5/15 - 6 more to go!

So, it has been sometime since I last update with you guys.

My diet was back to normal 3 days after my first chemotherapy session. My stomach can afford 3 meals per day instead of 5 meals per day, because I no longer feeling uncomfortable after eating. Besides that, I stopped the anti-vomit drug 3 days after chemo too! This is a good sign because this indicates that my body can cope with the side effect very well.

I always remind myself to eat more, eat more and more. However, it is really bad to know that my digestive system is not working very well. I eat more than I usually do, however I still lost some weight, from 67 to 64. I tried to workout too~ I will walk around the running track when it is not raining.

The remaining 11days goes on very well. My mum came to Taiwan to take care of me too! It is great to have her here because she can take care a lot of things for me, like prepare veggies, juices and soups for me. Although I can take care of it myself, but my mum insist to be here to make sure I can do some "detoxification" thing and improve my energy thing and some diet constrain by some detox-pioneer. For instance, I was initially not allowed to take egg, milk, tomato, potato, brinjal, red bean, all kinds of bread/cake, rice (white), yam, purple-sweet potato, fried/deep fried food, curry (WHAT?!), artificial food (vegetarian), all-kinds-of-sweet food and peanuts. I am not entirely agree with the food contrain, and I was a little bit frusfrated and angry with those rules.

Actually, I do agree with the detoxification theory and also the acidic-basic body condition theory, however, some restrictions are really out of their mind and I cannot tolerate with it at first. If it's not coming from my mum's request, I will never obey it, I obey it because it's an appreciation towards my mum's love and care. No tomato? what's the theory behind it? I really don't understand. Anyway, I still eat some egg, tomato, potato and white rice. Haha.

Just some grumble. Ha.

My second chemotherapy was originally scheduled on 5/5 (Wednesday). A blood test for liver function and blood cell count is usually required before chemotherapy to make sure that my body could afford the drug. It came out that my monocytes level is at the borderline, so he suggested me to do my second chemotherapy on 5/7 (Friday). According to him, this is still ok, but if in the future, this problem still occur, I will have to take a shot of GCSF (it's like a growht booster for blood cell). However, my doctor buddy told me that my pelvics, femur and other long bones will feel soreness after the shot. Gee, I better pray that I wouldn't need the shot.

Anyway, my second chemotherapy went well too. Except I feel very nervous and anxious when I first walked into the treatment ward. I don't know why, I just feel very uncomfortable on the chair. For no reason. Don't ask why. I cannot sit still, I leaned on the bed, I turned left and right, I tried to let myself sleep... Even now when I recall the memory, I feel a little bit nausea. GEE. However, once I let myself sleep, I felt much more better then. Everything goes well, I even don't feel like vomitting this time. My body responded well to the regimen.

Last but not least, my hair started falling. So I decided to shave my hair. Here you go. Haha.

Call me a monk.

So, I was scheduled to be admitted to the hospital on April 18. However, I was acknowledge that there is neither insurance-covered ward (Taiwan has National Health Insurance that provide free 4/6 person ward) nor self-paid ward (single or double room) available. Not until April 19 I was informed that there was a self-paid ward available (two-person room), I have no option but chose to pay for the ward.

This made me wondered what happened to the world where so many people were diagnosed with cancer? Is it because of the over-polluted environment, or is it because of the the modern lifestyle that we lived with. Of course I don't blame for having this Hodgkin's Lymphoma, because it is important to understand that there isn't a single cause for a cancer to develop. It is multifactorals: environment factors, genetic factors, age factors, physical activities, diet, infections, bla bla and bla. If you believe in Buddhism, karma is one of the factors too! Well, it is worth thinking anyway.

Anyway, the standard-first-line treatment for my cancer was ABVD chemotherapy regimen. ABVD is the abbreviation of 4 different kinds of drugs, namely Adriamycin, Bleomycin, Visblastine and Dacarbazine. It will be administrated intravenously to my body, through my Port-A (I mentioned on the previous email), twice a month (Day 1 and Day 15).

Straight to the point when I start my chemotherapy. The four drugs were given to me separately (I used to think that it is kinda cocktail treatment which was given simultaneously). All four drugs were pumped into my vein with a machine that could control the speed of infusion. I was given anti-nausea medication prior to the infusion. Everything goes well except I was forced to goto the washroom every half an hour because the amount of liquid was huge. I felt as usual until Adriamycin started dripping to my body. I feel ACUTE nausea and vomiting feeling. Anyway, thanks to the anti-nausea drug, I didn't puke.

The next few days, the only side effect from the chemotherapy I encountered with is uncomfortable in my stomach and tiredness. It feels just like you ate something wrong and you have light cramping in your stomach. I can still eat the same amount of food that I usually take, but I will have to separate it into two meals instead of one. Now I have literally 5 meals per day (breakfast, 2X lunch and 2X dinner). I feel a lil exhausting too, so I sleep like 8-10 hours per day.

However, don't worry too much because there are so many people around me who cares a lot. They accompany me to and back from the hospitals, they visited me when I was in the hospital/at home, they bring me food and fruits, they gave me physical and mental support... I don't know what to do except saying thank you and promise to pay back to the society in the future.

I tried to maintain an active lifestyle, so I still go to school with masks for a few hours per day. I will take a walk in the school whenever I could. Others time I just sit in front of the computer writing my diary or watching tv. Such a leisure lifestyle huh. Not productive to be accurate, ha.

The next chemotherapy session will be on 5/5, if nothing goes wrong. I will have to work hard to bring up my ferritin in my blood these few days. Finger crossed.

