If you want to have a good understanding of this subject.
Dr. Silvestri's post is very informative .
http://cancergrace.org/lung/2010/05/12/general-work-up-and-staging-of-lung-cancer-what-do-you-need-to-know/
SK
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
2 years after 1st chemo treatment
Friend call up to check with me some sharing about chemo treatment. When I refer to my record, notice that 23rd July 2008 is my first chemo treatment .
It is still fresh in my memory, I woke up so early in the morning to get ready to the chemo centre .
The nurses in the SJMC chemo centre is very helpful and it is a great help to take away much of my worries.
A day before the treatment, I am just like others, full of questions and keep checking on the net and with friends, try very best to know more about side effect and so on.
The treatment with Carboplatin + Taxol , went on smoothly and completed in the afternoon.
The immediate side effect surface next day morning, but, instead of the expected fever, I had serious hiccup .
Check with doctor and was informed it is not common for patient to have hiccup ( as side effect ), so, I am the lucky one .
Try on anti-hiccup medicine and it works only for 2 hours. Thereafter, start again . Finally, my wife find a solution for me . Boiled ginger water . It help to stop it and back after few hours. I goes on with ginger water and finally, it ends . ( Sometime, the natural food can do much more wonder than the western drug )
It's a blessing that other than the hiccup and some slight rise of body temperature, everything goes well for first 3 days .
Start from fouth day, I start to feel some poking pain in my bone and bone joint. Not really serious ,but , if I am going to focus and think / feel it, it is quite pain and disturbing. To solve it, I start to divert my attention to watch TV , read books , drawing . Anything that can divert my attention, I will do it . It last for two to three days and goes off.
A week after the treatment, the awaited hair loss start and I decide to shave bald to avoid hair dropping everywhere .
By then, I am back and start recovering to face the next cycle of chemo .
It goes on the same thing for the next 5 cycles of treatment.
At the end of the 6 cycles of treatment, I am bald , I am fair ( as there is no hair from head to toe, save my money for shampo ) and my daughter say that my skin is as smooth as baby skin .
About two months after the last chemo treatment, I was recommended to try the targeted drug , Tarceva . It is in tablet form and to take once a day, one hour before food or 2 hours after food. ( I check on drug information site and it mentioned that taking this drug with food can raise the levels of the drug in the body, which is why it is recommended you take it on an empty stomach. Avoid grapefruit or grapefruit juice during treatment Grapefruit and grapefruit juice are known to affect the level of erlotinib in your blood. )
A week later, I start getting the well expected side effect with rash start showing up on my face and upper body . Then, it follow by some ulcer in my mouth and next is the blister in my tongue.
There is also some infection in my throat and finally I decided to take doctor advice to proceed with antibiotic to solve the infection and reduce the rash effect on my face and upper body.
While I am on Tarceva , some good news , hair start growing . ( well, it is not becasue of Tarceva, it is normal that after you stop the chemo for carboplatin + taxol, hair will start to grow back )
Ulcer and blister take about two weeks to goes off and rash under control after 3 weeks, but, it is still there months after I stop Tarceva .
Maybe I am not suitable for Tarceva, I check on the booklet for Tarceva and note that my rash condition is consider the 3rd stage rash as far as the rash staging side effect for patient who's on Terceva treatment.
Anyway, Tarceva not helping me much and with doctor advice, I stop it after 2 1/2 month.
After a rest for 1 1/2 months from Tarceva and a nice vacation holiday with my family to Taiwan, I am back to treatment with Cisplatin + Alimta .
During the treatment , I start to undertand why doctor say different patient react differently to the drug . There is patient coping very well with Cisplatin, but, I am not . And there is patient having hard time dealing with Caboplatin, but, I am coping so well with it .
Treatment with Cisplatin + Alimta will take a long hours, about 8 hours to finish treatment.
I am having the same old problem a day after the chemo , HICCUP . And this time, boiled ginger water not working , so , I take a tea spoon of fine sugar and let it melt in my mouth slowly, it works . ( It is a treatment tips for hiccup that I learn from an old aunty when I am young ) But, it's not working again on second cycle, so , my wife start to boil ginger water again and add in lemon and honey . Amazing, it works . ( So, never give up and keep trying to find a solution, most of the side effect can be resolved )
I am having hard time with cisplatin for very bad nausea and feeling tired . But, manage to cope with it by keep thinking of what is the food that I can eat and my wife will cook or buy it for me. This help me to maintain my food intake and keep my body fill with energy to chase away the feeling of tired. ( So, don't give up eating when you have strong nausea or vomit side effect, keep trying different type of food or cooking. We need strong body and healthy body during treatment to cope with the side effect . Ice Cream , Chocolate is my good companion during treatment )
After the 3rd cycle of treatment and CT scan show there is no significance improvement , I decided to stop the treatment and take 3 months rest to have a recovery of my body system and immune system . ( After the 3rd cycles , I feel weak , it may not all because of the cisplatin, as I am already treated with 6 cycles of Carboplatin + Taxol and 2 1/2 months of Tarceva. So, it is time that I need a good rest with proper diet , exercise and so on to rebuild my body and immune system. Anyway, I discussed with doctor and he agreed with my plan and advise me to keep very close follow-up and not to rest too long from the treatment )
In Sept '09, I am back in treatment again with only Alimta . The side effect is minimum and I am coping very well with it . After the 3rd cycle, I took CT scan and again the result show no changes in size or quatity of the tumour, everything is stable. So, I decided to take a rest from treatment and spend my time to build my body / immune system .
