Lord's blessing be with us always and guide us , lead us to live our life the way he want us to live .

God bless.

CancerCompass: Don’t Rush Recovery

Nice post to share . CancerCompass: Don’t Rush Recovery

I am back

Hi all ! I been missing since last post in May .
But, no worry , I am doing fine .
Just feel kind of tired since back from holiday and busy to get some of the things settle down.

God is great ! He answer my prayer and keep me well to make it for the trip.

I fly off with family on 25th May to Shanghai and safely back home in a week .
Was informed that weather is bad (rainy day) before we arrive in Shanghai and feel so blessed that the next few days after our arrival in Shanghai, it is sunny day.
Good for us to move around the city , but, a bit too hot in the afternoon . Morning and evening is nice . Except one of the day it is raining and just too cold for me, and end up I am feeling bad in the evening, but, manage to get it settle down with minimum problem to my lung with panadol, ginger and garlic . If not, I will be in big problem .

The city is nice to walk around and pack with people everywhere. Especially on Sat and Sun in main tourist area.

One of the day, we rent a taxi for a day trip to Suzhou and also visit one of the water village on the way back to Shanghai .

Overall, the trip is nice, a good family trip, we enjoy the food and everything, except some complain about their wash room .

Anyway, it is tiring with lots of walking .

Yesterday I went over to Hospice Malaysia in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, to join the day care . They organise day care twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday . We have group exercise in the morning and follow by some technic in breathing , thereafter, foot massage and so on with karaoke session . After lunch, we are free to take a nap or sit around to have a chat with each other, then, tea time we play Bingo game and it end about 3.30 pm.

The centre is clean and nice, volunteer in the centre is so caring and everything is very proper organise.

Big thanks to Hospice Malaysia and all the volunteer, they did a very very good job.

Wish I will get better and one day can join the volunteer team .

The nurse and doctor in Hospice Malaysia went thro' my medical report and make a brief check up on my condition . Looks like things under control , but, what happen inside of me , have to wait until I go for my coming CT scan.

If all goes well as per my plan, I will go for the scan after I get back from my travelling before end of this month .

Feel tired and time to take a rest .

God bless !

Today morning, hospice nurse, Rachel, visited me .

Feel so thankful for the follow up visit .

If not with the advise from Rachel on her first visit in Feb this year, I may still taking my pain killer.

Thanks Lord for sending her to guide me how to manage my pain .

Have signed up for the weekly day care in Hospice and should start joining the day care in June.

Feeling good today and busy in getting things organise for Friday .

Looking forward to Friday morning flight .

May Lord bless us to have a good feeling everyday .

God bless.

Pray for healing for all cancer patient

Lately, every month receive call or infor of new cancer patient and also the unwell condition of patient that I know . Feel kind of sad of all the news .

Please join me to pray for Lord's healing to touch upon all the cancer patient and heal them from cancer, heal them from all sickness, heal them from the side effect of their cancer treatment.

Lord, I pray for your healing power to touch upon all cancer patient and heal them , strengthen their immune system , heal and repair all the infection in their body and restore their body system, so that their body will be strong, clean and healthy, and therefore, the cancer cell, cancer tumour will no longer can stay in their body, and with the healing power from Lord, all the cancer tumour in their body, will shrink and eliminate from their body, and their body will be set free of cancer and fully recover .
Thank you Lord.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.

I believe the powerful prayer from everyone to pray for the powerful healing power from Lord to touch upon cancer patient that we know will help .

But, please include in your prayer for all cancer patient, as everyday there's more and more people going thro' the battle with cancer.

May Lord bless us with good health , joy and happiness .

God bless.