Praise the Lord ! Lord is great .
The management of side effect for this cycle is great , thanks Lord .
Feel so much better and start to be have better sleep thro' the night for until atleast 4 or 5 a.m.
Rash ( all over my bald head , hahahaaha ) and some over my face , start to subside since yesterday. Actually not so bad in comparing to the rash I have when I am on the targeted drug " Tarceva " . This time, it is more like pimple over my face and head .
Stomach feel much better also, with the experience of 1st cycle side effect and well prepare ahead of the chemo, I manage to cope well with it and manage to stop the back pain . ( Because of very bad stomach upset , the pain in stomach extended to my back and end up need to use pain killer to stop stomach pain , then, go for traditional massage for my back to relieve pain) . Small serving per meal and do some light stretching exercise and brisk walking in living hall about 15 minutes after food , it help . Meantime, gastric and anti acid reflux medicine help me too .
Constipation happen as expected, right after the 1st day of chemo. Try my best to deal with it and fail . On the fifth day , decided to ask doctor for some medicine , as my piles is giving problem and already start bleeding . After two round of the medicine, the next day feel better and now resolve. Piles is still giving me problem, but, under control. For next chemo, I should start taking the constipation medicine on 2nd day .
Bone pain take effect on 5th day and getting worst on 6th and 7th day . This is expected, because steroid finish on 4th day . It happen the same for 1st cycle chemo, bone pain and all kind of pain strike on 5th day . Worst pain in my neck area . Because of good management of stomach problem, so, the bone pain not really big issue for me .
Fatigue , yes ! very very tire on 5th ; 6th and 7th day . Just want to sleep , rest . getting much better since yesterday . But, have to close monitoring, as during the 1st cycle, on 4th week after chemo, I just suddenly feel very weak and blood pressure getting low for about 3 days . So, seriously need to monitor and hopefully it will not happen again. I am now taking boiled red date
water ; boiled red beans and also black bean soup , to help in increasing my Red Blood Cell .
Taste change . Yes ! it's a problem with taste change. But, it is normal side effect for chemo treatment, so, have learn to deal with it .
Dehydration . Yes ! quite bad, same as the 1st cycle . Have to drink a lot of water everyday. As when I wake up during mid night, I will drink atleast one bottle of water, watch TV for a while , before back to bed . Actually, it is quite difficult to drink so much of water, as the taste is flat or weird ,but, to stop body from dehydrate, have it take it without fail. Actually, I am lucky that do not have problem with water retention , so, should not complain about it , hahahahaha .
Nausea , very light nausea , not an issue .
Appetite -- not bad , thanks my wife for cooking food that I request with taste suit to me .
Overall -- Not so bad .
Chemo drug . 1st cycle : Taxotere (Docetaxel ) + Zometa , 2nd cycle : Taxotere ( Docetaxel )only
Wish my sharing can be a good guide to other cancer patient .
God bless
SK
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Overall seems better than the 1st cycle
I have the 3rd booster for white blood cell as per schedule on last Friday .
Then, start to deal with side effect without the support of Dexamethasone ( a type of steroid drug ) .
Bone pain/ tire / dehydration / gastric / gassy stomach , as expected start to strike .
With the experience of last cycle , I am better prepare myself to deal with it .
Not really have a good night rest , every 3 hours have to wake up to drink water and have some snack. Then, back to sleep again. But, overall not so bad .
Right till now , Sunday afternoon , overall control of the side effect is much better than last cycle.
I wish side effect will go away within the next two days and also wish that I can continue to eat well .
God Bless
SK
Then, start to deal with side effect without the support of Dexamethasone ( a type of steroid drug ) .
Bone pain/ tire / dehydration / gastric / gassy stomach , as expected start to strike .
With the experience of last cycle , I am better prepare myself to deal with it .
Not really have a good night rest , every 3 hours have to wake up to drink water and have some snack. Then, back to sleep again. But, overall not so bad .
Right till now , Sunday afternoon , overall control of the side effect is much better than last cycle.
I wish side effect will go away within the next two days and also wish that I can continue to eat well .