By now, I am already 9 months out of treatment ( from my last chemo on mid Oct '09 ) . God bless, everything goes well and I am living my days with the tumour and cancer cell still inside my body .
What I learn in this 2 years about treatment is to be balance in everthing we do.
There is no guarantee answer to the curing of cancer . Doctor , reseacher are working round the clock to keep finding new treatment options , new drugs . Clinical trial is going on everyday around the world for modern or traditional therapy .
We just have to continue to pray and continue to keep our body stay strong, until the day when God give wisdom to someone to come up with a cancer treatment that will guarantee to cure cancer .
There is many opinions about cancer treatment . There are groups who oppose to chemo / surgery / radiotherapy and suggest only alternative therapy with traditional herbs or natural food, fruit juicing and so on . And, there is groups who suggest only chemo / surgery / radiotherapy as treatment options and totally disagreed to any alternative treatment option.
As layman in medical field and following are purely my opinion as a cancer patient, I feel that chemo/ surgery / radiotheraphy is still the main stream treatment. No doubts that there is lots of side effect during the treatment . But, there is no guarantee that alternative therapy not having side effect, just that it is not reported . It goes the same theory with chemo drug. Each patient will react differently . So, some patient will do very well with some of the alternative therapy and some not.
But, the bottom line is that we need to have healthy and strong body to cope well with the treatment. Be it Chemo/Surgery/Radiotherapy or any alternative treatment .
Then, question raise. When a patient have cancer, means he/she is sick, so, what are we talking about healthy body. My opinion is that "Cancer" is defined as the uncontrolled or unregulated growth of cells. It is not a disease . If we can change our diet gradually , our lifestyle gradually , we can rebuild our body/immune system and it will help to improve our self healing system to repair our body and once our body system improve, it will restore the healthy environment which will deter the cancer cell to grow . Cancer is not any bacteria or virus and it is not form just in one or two days ago. The lung cancer professor told me that it take years to form the size of tumour for my stage 4 NSCLC. So, it is possible to rebuild and restore our body system. Don't give up .
Meantime, complementary therapy, such as Qi gong , Yoga , Foot and Body massage , Acupunture and many others which is recommended by oncologist are good to assist patient to reduce side effect and rebuilding of body system.
Anyway, it is our body that will tell us whether the treatment is suitable for us , whether it works for us , whether it help us and therefore, to learn how to listen to our body is much more important than anything .
Doctor will give us advice and prescription base on our feedback , base on our scan and blood test report and base on our syndrome, without guarantee or confirmation that it will work for us. Same goes to the alternative treatment, the person who recommend us to the alternative treament will not guarantee that it will work for us.
So, be patient and attentive to take note of any body changes during treatment and after treatment . If possible , keep a daily record of how you feel in the morning , afternoon , evening and during the night . Then, keep your weight record ( fix a time of the day ) daily , keep your blood pressure daily ( I take record of blood pressure in the morning , noon and night , during treatment . And still continue to take once a day until now ) . It is important not to be panic when you find something wrong , as sometime we will become too sensitive, when we start being too attentive to the body changes. For example, when you wake up in the morning and suddenly feel chest pain , pls do not be too panic and start thinking about the tumour in lung start deteriorating. As it could be due to some excessive exercise you did for the past few days or because you carry some heavy stuffs a day ago. So, be calm and analyse it , monitor it and recall what happen for the past days . If it persist , take a drive to check with doctor for advice, instead of start worry . Remember that fear and worry is the worst enemy for us .
I feel great for still being around living my days with cancer and thanks Lord for his grace , blessing and healing .
I am looking forward to be here to continue my sharing and wish God blessing for all of you.
God Bless
SK
Special Note : Each patient have different reaction to chemo drug, side effect . Therefore, what I have experience, may not be the same as other patient. I have read sharing from other patient, who have minimum side effect and good response with Carboplatin + Taxol ; Tarceva ; Cisplatin + Alimta or just Alimta . So, please just take it as my sharing and it is not any medical advice.
