Treatment Started

Dear friends & relatives,

I know a lot of you are waiting for my update, it is not because I am not well but due to the limitation of internet usage. It is available but chargeable at a very high rate, so we waited till we moved to this Daiichi Hotel which is out of the city where we can use it free. Things here also much more cheaper. Imagine we have to pay a meal of RM320 for 2 persons and this is the cheapest place we found at the basement area. The buffer breakfast is RM120, lunch is RM200, dinner350 per person. These are the simple normal buffer we have in KL and the variety of dishes are much lesser. The fruits here are mostly apple, fuji apple, etc. and it is not cheap, RM12 to RM20 for 1 apple. Taxi is very very expensive, starting charge is already RM32, go by meter... easily RM80-RM100 for a very short distance.

Today we are at Daiichi Hotel, will be staying till 19th before we check out to the city again. I have receive my first session of Tomotherapy (precised radiation), I vomited immediately after the session finished. They gave me a dose of anti-vomit medecine which will last me for a week. I feel better after that and able to eat a little. I feel tired and sleepy, so I slept for the whole day. I have bought a travel cooker yesterday and will try to cook noodle with some veg to eat for dinner tonight. Yesterday I bought a piece of salmon and some veg, I cooked porridge and placed the salmon and veg on top, it was a wonderful dinner I had last night. There is a big shopping mall about 10 mininutes walk away where we can buy a lot of fresh fresh, meat and veg. I have problem in walking too long due to my breathing difficulty, so I guess Kelvin has to do the walking most of the time. He seems to be having good time, enjoying the food here.

My Tomotherapy will have 4 more days to go. I hope I will feel better tomorrow. God will have mercy to refresh my strength and help me to go through this difficult time.

God has always been good to me, I met a friend (ex-sunway JDE Consultant), Alvin Yeo with his wife bringing his father in-law there for the same treatment, we met at the ICVS Clinic in the city. They were here for 2 weeks already, going back today to KL. It was a blessing to know more detail of the treatment process from Alvin`wife (a doctor) and also Alvin has shown us where to get cheaper food rather than eating in the hotel for expensive food. And in Daiichi hotel here we have a friend Sachiko which is a Church friend introduced by Yukiko of DUMC. She has been driving me and showing us around whenever we need help. We were also invited for their Church Christmas party on the coming Sunday.

So much for the time being, will update again soon.

God Bless.

Activities in Japan

we arrived Narita Airport yesterday 6:30pm Japan time,1 hour earlier. I was fine on the plane except during take off & landing, my breathing became difficult when pressure change. As I was praying to God, I started to breath out using my mouth and that actually ease my breathing, thank you for his guidance.

We had our dinner at the airport coz' I was hungry & tired. It was very expensive as compared to the noodle house at our hotel, I just had a simple noodles and it cost me Rm35. when we eat again hotel, 2 sets of dinner costs RM40.


We took a taxi from airport to our hotel within 30 min cost us RM600!!.
Today I had my consultation, CT planning for the treatment on next Monday. I have Japanese friend it was introduced by Church member, Yukiko of DUMC Church. She is our translator, she waited for us & drove us around with her 1 year old baby, the boy is so adorable! We had great italian lunch and bought some fruits before we go back to hotel.

HITV Treatment in Japan

Dear friends & relatives,

I will be going to Tokyo, Japan for HITV treatment. My husband (Kelvin) will be accompaning me. Below are my schedule & contact:-

Dec 7 - leaving to Japan Narita Airport on MAS, 11:00.

Dec 8 (Thurs) 9:00 - Initial Consultation at C4 Clinic (Chiba)

Dec 9 (Fri) 14:00 - Initial Consultation with Dr Hasumi at ICVS clinic (Tokyo)

Dec 12 to 16 - Daily Tomotherapy at C4 Clinic

Dec 20 14:30 - DC injection

Dec 21 10:30 - AT injection

Dec 22 - 26 - Stay in Hotel New Otani for observation

Dec 27 - Coming to KL

Addresses & Contact:-

ICVS clinic (main contact)

Shin-Kioicho Bldg. 4F at Hotel New Otani Tokyo

4-1, Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8578

Tel: +81-3-6413 5005 Fax: +81-3-3222-0566

http://icvs-s.org/access.html

Dr Hasumi (my primary Consultation Doctor in Japan)

Angus Lin Shu Han - Assistant to Dr Hasumi (currently in KL)

KL contact: 016-294 4371

Angus Lin is a Taiwanese, he speaks English, Mandarin & Japanese.