God Bless
SK
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
UF Lung Cancer Center unites experts for patient-focused care
How nice is it , if we have such a well organise cancer centre in Malaysia
==================================================
UF Lung Cancer Center unites experts for patient-focused care
Patient Gary Love with daughter Katie Love Hobbs (left) and wife Susan Love.
Gary Love had been retired two years when he first noticed the strange, draining feeling in his head. He went to the doctor, thinking it was a sinus infection. It wasn’t.
An MRI revealed a brain tumor, which doctors eventually traced back to a type of lung cancer called adenocarcinoma. The news was shocking for Love and his family, said his daughter, Katie Love Hobbs. He’d never smoked. He didn’t drink. The former sheriff’s deputy had never even been in the hospital before.
Already being treated at Shands at UF for his brain tumor, Love met with the University of Florida Lung Cancer Center team, who devised a plan of attack. Between August and November of 2010, he went through 37 lung radiation treatments, as well as chemotherapy.
“I never thought I would be going through this with my dad,” Hobbs said. “They gave us hope. There was never a doctor we had who did not act like they would do everything they could to help us. They all work together and they are amazing every day.”
No patient ever wants to hear a doctor utter the word “cancer,” and a diagnosis of lung cancer is particularly scary. Lung cancer is responsible for more than one-quarter of all cancer deaths, has a five-year survival rate of about 15 percent — for patients with stage 4 disease survival hovers at just 2 percent — and has few symptoms, often going undetected in the early stages. Quick, efficient care for these patients is a necessity.
Established in July 2010, the UF Lung Cancer Center is a multidisciplinary clinic that brings together all the experts involved in caring for a patient with the disease. Each week, pulmonologists, surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, a social worker and other experts meet in one location to see patients, relieving the need for families to trek from office to office for appointments. And every Friday, these experts gather with a radiologist and pathologist at 7 a.m. in a conference room to discuss patients together. As they look over pathology reports, X-rays and CT scans, they agree on treatment plans, talk over concerns and weigh in on different patients’ conditions.
“For cancer patients in general, the two most important concerns is a lack of communication among doctors and a lack of streamlined process and timeliness,” said Frederic Kaye, M.D., medical director of the Lung Cancer Center. “What the multidisciplinary clinic strives to do, and we think it is doing a good job so far, is giving us direct lines of communication and streamlining the process.”
Michael Jantz, M.D., director of interventional pulmonology, said patients also feel more confident having seen a multidisciplinary team.
“They know their case has been reviewed by multiple disciplines with a cohesive plan formulated amongst us,” he said.
A key part of the team, Kaye said, is nurse-coordinator Andrea Penley, R.N., who works closely with every family, setting their appointments, referring them to resources and giving them a familiar person to call anytime they have questions.
“These people need an informed voice, someone they can call up who can help them,” Penley said. “Patients are starting to expect a higher level of coordination. I think all cancer care is headed in this direction.”
In addition to the clinical care the center provides, researchers are working diligently to find better ways to detect, treat and cure lung cancer, specifically looking into the genetics and molecular basis of tumors and developing better ways to screen at-risk patients for the first signs of lung cancer. In Love’s case, a specific genetic mutation could not be identified, but the lung cancer team hopes more effective and less toxic treatments based on new genetic biomarkers will be available for all patients in the near future.
Almost two years after doctors first found his brain tumor, Gary Love is feeling about 75 percent back to normal. He’s traveling again with his wife and spending time with his family. The couple just got back from a trip to Las Vegas, said their daughter.
“Cancer is never fair. It never happens to someone who deserves it,” Hobbs said. “But I cannot say enough about UF and Shands and what they have done for my dad.”
— April Frawley Birdwell
http://cure.cancer.ufl.edu/2011/09/01/uf-lung-cancer-center-unites-experts-for-patient-focused-care/
==================================================
UF Lung Cancer Center unites experts for patient-focused care
Patient Gary Love with daughter Katie Love Hobbs (left) and wife Susan Love.