It is still fresh in my memory, I woke up so early in the morning to get ready to the chemo centre .
The nurses in the SJMC chemo centre is very helpful and it is a great help to take away much of my worries.
A day before the treatment, I am just like others, full of questions and keep checking on the net and with friends, try very best to know more about side effect and so on.
The treatment with Carboplatin + Taxol , went on smoothly and completed in the afternoon.
The immediate side effect surface next day morning, but, instead of the expected fever, I had serious hiccup .
Check with doctor and was informed it is not common for patient to have hiccup ( as side effect ), so, I am the lucky one .
Try on anti-hiccup medicine and it works only for 2 hours. Thereafter, start again . Finally, my wife find a solution for me . Boiled ginger water . It help to stop it and back after few hours. I goes on with ginger water and finally, it ends . ( Sometime, the natural food can do much more wonder than the western drug )
It's a blessing that other than the hiccup and some slight rise of body temperature, everything goes well for first 3 days .
Start from fouth day, I start to feel some poking pain in my bone and bone joint. Not really serious ,but , if I am going to focus and think / feel it, it is quite pain and disturbing. To solve it, I start to divert my attention to watch TV , read books , drawing . Anything that can divert my attention, I will do it . It last for two to three days and goes off.
A week after the treatment, the awaited hair loss start and I decide to shave bald to avoid hair dropping everywhere .
By then, I am back and start recovering to face the next cycle of chemo .
It goes on the same thing for the next 5 cycles of treatment.
At the end of the 6 cycles of treatment, I am bald , I am fair ( as there is no hair from head to toe, save my money for shampo ) and my daughter say that my skin is as smooth as baby skin .
About two months after the last chemo treatment, I was recommended to try the targeted drug , Tarceva . It is in tablet form and to take once a day, one hour before food or 2 hours after food. ( I check on drug information site and it mentioned that taking this drug with food can raise the levels of the drug in the body, which is why it is recommended you take it on an empty stomach. Avoid grapefruit or grapefruit juice during treatment Grapefruit and grapefruit juice are known to affect the level of erlotinib in your blood. )
A week later, I start getting the well expected side effect with rash start showing up on my face and upper body . Then, it follow by some ulcer in my mouth and next is the blister in my tongue.
There is also some infection in my throat and finally I decided to take doctor advice to proceed with antibiotic to solve the infection and reduce the rash effect on my face and upper body.
While I am on Tarceva , some good news , hair start growing . ( well, it is not becasue of Tarceva, it is normal that after you stop the chemo for carboplatin + taxol, hair will start to grow back )
Ulcer and blister take about two weeks to goes off and rash under control after 3 weeks, but, it is still there months after I stop Tarceva .
Maybe I am not suitable for Tarceva, I check on the booklet for Tarceva and note that my rash condition is consider the 3rd stage rash as far as the rash staging side effect for patient who's on Terceva treatment.
Anyway, Tarceva not helping me much and with doctor advice, I stop it after 2 1/2 month.
After a rest for 1 1/2 months from Tarceva and a nice vacation holiday with my family to Taiwan, I am back to treatment with Cisplatin + Alimta .
During the treatment , I start to undertand why doctor say different patient react differently to the drug . There is patient coping very well with Cisplatin, but, I am not . And there is patient having hard time dealing with Caboplatin, but, I am coping so well with it .
Treatment with Cisplatin + Alimta will take a long hours, about 8 hours to finish treatment.
I am having the same old problem a day after the chemo , HICCUP . And this time, boiled ginger water not working , so , I take a tea spoon of fine sugar and let it melt in my mouth slowly, it works . ( It is a treatment tips for hiccup that I learn from an old aunty when I am young ) But, it's not working again on second cycle, so , my wife start to boil ginger water again and add in lemon and honey . Amazing, it works . ( So, never give up and keep trying to find a solution, most of the side effect can be resolved )
I am having hard time with cisplatin for very bad nausea and feeling tired . But, manage to cope with it by keep thinking of what is the food that I can eat and my wife will cook or buy it for me. This help me to maintain my food intake and keep my body fill with energy to chase away the feeling of tired. ( So, don't give up eating when you have strong nausea or vomit side effect, keep trying different type of food or cooking. We need strong body and healthy body during treatment to cope with the side effect . Ice Cream , Chocolate is my good companion during treatment )
After the 3rd cycle of treatment and CT scan show there is no significance improvement , I decided to stop the treatment and take 3 months rest to have a recovery of my body system and immune system . ( After the 3rd cycles , I feel weak , it may not all because of the cisplatin, as I am already treated with 6 cycles of Carboplatin + Taxol and 2 1/2 months of Tarceva. So, it is time that I need a good rest with proper diet , exercise and so on to rebuild my body and immune system. Anyway, I discussed with doctor and he agreed with my plan and advise me to keep very close follow-up and not to rest too long from the treatment )
In Sept '09, I am back in treatment again with only Alimta . The side effect is minimum and I am coping very well with it . After the 3rd cycle, I took CT scan and again the result show no changes in size or quatity of the tumour, everything is stable. So, I decided to take a rest from treatment and spend my time to build my body / immune system .