Goodbye for now!

Get a cut on the chest and put a tube into it

Last friday, I went for a Port-A (portacath) implantation beneath my skin. The port was inserted under my upper left chest, just beneath my collar bone. It was implanted to make sure that I don't need to be poked everytime I need to undergo chemotherapy or blood test.

It was totally hidden under my skin, but you can see a buldge on my upper chest, so swimming and bathing is not really a problem (see attachment). Not a big ones, with the diameter 1-1.5cm. My activity is not really constricted, just that I am advised not to swing my arm 360 degree. I was locally anesthetized for this surgery. The process was quite fun. I was accompanied with one of my collegue aka friend in my lab.

One of our doctor in my working lab scheduled this surgery for me. Although he is an urologist, but the surgeon who was responsible for this installation is his friend. So, an urologist and a general surgeon did this operation for me (funny huh?). I was a little bit nervous in the operating room (OR) at first. However, after I saw my friend, and a lot of jokes made by him, my tension was released. He played some taiwanese song in the OR, and the general atmosphere in the OR is basically very joyful. My whole face was initially covered with sterile clothes, but the surgeon insist that my eyes to be off the cloth, so that he could have eye contact with me. I was informed and advised throughout the surgery, every steps they did, every incomfortable that I might feel.

They connect the Port into a vein (usually ended up in the superior vena cava) so that the drug could be diffuse to the body quickly and efficiently. I heard a lot of gossips through out the surgery, haha. After both of them sew my wound up, the surgeon said I could get contact with him if I have any problem. My urologist friend said goodbye to me and proceed to another surgery. I am so blessed to have him as my friend, we usually call each other "buddies" (兄弟 in mandarin).

I went home right after the surgery. I was prescribed with some antibiotics and painkiller. (I complained to one of my doctor friend that the painkiller don't really work cos I still feel pain after taking the painkiller. It ended up that I mistakenlly took antibiotics instead of painkiller to kill pain, stupid me) Anyway, that night after the surgery was truly torturing. The pain was so intense that I couldn't really sleep well (I ate both painkiller and antibioticS!) cos I woke up every an hour or so that night. However, I feel much more better the next day and I feel no pain now.

That's all for now, next up will be my #1 chemotherapy session. Lotsa funny things coming up. Haha.

Ciao for now.

4/16- A series of examinations

Today is the fifth day after I am diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.

I had a bone marrow aspiration yesterday and PET CT scan(something like a more fashionable X-ray scan). The function of bone marrow aspiration is to see whether cancer cell could be found inside bone marrow or not, it will help with the cancer staging. While PET was to see the spreading of cancer cell (by looking at the metabolism of cells) in my body. Cancer cell usually has higher metabolism rate (they used up more sugar) than normal cell. For this scan, I must fast for 4 hours before scanning. Then I will have to be in lying position for at least 15mins to quiet down my muscular activity to avoid misinterpretation.

Then I will be injected with FDG, a sugar solution with radioactive trace, to my vein. Then I will have to lie down for one hour to let my body consume the sugar solution injected earlier. As I've mentioned earlier, cancer cell used up more sugar than other cells, and the radioactive trace will "shine" under the PET-CT scanning device, so any parts of my body which has cancer cells will "lit up" after the scan. [Note: Brain and bladder will lit up as well, not because they have cancer cell, but it was dued to brain has high metaolism rate and bladder has to collect the metabolism waste]

Guess what, after the FDG injection, I became a radioactive emitter. I was warned not to stay close with children and pregnant woman. LOL.

Next, I will have to lie on an high-tech bed, which moves automatically into a space-shuttle-like machine. Then the computer will scan my body... bla bla bla... and the computer will come up with some images to tell which part of your body has high-sugar-uptake cells (which should be cancer cell). This is a very expensive scan and I am blessed to have such courteous treatment. Will update you with my cancer staging when I get the answer from my doctor.

While bone marrow aspiration is relatively easy in theory. I was first injected with painkiller and locally aneshetized. Then my doctor took a needle (I guess so, because I can't see it, I was lying with my face facing down) to drill a hole into my pelvic bone (Iliac bone). Then he withdrew my blood from my pelvic and also took a small bone sample.

I was very tired after such long hours of scan and bone marrow aspiration yesterday, I slept for 8 hours straight yesterday night. Will write to you more tomorrow since I am in great pain after inserting Port-A today. However, don't worry too much since my friend in my lab accompanied me along the whole process. I am very grateful to have them in my life.

Last but not least, I want to thank you for your support. Let's pray for the world and also, please spare some prayer for my body. Haha.

"I will live through this."

Diagnosis of Hodgkin Lymphoma

I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma on 2010/4/11, what a life-changing moment. Despite hearing a lot of people saying that they were shocked, scared, freaked out, lost when they first heard the diagnosis of cancer; I accepted the diagnosis very calmly and peacefully.

On 4/14, I already decided to follow up with the suggested treatment by my oncologist, and scheduled up a series of blood test, PET-CT scan, Port-A insertion and the list goes on.

The purpose of writing this blog is to share my thoughts during my ABVD-chemotherapy treatment with my friends and also other Hodgkin's lymphoma patient. The power of sharing is really unbelievable, because people tend to believe in those who had the same experiences as they do.

Although plans and dreams often disrupted when one is diagnosed with cancer (because of long treatment plan and uncertainties lying ahead), one very important element in cancer healing is KEEP POSITIVE THINKING. I believe, if we hold on together, I know my dream to keep living on will never die.

So, Hodgkin's Lymphoma survival out there, say HI to me! Let's be allies of one another.