Gary Love had been retired two years when he first noticed the strange, draining feeling in his head. He went to the doctor, thinking it was a sinus infection. It wasn’t.
An MRI revealed a brain tumor, which doctors eventually traced back to a type of lung cancer called adenocarcinoma. The news was shocking for Love and his family, said his daughter, Katie Love Hobbs. He’d never smoked. He didn’t drink. The former sheriff’s deputy had never even been in the hospital before.
Already being treated at Shands at UF for his brain tumor, Love met with the University of Florida Lung Cancer Center team, who devised a plan of attack. Between August and November of 2010, he went through 37 lung radiation treatments, as well as chemotherapy.
“I never thought I would be going through this with my dad,” Hobbs said. “They gave us hope. There was never a doctor we had who did not act like they would do everything they could to help us. They all work together and they are amazing every day.”
No patient ever wants to hear a doctor utter the word “cancer,” and a diagnosis of lung cancer is particularly scary. Lung cancer is responsible for more than one-quarter of all cancer deaths, has a five-year survival rate of about 15 percent — for patients with stage 4 disease survival hovers at just 2 percent — and has few symptoms, often going undetected in the early stages. Quick, efficient care for these patients is a necessity.
Established in July 2010, the UF Lung Cancer Center is a multidisciplinary clinic that brings together all the experts involved in caring for a patient with the disease. Each week, pulmonologists, surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, a social worker and other experts meet in one location to see patients, relieving the need for families to trek from office to office for appointments. And every Friday, these experts gather with a radiologist and pathologist at 7 a.m. in a conference room to discuss patients together. As they look over pathology reports, X-rays and CT scans, they agree on treatment plans, talk over concerns and weigh in on different patients’ conditions.
“For cancer patients in general, the two most important concerns is a lack of communication among doctors and a lack of streamlined process and timeliness,” said Frederic Kaye, M.D., medical director of the Lung Cancer Center. “What the multidisciplinary clinic strives to do, and we think it is doing a good job so far, is giving us direct lines of communication and streamlining the process.”
Michael Jantz, M.D., director of interventional pulmonology, said patients also feel more confident having seen a multidisciplinary team.
“They know their case has been reviewed by multiple disciplines with a cohesive plan formulated amongst us,” he said.
A key part of the team, Kaye said, is nurse-coordinator Andrea Penley, R.N., who works closely with every family, setting their appointments, referring them to resources and giving them a familiar person to call anytime they have questions.
“These people need an informed voice, someone they can call up who can help them,” Penley said. “Patients are starting to expect a higher level of coordination. I think all cancer care is headed in this direction.”
In addition to the clinical care the center provides, researchers are working diligently to find better ways to detect, treat and cure lung cancer, specifically looking into the genetics and molecular basis of tumors and developing better ways to screen at-risk patients for the first signs of lung cancer. In Love’s case, a specific genetic mutation could not be identified, but the lung cancer team hopes more effective and less toxic treatments based on new genetic biomarkers will be available for all patients in the near future.
Almost two years after doctors first found his brain tumor, Gary Love is feeling about 75 percent back to normal. He’s traveling again with his wife and spending time with his family. The couple just got back from a trip to Las Vegas, said their daughter.
“Cancer is never fair. It never happens to someone who deserves it,” Hobbs said. “But I cannot say enough about UF and Shands and what they have done for my dad.”
— April Frawley Birdwell
http://cure.cancer.ufl.edu/2011/09/01/uf-lung-cancer-center-unites-experts-for-patient-focused-care/
GRACE - Global Resource for Advancing Cencer Education
Share with you the following from GRACE :-
Dr West's TEDxOverlake Talk on Self-Educated Patients and the future of cancer
care .
http://www.youtube.com/embed/oDXWd1scZyE
Meantime, the link to GRACE as below :-
http://cancergrace.org
Dr West's TEDxOverlake Talk on Self-Educated Patients and the future of cancer
care .
http://www.youtube.com/embed/oDXWd1scZyE
Meantime, the link to GRACE as below :-
http://cancergrace.org
Weather is bad with haze coming back
Not having very good sleep yesterday night also, Wake up by 3 to 4 am . But, still can cope with it.