By now, I am already 9 months out of treatment ( from my last chemo on mid Oct '09 ) . God bless, everything goes well and I am living my days with the tumour and cancer cell still inside my body .
What I learn in this 2 years about treatment is to be balance in everthing we do.
There is no guarantee answer to the curing of cancer . Doctor , reseacher are working round the clock to keep finding new treatment options , new drugs . Clinical trial is going on everyday around the world for modern or traditional therapy .
We just have to continue to pray and continue to keep our body stay strong, until the day when God give wisdom to someone to come up with a cancer treatment that will guarantee to cure cancer .
There is many opinions about cancer treatment . There are groups who oppose to chemo / surgery / radiotherapy and suggest only alternative therapy with traditional herbs or natural food, fruit juicing and so on . And, there is groups who suggest only chemo / surgery / radiotherapy as treatment options and totally disagreed to any alternative treatment option.
As layman in medical field and following are purely my opinion as a cancer patient, I feel that chemo/ surgery / radiotheraphy is still the main stream treatment. No doubts that there is lots of side effect during the treatment . But, there is no guarantee that alternative therapy not having side effect, just that it is not reported . It goes the same theory with chemo drug. Each patient will react differently . So, some patient will do very well with some of the alternative therapy and some not.
But, the bottom line is that we need to have healthy and strong body to cope well with the treatment. Be it Chemo/Surgery/Radiotherapy or any alternative treatment .
Then, question raise. When a patient have cancer, means he/she is sick, so, what are we talking about healthy body. My opinion is that "Cancer" is defined as the uncontrolled or unregulated growth of cells. It is not a disease . If we can change our diet gradually , our lifestyle gradually , we can rebuild our body/immune system and it will help to improve our self healing system to repair our body and once our body system improve, it will restore the healthy environment which will deter the cancer cell to grow . Cancer is not any bacteria or virus and it is not form just in one or two days ago. The lung cancer professor told me that it take years to form the size of tumour for my stage 4 NSCLC. So, it is possible to rebuild and restore our body system. Don't give up .
Meantime, complementary therapy, such as Qi gong , Yoga , Foot and Body massage , Acupunture and many others which is recommended by oncologist are good to assist patient to reduce side effect and rebuilding of body system.
Anyway, it is our body that will tell us whether the treatment is suitable for us , whether it works for us , whether it help us and therefore, to learn how to listen to our body is much more important than anything .
Doctor will give us advice and prescription base on our feedback , base on our scan and blood test report and base on our syndrome, without guarantee or confirmation that it will work for us. Same goes to the alternative treatment, the person who recommend us to the alternative treament will not guarantee that it will work for us.
So, be patient and attentive to take note of any body changes during treatment and after treatment . If possible , keep a daily record of how you feel in the morning , afternoon , evening and during the night . Then, keep your weight record ( fix a time of the day ) daily , keep your blood pressure daily ( I take record of blood pressure in the morning , noon and night , during treatment . And still continue to take once a day until now ) . It is important not to be panic when you find something wrong , as sometime we will become too sensitive, when we start being too attentive to the body changes. For example, when you wake up in the morning and suddenly feel chest pain , pls do not be too panic and start thinking about the tumour in lung start deteriorating. As it could be due to some excessive exercise you did for the past few days or because you carry some heavy stuffs a day ago. So, be calm and analyse it , monitor it and recall what happen for the past days . If it persist , take a drive to check with doctor for advice, instead of start worry . Remember that fear and worry is the worst enemy for us .
I feel great for still being around living my days with cancer and thanks Lord for his grace , blessing and healing .
I am looking forward to be here to continue my sharing and wish God blessing for all of you.
God Bless
SK
Special Note : Each patient have different reaction to chemo drug, side effect . Therefore, what I have experience, may not be the same as other patient. I have read sharing from other patient, who have minimum side effect and good response with Carboplatin + Taxol ; Tarceva ; Cisplatin + Alimta or just Alimta . So, please just take it as my sharing and it is not any medical advice.
Monday, June 21, 2010
It is June again ...
June ...
It is June again ...It is the month that change my life .
It is the month that change my view of many things .