C4 Clinic

Address & Contact

Chiba-ken, Funabashi-chi, Hongo-cho, 618-1

Tel: +81-047-320-1130

http://cccc-sc.jp

(note: this clinic only speak Japanese)

KL Contact:

Mahameru Internation Medical Centre

107 & 109 Jalan Maarof (Bangsar)

Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2287 0988

Dr Beh (hp: 012-297 8028)

Assistant- Andrew Lai

Angus Lin & Dr Beh will have my health condition and status.

We will be staying at 2 hotels:-

During C4 Clinic consultation & treatment we will be staying at Funabashi Daiichi Hotel:-

http://www.funabashi-daiichi.jp

Tel: +81-047-435 9111

(non English speaking hotel)

During ICVS Clinic consultation & treatment we will be staying at Hotel new Otani Tokyo

http://www.newotani.co.jp/en/tokyo/

Tel: +81-3-3265-1111

(English speaking hotel)

We can be contacted via skype:-

kelvintia@skype.com

aiwoon2@skype.com

t1n0oolol@skype.com

amelia_tia@skype.com

May God bless you!

Home Sweet Home!

Dear friends & relatives,

I was discharged yesterday at 7pm. I was overjoyed and can't stop praising God for his healings and bringing me back home safely from the darkness. I woke up today with a good rest on my comfortable bed that I missed for 13 nights. My nerve pain still disturbing me but it is getting better as I spend more time in engulfing God's word.

Today I had spent a great time with my Auntie from Sabah sharing the Word of God, she told me she is here for me because of God's devine appointment, I feel so honoured and blessed with a world that is filled with love. She has shared with me about 10 commandments today, I could the feel the love, the goodness from God is pouring into this house. We are going to continue with more Words tomorrow. It's exciting though!

Tomorrow I will be receiving my 10 years service award from Sunway Group organized at the Sunway Resort Hotel. Looking back my career history, I have joined Sunway in 1991 and today I should be receiving 20 years but because I detoured after 7 years to join a non Sunway Company so I lost 7 years and 3 years while I was with the company. I made a big round but still came back to Sunway after 10 years. So that is why I lost 10 years.

These few days I will be occupied with a lot of preparation with my Japan trip, visa application, shopping for winter clothings, etc.

Blessing!

What a long Stay?

Dear friends & relatives,

What a long stay? I was warded in Sunway Hospital since 10th Nov, due to shivering fever. After a few rounds of blood test, it was confirmed that I have an infection at my chemo port. I was on antibiotic non-stop for the past 13 days. I was on antibiotic trial for 6 days before I was put to the right antibiotic so Doctor did not allow me to be discharged yesterday even I have fully recovered physically. sigh!! When will I be discharge? Let's hear from Doctors again today.

It's a real long stay!! 13 days, 14 days or more?? I can't imagine how big is the bill. Apparently I have applied for home leave, so I will be at home from 6-9pm for my shower & dinner.

Since it is confirmed that my chemo port has infection so Doctors has decided to remove it, but the question is when? My last chemo drug done on 10th Nov was Avastin so it is recommended to wait for 3 weeks before any surgery to avoid excess bleeding and delayed wound healing. So I have to wait till 1st week of December.

I have a plan to go for HITV treatment in Japan and now is waiting for Japan's Doctor to design my treatment protocol then firm up the schedule. Before this is done, I just have to wait and get ready my passport and visa to Japan. The duration of the treatment is expected to be 3 weeks. If my treatment plan starts in mid December I will be able to see the Christmas & New year celebration in Tokyo. This will be something that excites me at this moment.

Ogenki Desu ka?

Mata ashita.

Ai Woon

Family Challenges

Since August, my health has not been stable, I have to cope with new symptom attack every now and then. When I thought I have a world of my own and could just focus on myself, managing my symptoms, pains, taking care of myself only. Sometimes situation just does not allow me to do so. Living in a family make up of people, I have to learn to accept comment that is pleasing and unpleasing to me.

Even if I am viewed to be a burden to the family members, I have to live on!! Even if I was told not to be dependent on others, I have to find help from friends, I have to live on!!

When a persons seem to be very close to you, doing a lot of things for you, whether the person do it with their heart or not, you can feel it. That's God's gift. So when we really want to treat a person well, we have to make sure we do it wholeheartedly without expecting a return then only we will get blessing from God.