Have my white blood cell first booster today and until now all goes well.
++++++++++++
With the haze coming back, looks like have to stay indoor for time being for my light exercise .
Anyway, will continue to maintain my daily exercise to keep my body fit and have good blood circulation .
++++++++++++
Feel good yesterday to read about sharing of 4th stage Lung Cancer patient with good recovery and now 11 years free of cancer .
And few days ago, read about Lung cancer survivor for over 5 years .
All this good news and sharing give us hope and move on with our life .
Just great !
May Lord bless all of us good health and continue to touch us with his healing power for full recovery.
SK
Have my white blood cell first booster today and until now all goes well.
++++++++++++
With the haze coming back, looks like have to stay indoor for time being for my light exercise .
Anyway, will continue to maintain my daily exercise to keep my body fit and have good blood circulation .
++++++++++++
Feel good yesterday to read about sharing of 4th stage Lung Cancer patient with good recovery and now 11 years free of cancer .
And few days ago, read about Lung cancer survivor for over 5 years .
All this good news and sharing give us hope and move on with our life .
Just great !
May Lord bless all of us good health and continue to touch us with his healing power for full recovery.
SK
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Home sweet home
Discharge and back home this morning, feel great to be home .
Have a nice 2 hours sleep after lunch , feel much better .
Last night not sleep well, I think about two hours only from 3+ am to 5+ am, so , quite tire.
Metalic taste quite bad today, but, still manage to eat as much as I can .
Constipation start and hopefully can settle done by tomorrow .
In general, all under control for until now and overall feel more tire in comparing with the first cycle .
Pray for good night rest tonight and wish all well to start the white bood cell booster tomorrow .
-------------
Always feel good when reach home after away for hospital stay or travelling.
My bed is the best , hahahahaha , even the best hotel bed can not compare .
After business travelling for so many years, I am still not really get use to hotel room, maybe , it is because of when you finish your work , back to room, basically you are facing the 4 walls , so, the feeling is not good. This year, I try the hotel apartment with two rooms and living hall, feel much better . But, the pricing is consider a bit high against the facilities, for one person staying .
But, certainly feel better, as can stay in the hall and have my light exercise in the balcony or living hall , with fresh air ( not like in hotel, where I hv to exercise in aircon room be in my room or the gym ).
Whatever is it , back home is sweet , feel good !
/ SK
Have a nice 2 hours sleep after lunch , feel much better .
Last night not sleep well, I think about two hours only from 3+ am to 5+ am, so , quite tire.
Metalic taste quite bad today, but, still manage to eat as much as I can .
Constipation start and hopefully can settle done by tomorrow .
In general, all under control for until now and overall feel more tire in comparing with the first cycle .
Pray for good night rest tonight and wish all well to start the white bood cell booster tomorrow .
-------------
Always feel good when reach home after away for hospital stay or travelling.
My bed is the best , hahahahaha , even the best hotel bed can not compare .
After business travelling for so many years, I am still not really get use to hotel room, maybe , it is because of when you finish your work , back to room, basically you are facing the 4 walls , so, the feeling is not good. This year, I try the hotel apartment with two rooms and living hall, feel much better . But, the pricing is consider a bit high against the facilities, for one person staying .
But, certainly feel better, as can stay in the hall and have my light exercise in the balcony or living hall , with fresh air ( not like in hotel, where I hv to exercise in aircon room be in my room or the gym ).
Whatever is it , back home is sweet , feel good !
/ SK
Monday, September 5, 2011
Second cycle with Taxotere ( Docetaxel ) 5/9/11
After a good rest for 4 weeks from the 1st cycle ( on 8th August '11 ) , my body is more or less ready for it for today chemo.
Basically feeling not so bad for the last one over weeks , except feel tire most of the time and some days feel good and can drive . But, towards late afternoon, will feel very tire .
Blood pressure is on the low side , most of the time is Below 100 ( 90+ )/ Below 60 ( 50+ ) , I think this is the reason why i am feel weak and tire.