It is the month that bring me to Lord .
It is the month that I know I am surrounded by loving and caring people .
It is the month that I know more about Love .
It is the month that I get to know wealth means nothing without health .
It is the month that I fully agree , what's matter most is how we live our life and not how long we live .
It is the month that I know how fortunate I am to have Chris ( my wife ), she's been so supportive and keep walking with me without looking back .
It is the month that I know that it is so great to have Natalie ( my daughter ), she bring joy to me.
It is the month ...
It is the month ...
It is the month that I know what is CANCER ?
I love June , because it change my life.
I love June , because it is the month I am looking forward every year .
I love June , because every June I live thro' , means Lord have answer my prayer and Lord is so graceful .
I love June , because June means celebration .
I pray that Lord will bless me and continue to heal me, and I look forward to be here to tell you in coming years , " It is JUNE again "
God Bless
SK
It is June again ...It is the month that change my life .
It is the month that change my view of many things .
It is the month that bring me to Lord .
It is the month that I know I am surrounded by loving and caring people .
It is the month that I know more about Love .
It is the month that I get to know wealth means nothing without health .
It is the month that I fully agree , what's matter most is how we live our life and not how long we live .
It is the month that I know how fortunate I am to have Chris ( my wife ), she's been so supportive and keep walking with me without looking back .
It is the month that I know that it is so great to have Natalie ( my daughter ), she bring joy to me.
It is the month ...
It is the month ...
It is the month that I know what is CANCER ?
I love June , because it change my life.
I love June , because it is the month I am looking forward every year .
I love June , because every June I live thro' , means Lord have answer my prayer and Lord is so graceful .
I love June , because June means celebration .
I pray that Lord will bless me and continue to heal me, and I look forward to be here to tell you in coming years , " It is JUNE again "
God Bless
SK
Saturday, June 12, 2010
What is 'C" - cancer to us ...
'C' bring fear n worry to many of us
'C' means disastrous to many of us
'C' cause mental torture and physical suffer to many of us and
'C' always link to death for many of us ...
This is what many of us think of it, when someone mention 'C'
Time to change on what we used to think of 'C' .
Time to change on what we used to do.
Time to tell ourself that
'C' bring us back to healthy diet , healthy living .
'C' means caring.
Because of 'C', we receive all the caring message and it confirm that the world is still full of caring and loving people and it is care with sincere loving heart.
'C' cause us to value life and everything we have , more than what we did before.
Someone wrote" The value of a good Lung is measured after losing it ",
I would say " Value our lung and life, we should not wait till the 'C' to tell us how to value it "
'C' link to Alarm , not death. It is the alarm telling us , there is something wrong with our body, which may cause by stress ; environment polution ; our diet ; our lifestyle and the usual wear & tear after years or by many other possible unknown reason. The only set back is that, most of the time , this alarm come too late and give us too short of time to get things organise for the repairing work.But, on the other hand, we should be grateful that atleast the alarm still working and we've been given a chance to get it repair.So, let's not link it to death and just start repair it with the time we have.
To all the cancer warrior ,
- Let's not give up
- Let's not fear n worry weight us down, let's unload it from our back
- Let's continue to go forward with the repair work
- Let's continue to open our hand and our heart to receive love and support from our Lord , our family, our friends and live our days with joyful and happy mood during this long journey
- Let's value the chance that we've been given to carry out the repair .
- Let's be grateful that our alarm's still working and we been given chance/time to do something.
- Let's be thankful . There's many other sickness take life away from our love one without chance to say Good Bye. But, we been given a chance to get it repair .
And l am thankful to Lord . It is by his grace and mercy that I am still living happily and be able to share with you.
Just remember that we are not alone going thro' this long journey, we are together supporting each other and with the mercy of Lord , we will walk out from the darkness to light.
Today is a joyful day and with Lord everyday will be .
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
God Bless
SK
'C' means disastrous to many of us
'C' cause mental torture and physical suffer to many of us and
'C' always link to death for many of us ...
This is what many of us think of it, when someone mention 'C'
Time to change on what we used to think of 'C' .
Time to change on what we used to do.
Time to tell ourself that
'C' bring us back to healthy diet , healthy living .
'C' means caring.
Because of 'C', we receive all the caring message and it confirm that the world is still full of caring and loving people and it is care with sincere loving heart.
'C' cause us to value life and everything we have , more than what we did before.
Someone wrote" The value of a good Lung is measured after losing it ",
I would say " Value our lung and life, we should not wait till the 'C' to tell us how to value it "
'C' link to Alarm , not death. It is the alarm telling us , there is something wrong with our body, which may cause by stress ; environment polution ; our diet ; our lifestyle and the usual wear & tear after years or by many other possible unknown reason. The only set back is that, most of the time , this alarm come too late and give us too short of time to get things organise for the repairing work.But, on the other hand, we should be grateful that atleast the alarm still working and we've been given a chance to get it repair.So, let's not link it to death and just start repair it with the time we have.