In the midst of my health challenges I have to learn to deal with family issue positively by putting God's word in the center of our communication, showing no doubt to the person's feeling, thanking them for what they have done for me. And I have to spend a little more time communicating with them, pampering them in order to maintain this relationship and keeping the family peaceful & harmonized before I could focus on myself in the day to day healing therapy.

Sometimes I just wonder why I don't have to spend much time talking to my mother and yet she knows all the details about my problems and my needs. In every situation she will come in to solve our problems , fulfill our needs and she even tell me my problem is also her problem, she will help in all aspects, I am so touched and felt loved. Lately she even try to find a story everyday about healing just to motiviate me. How great is a mother's love!! Her word is always pleasing, comforting, caring and loving. I love me ma.

Blessings!

An Traumatic Experience!

Dear Friends & Relative,

I am back in action again! After a few new challenge that I have to manage and overcome.

I would like to share this traumatic experience we had last week. I had an attack of breathlessness. I was not able to breath normally even after half an hour of gasping for air, I was dizzy, sensation of choking, it was an life threatening experience! After I was rushed to hospital by ambulance, I was put on nebulizer ever 4 hourly and antibiotic drip every 6 hourly for 3 days.
Doctors has advised me to bring along inhaler every where I go and breath correctly when there is an attack. I have to be on nebulizer twice a day until my mucus in the lung is lesser. So far so good, I have been doing well these few days.

The experience that I have learned from this traumatic situation is to stay calm by calling to Lord Jesus God for help, otherwise I will just let go and die within minutes. It was so chaotic when I saw my husband rushing to make phone calls, could not get the person, keep trying another perrson, holding the chest in pain, my son was blank, my daughter was crying, that situation trigger me to be stay strong, calm & assist in managing the chaos while I am gasping for breath, waiting for ambulance to come.

This shortness of breath happened to me is due to the mass of lung tumors that produce excessive mucus that could have block the airways, bronchus or the main windpipe (trachea). When I had this attack I was coughing and there was a patch of mucus blocking my trachea and I felt total block of air going into my lung. The correct way of rescue is to use Ventolin inhaler to puff in then try to do deep breathing, repeat the puff if it did not improve. Once the breathing is improved, switch to do nebulizer using combivent, breath in through the mouth if the blockage is too serious.

I have done some research today to know more about the shortness of breath and how to manage it properly when there is an attack.

Shortness of breath

Shortness of breath happens when you are not taking in enough oxygen and your lungs try to draw in more air to make up for it. About half of all the people with advanced cancer have this symptom at some time during their illness.Difficulty breathing is called ‘dyspnoea’ (pronounced dis-nee-a).

How breathing work?

When we breathe in through our nose or mouth we draw air into our lungs through the windpipe. The windpipe divides into two airways. These are called the right and left bronchus. One goes to each lung. These further divide into smaller tubes and at the end of these are small air filled sacs called alveoli. It is here that the oxygen we breathe in passes into the bloodstream. The alveoli also take the waste gas, carbon dioxide, from the blood so that we can breathe it out.

When we breathe normally, we use the diaphragm (pronounced dye-a-fram) and the muscles around our ribs. The diaphragm is a large sheet of muscle that separates your chest cavity from your abdomen. When we breathe in, it tightens up and pulls downwards, making more space in the chest. The muscles around the ribs also make more space by pulling the ribcage up and out. The lungs expand to fill the space and air rushes into them.If you are short of breath, you may also be using muscles in your shoulders and upper chest to help you breathe. You normally use these muscles for heavy lifting and they tire very easily. So breathing in this way can make you more out of breath and drain your energy.

Who gets breathless

The people most likely to have breathing problems are people with lung cancer, mesothelioma or cancer that has spread to the lung. But other types of cancer can also cause breathing difficulties. Being short of breath can be very uncomfortable and frightening. It can make you feel very anxious and panicky, which often makes it even harder to catch your breath.People with cancer can become breathless for many different reasons. Once your doctor finds out the cause of your breathing problems there is usually some type of treatment that will help you.

How breathlessness can affect you

Being short of breath can have a big impact on how much you can do each day. You may be too breathless to shower, cook, or even take a mouthful of food. People with lung cancer sometimes say they can't do the most basic daily tasks, and find not being able to get their breath very frightening.

Common Symptoms

•Dizziness
•Feeling faint
•Sensations of smothering
•Numbness or tingling sensations
•Sensations of choking
•Rapid heartbeat