Been taking boiled red dates and black bean soup to help in increase my red blood cell.
Last Friday, I took blood test and have good result for Total WBC - 9.8 ( very good , as normal is between 4 - 11 ) and Platelets - 434 ( normal is between 150-450).
But, RBC is on the lower side , Total RBC - 3.8 ( normal between 4.7 - 6.1 ) and Haemoglobin - 11.8 ( normal between 13.5 - 18 )
One good news is tumor marker reading for CEA hv reduce .
CEA - 2407.10 ( previous 2948.20 )
CA 125 - 895 ( previous 887 )
CA 15.3 - 55 ( pevious 63 )
CA 19.9 - 6 ( previous 4 )
After discussion with doctor about the side effect for the 1st cycle, we decided to drop Zometa for 2nd cycle and just concentrate on Taxotere . Since I can have Zometa anytime after I complete chemo with Taxotere. I think this should be a good decision, as I am now not sure the bad side effect is due to which drug . By dropping Zometa for time being, the side effect will be either from Taxotere or the booster for white blood cell .
Like the 1st cycle, I am doing well on 1st day ( today ), can eat well and feel okay , except feeling a bit tire ( quite normal )
Pray for Lord's blessing for me to have a good nite rest and all goes well .
If all well, will discharge by tomorrow afternoon and back on 3rd / 4th and 5th day for the injection for white blood cell booster.
With the experience for 1st cycle in dealing with side effect, just wish that I can cope well and manage it better for this time and have a faster recovery .
I am bald about 1 1/2 week ago, when hair start to drop . But, just few days ago, hair start growing again ... :).
I think it will drop again, so, shaving it everyday to maintain bald for time being .
Less phlegm cough out after 1st cycle, but, some blood still show up in phlegm, not everytime and not serious, it is less in compare to before chemo treatment .
God bless.
SK
Basically feeling not so bad for the last one over weeks , except feel tire most of the time and some days feel good and can drive . But, towards late afternoon, will feel very tire .
Blood pressure is on the low side , most of the time is Below 100 ( 90+ )/ Below 60 ( 50+ ) , I think this is the reason why i am feel weak and tire.
Been taking boiled red dates and black bean soup to help in increase my red blood cell.
Last Friday, I took blood test and have good result for Total WBC - 9.8 ( very good , as normal is between 4 - 11 ) and Platelets - 434 ( normal is between 150-450).
But, RBC is on the lower side , Total RBC - 3.8 ( normal between 4.7 - 6.1 ) and Haemoglobin - 11.8 ( normal between 13.5 - 18 )
One good news is tumor marker reading for CEA hv reduce .
CEA - 2407.10 ( previous 2948.20 )
CA 125 - 895 ( previous 887 )
CA 15.3 - 55 ( pevious 63 )
CA 19.9 - 6 ( previous 4 )
After discussion with doctor about the side effect for the 1st cycle, we decided to drop Zometa for 2nd cycle and just concentrate on Taxotere . Since I can have Zometa anytime after I complete chemo with Taxotere. I think this should be a good decision, as I am now not sure the bad side effect is due to which drug . By dropping Zometa for time being, the side effect will be either from Taxotere or the booster for white blood cell .
Like the 1st cycle, I am doing well on 1st day ( today ), can eat well and feel okay , except feeling a bit tire ( quite normal )
Pray for Lord's blessing for me to have a good nite rest and all goes well .
If all well, will discharge by tomorrow afternoon and back on 3rd / 4th and 5th day for the injection for white blood cell booster.
With the experience for 1st cycle in dealing with side effect, just wish that I can cope well and manage it better for this time and have a faster recovery .
I am bald about 1 1/2 week ago, when hair start to drop . But, just few days ago, hair start growing again ... :).
I think it will drop again, so, shaving it everyday to maintain bald for time being .
Less phlegm cough out after 1st cycle, but, some blood still show up in phlegm, not everytime and not serious, it is less in compare to before chemo treatment .
God bless.
SK
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