To all the cancer warrior ,
- Let's not give up
- Let's not fear n worry weight us down, let's unload it from our back
- Let's continue to go forward with the repair work
- Let's continue to open our hand and our heart to receive love and support from our Lord , our family, our friends and live our days with joyful and happy mood during this long journey
- Let's value the chance that we've been given to carry out the repair .
- Let's be grateful that our alarm's still working and we been given chance/time to do something.
- Let's be thankful . There's many other sickness take life away from our love one without chance to say Good Bye. But, we been given a chance to get it repair .
And l am thankful to Lord . It is by his grace and mercy that I am still living happily and be able to share with you.
Just remember that we are not alone going thro' this long journey, we are together supporting each other and with the mercy of Lord , we will walk out from the darkness to light.
Today is a joyful day and with Lord everyday will be .
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
God Bless
SK
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Keep going with faith ...
Feel kind of depress with news of friend's family member been diagnosed with cancer ; recurrence of cancer ; metastasis of cancer ; lossing the battle, all within a month .
And I am so thankful to Lord . It is His mercy and grace that keep me doing well and strong .
Feel great when Lord give me some good news to cheer me up ( after all the negative news ) with the result of my CEA blood test reading. The reading reported reduce of 43 points from 1443 to 1400. It is still high or so call very high , but, to be able to keep it stable without treatment, it is amazing . Praise the Lord.
And I am so thankful to Lord . It is His mercy and grace that keep me doing well and strong .
Feel great when Lord give me some good news to cheer me up ( after all the negative news ) with the result of my CEA blood test reading. The reading reported reduce of 43 points from 1443 to 1400. It is still high or so call very high , but, to be able to keep it stable without treatment, it is amazing . Praise the Lord.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Feel Great
My posting in Cancer Compass :-
1st April 2010 :- ( http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,45526,0.htm )
Sleeping in hospital bed and wake up at 2 a.m. and can't sleep again is no fun .
Thanks to all your posting here to give me strenght .
Feel great now and looking forward to a good scanning in the morning .
Anyway, I hate the fasting , As I can't eat for until about 11 am with the schedule CT for lung on 9 am and brain MRI 10.30 am .
Looking forward to the good result by noon today .
2nd April 2010 :- (http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,45555,0.htm )
Finally I get my CT and MRI scan all settle by late morning yesterday and can happily enjoy my breakfast after a long fasting.
But, the long wait for hours waiting for the report make me feel tire and boring.
At last the report was out , 5 1/2 months after the last chemo, the CT lung show stable , no major changes to the size and quantity of tumor ( it is just like all the past report since '08 )
With the advice from oncologist, I decided to take brain MRI and CT scan for neck + abdomen to confirm whether any sign of metastasis, since my CEA reading ( as per blood test 3 days ago ) show going up to new level of 1400+ .
Great result, scanning show no sign of any metastasis .
Praise the Lord for his healing , blessing and always answering our prayer .
Thanks all of you for all great encouraging message posting , it keep me be positive .
And have to thanks my loving and caring wife, who take care of me with love and great support. For many people, they will wonder why am I so happy, when there is no improvement after 22 months of treatment .
But, for me, it is a good news when the condition is under control ; I can eat well , sleep well , moving around freely , travel , enjoy my family life ( which I hv missed so much for the past with crazy working life ) and I feel good everyday.
Have learn to live with cancer in my lung and I know one day it will disappear, as the 'C' will find that it is no fun staying around when this guy have so much of support and have no fear & worry about lossing life to cancer.
I pray and wish all of us here will get well soon with the blessing & healing from Lord Jesus and the support to each other and continue to figth the 'C' without fear and worry .
It is a happy and joyful day and with Lord everyday will be .
God Bless
SK
1st April 2010 :- ( http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,45526,0.htm )
Sleeping in hospital bed and wake up at 2 a.m. and can't sleep again is no fun .
Thanks to all your posting here to give me strenght .
Feel great now and looking forward to a good scanning in the morning .
Anyway, I hate the fasting , As I can't eat for until about 11 am with the schedule CT for lung on 9 am and brain MRI 10.30 am .
Looking forward to the good result by noon today .
2nd April 2010 :- (http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,45555,0.htm )
Finally I get my CT and MRI scan all settle by late morning yesterday and can happily enjoy my breakfast after a long fasting.
But, the long wait for hours waiting for the report make me feel tire and boring.
At last the report was out , 5 1/2 months after the last chemo, the CT lung show stable , no major changes to the size and quantity of tumor ( it is just like all the past report since '08 )
With the advice from oncologist, I decided to take brain MRI and CT scan for neck + abdomen to confirm whether any sign of metastasis, since my CEA reading ( as per blood test 3 days ago ) show going up to new level of 1400+ .
Great result, scanning show no sign of any metastasis .
Praise the Lord for his healing , blessing and always answering our prayer .
Thanks all of you for all great encouraging message posting , it keep me be positive .
And have to thanks my loving and caring wife, who take care of me with love and great support. For many people, they will wonder why am I so happy, when there is no improvement after 22 months of treatment .
But, for me, it is a good news when the condition is under control ; I can eat well , sleep well , moving around freely , travel , enjoy my family life ( which I hv missed so much for the past with crazy working life ) and I feel good everyday.
Have learn to live with cancer in my lung and I know one day it will disappear, as the 'C' will find that it is no fun staying around when this guy have so much of support and have no fear & worry about lossing life to cancer.
I pray and wish all of us here will get well soon with the blessing & healing from Lord Jesus and the support to each other and continue to figth the 'C' without fear and worry .
It is a happy and joyful day and with Lord everyday will be .
God Bless
SK
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Will too much reading cause worry !
My answer is " YES "
Most of us will start doing our reseach thro' reading and net browsing when diagnose
with cancer .
I start with the following site recommended by oncologist :-
http://www.cancer.gov/
http://www.cancer.net/
It give me a very good overview about cancer with general information like ;-
What is cancer ; Treatment ; Coping with cancer ; Prevention, Genetics, Causes ;
Screening and testing.
It also give me overview of all type of common cancer , for Lung cancer, the site
provide very details informations as follows :-
The Lungs - an overview of lungs ; Cancer cells - How's cancer begins in cells ;
Risk factors ; Screening ; Symptoms ; Diagnosis ; Staging ; Treatment ; Second opinion ;
Comfort care ; Nutrition and so on .
Thereafter, I start browsing to look for sites in Malaysia and I manage to find the following
> National Cancer Society of Malaysia ( http://www.cancer.org.my/ )
> Cancerlink Foundation ( http://www.cancerlinkfoundation.org/ )
> Makna <> ( http://www.makna.org.my/ )
> Malaysian Oncological Society ( http://www.malaysiaoncology.org/ )
And other sites that I used to get update informations as follows :-
> Nasional Cancer Centre Singapore ( http://www.nccs.com.sg/ )
> American Cancer Society USA ( http://cencer.org/ )
As for information of Chemo drug and the side effect , I log in to :-
http://www.2ndcanceropinionusa.com/drugdb.htm
Those are all the official site for cancer treatment or cancer care and it give us good information
about standard treatment or approved treatment by government and also all the approved or recommended
complimentary treatment .
After I start with Chemo Therapy and have so much of time at home resting and to cope with side effect,
I start do more reseach by reading books ; articles ; web sites , about story of cancer survivor ; about alternative treatment ;
about why we should not accept the standard treatment like surgery , radiation therapy, chemo therapy ; about there is no
cure for cancer, all treatment is just to prolong life for couple of months or the target of 5 years ; about changing our diet and
mindset to improve our immune system to regain our health and we will be fully recover ; about how to live with cancer in a peaceful
way and so on ...
Be frank, as a layman in medical field, I am getting confuse and wondering what is the right decision .
How to overcome it ?
When I am confuse, I pray to Lord and ask for wisdom ; knowledge and to guide me for the right tretament decision.
With wisdom from Lord and his guide, I find Cancer Compass ( http://www.cancercompass.com/ ) , it give me a better view
after reading all the posting from patient and care taker in cancer compass community and the sharing ; support from the community
is a great assistance to me and clear most of my doubts .
My opinion to share after reading all the informations about cancer treatment as follows :-
> Tell our self that Cancer is not a disease, it is our cell and it can be repaired if we give ourself a chance to do so.
> Tell ourself that cancer is not the end of our life, it is an alarm to inform us there is abnormal cell in our body system
( Cancer begins in cells, the building blocks that make up tissues. Tissues make up the organs of the body.
Normal, healthy cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them.
When normal cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place.
Sometimes, this orderly process goes wrong. New cells form when the body does not need them,
and old or damaged cells do not die as they should. The build-up of extra cells often forms a mass of tissue called a growth or tumor. )
( Cancer is defined as the uncontrolled or unregulated growth of cells. )
> Be it standard treatment or alternative tretament, the most important and immediate action should take is to improve and rebuild immune system.
Cancer patient can not afford to have more sickness during treatment, so, we have to stay as healthy as possible.
> Do away all fear and worry and set a positive mind-set to face the treatment
> Have proper and healthy diet
> Listen to our body and rest when we are tire
> Exercise to keep our body healthy ( simple brisk walking is good and do not need to force ourself with excessive exercise )
> Have faith with our Lord and pray for wisdom and healing.
Meantime, we should accept the fact that be it standard treatment or alternative treatment, non of the treatment is suitable for all,
as each patient react differently to the drug ; herb or cancer diet, because of our body system condition ; our race and background ; weather ; living and working environment .
Therefore, the correct way to deal with it is to listen carefully to our body and discuss with doctor and choose something that suit us .
God Bless
SK
Most of us will start doing our reseach thro' reading and net browsing when diagnose
with cancer .
I start with the following site recommended by oncologist :-
http://www.cancer.gov/
http://www.cancer.net/
It give me a very good overview about cancer with general information like ;-
What is cancer ; Treatment ; Coping with cancer ; Prevention, Genetics, Causes ;
Screening and testing.
It also give me overview of all type of common cancer , for Lung cancer, the site
provide very details informations as follows :-
The Lungs - an overview of lungs ; Cancer cells - How's cancer begins in cells ;
Risk factors ; Screening ; Symptoms ; Diagnosis ; Staging ; Treatment ; Second opinion ;
Comfort care ; Nutrition and so on .
Thereafter, I start browsing to look for sites in Malaysia and I manage to find the following
> National Cancer Society of Malaysia ( http://www.cancer.org.my/ )
> Cancerlink Foundation ( http://www.cancerlinkfoundation.org/ )
> Makna <> ( http://www.makna.org.my/ )
> Malaysian Oncological Society ( http://www.malaysiaoncology.org/ )
And other sites that I used to get update informations as follows :-
> Nasional Cancer Centre Singapore ( http://www.nccs.com.sg/ )
> American Cancer Society USA ( http://cencer.org/ )
As for information of Chemo drug and the side effect , I log in to :-
http://www.2ndcanceropinionusa.com/drugdb.htm
Those are all the official site for cancer treatment or cancer care and it give us good information
about standard treatment or approved treatment by government and also all the approved or recommended
complimentary treatment .
After I start with Chemo Therapy and have so much of time at home resting and to cope with side effect,
I start do more reseach by reading books ; articles ; web sites , about story of cancer survivor ; about alternative treatment ;
about why we should not accept the standard treatment like surgery , radiation therapy, chemo therapy ; about there is no
cure for cancer, all treatment is just to prolong life for couple of months or the target of 5 years ; about changing our diet and
mindset to improve our immune system to regain our health and we will be fully recover ; about how to live with cancer in a peaceful
way and so on ...
Be frank, as a layman in medical field, I am getting confuse and wondering what is the right decision .
How to overcome it ?
When I am confuse, I pray to Lord and ask for wisdom ; knowledge and to guide me for the right tretament decision.
With wisdom from Lord and his guide, I find Cancer Compass ( http://www.cancercompass.com/ ) , it give me a better view
after reading all the posting from patient and care taker in cancer compass community and the sharing ; support from the community
is a great assistance to me and clear most of my doubts .
My opinion to share after reading all the informations about cancer treatment as follows :-
> Tell our self that Cancer is not a disease, it is our cell and it can be repaired if we give ourself a chance to do so.
> Tell ourself that cancer is not the end of our life, it is an alarm to inform us there is abnormal cell in our body system
( Cancer begins in cells, the building blocks that make up tissues. Tissues make up the organs of the body.
Normal, healthy cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them.
When normal cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place.
Sometimes, this orderly process goes wrong. New cells form when the body does not need them,
and old or damaged cells do not die as they should. The build-up of extra cells often forms a mass of tissue called a growth or tumor. )
( Cancer is defined as the uncontrolled or unregulated growth of cells. )
> Be it standard treatment or alternative tretament, the most important and immediate action should take is to improve and rebuild immune system.
Cancer patient can not afford to have more sickness during treatment, so, we have to stay as healthy as possible.
> Do away all fear and worry and set a positive mind-set to face the treatment
> Have proper and healthy diet
> Listen to our body and rest when we are tire
> Exercise to keep our body healthy ( simple brisk walking is good and do not need to force ourself with excessive exercise )
> Have faith with our Lord and pray for wisdom and healing.
Meantime, we should accept the fact that be it standard treatment or alternative treatment, non of the treatment is suitable for all,
as each patient react differently to the drug ; herb or cancer diet, because of our body system condition ; our race and background ; weather ; living and working environment .
Therefore, the correct way to deal with it is to listen carefully to our body and discuss with doctor and choose something that suit us .
God Bless
SK
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