This is the last prescribed session and everything seemed faster. The session itself was about an hour faster than the rest and the recovery period seemed shorter too as she was up and about on the second day.
Doc said the same thing as last time about the size of the tumour definitely smaller so it was good news all round. I did probe a little and she did say the results are quite exceptional.
Next step is to do the PET scan again and to meet up with the surgeon to assess the situation.
We really thank God for all the blessings so far. There were hardly any major side effects from the chemo apart from the first session. And she just needed about a week to recover from each session.
We continue to pray for a miracle.
V’s mum is currently ill in Cambodia too. She couldn’t make the trip here to look after V so my mum is covering for her. Apparently she got attacked by amoeba which is common in third-world countries. She was in the hospital for a few days but now resting at home.
Life is full of challenges.
The fifth session came and went pretty quickly. She’s now asleep back at home. Its almost like a routine for us now:
I take a day off, bring her to the doc for the initial blood test. We hang out for an hour or so for the lab results, doc runs us through the updates and checks on her and then chemo begins.
Definitely thank the Lord that we are able to tackle this via the private healthcare system and everything is pleasant and convenient. I cannot imagine if we have to be doing this via hospitals and their clinical environments and waiting lines with hordes of others.
So for those of you who are in the pink of health and reading this, pls go check out your insurance coverage and see if there are ways to upgrade. We now know first hand that the medishield plan reimbursements are nothing if you intend to go private. And trust me, if you ever have to do these repeated treatments, you don’t want to be shuffled around like some statistic.
The basic Medishield plan covers $1200 per month for chemo. Our bills are like $4k per session. My colleague told me her mum’s was $12k per session at one point. The numbers are crazy and can wipe out anyone if you are not properly insured.
My suggestion: upgrade the medishield plan to the private ones which deduct from your CPF and add on the riders for complete coverage which requires some cash per year.(a few hundred i reckon) This usually covers “as charged” expenses which mean you are free to go to any private clinic when something bad does happen. If you do the math,you probably get your money’s worth within your lifetime and more but the peace of mind is priceless.
Back to V, the doc says the progress is good and she can hardly feel the edges of the tumour anymore. Her immunity is also stronger than the last session which was surprising because it started to taper downwards before the last session.
The gameplan is still to finish chemo #6 and do the PET scan again before the surgeon evaluates the next plan of action.
Do continue to pray for us…
We’ve been toying with the idea of trading in the car for awhile now. Since the COE prices went up tremendously the past months due to the govt tweaking the rules (although they refuse to admit it and stubbornly attribute it to market forces), I’ve been checking the resale value of our ride on sgcarmart and the numbers seem to make sense.
However, upon checking them in the real-world at auto-dealers, the numbers are like lower by 10%. So anyway we decided to bite the bullet and pay off our existing loan with some cash because V will eventually stop working and any $$ saved in the long term is better than nothing.
She’ll also want to drive but just didn’t dare to start trying it out on the existing car as the dimensions are also larger than a normal saloon.
So over the long weekend, we’ve somehow been guided along to make a decision on our next ride. We’ve signed on the dotted line and will probably get the keys within a month.
Goodbye L. Its been a great 3 years. You’ve been a dream car as expected but now its time to let you go…
Have a read. I guess there are many others out there like us. And He has a plan for everyone of us.
#4
Originally uploaded by gr3gtan
Doc is really happy that the tumour is obviously smaller and it’s also
softer. She does not need to do an intermediate scan for now. Praise
God! This time round V felt a bit naseous at the beginning but some
nuggets and fries from Mc D helped! Junk food to the rescue..
Je-in’s 1st birthday is coming up this Sat! We’ve managed to plan a little BBQ get-together at Alchemy. So if you’re not doing anything happening on Sat evening, do drop by and have some wings and a beer!
The effects of chemo #3 took awhile longer for V to get over, but she’s ok now, so its all good. Hope she enjoys this event as much as Je-in 
Cheers!
V just did #3 yesterday. Her mum wanted to go with her so i didn’t take the day off. Dropped them off first thing in the morning but because there were some blood tests to be done, they got home only in the late afternoon. A rather long day but it gave good news.
The size of the tumour has definitely gone down, the blood tests showed that everything was going well, so despite the chemo killing cells within her, her immunity is still strong and doing their job keeping her safe.
Doc reckons there is no need for intermediate scans as its obviously getting smaller which means the medicines are suitable and working, so we’ll probably do a confirmation one after the last session of chemo.
Its day 2 today so she’s still feeling the effects of the chemo, being drowsy and not having any appetite but generally all is well.
Thanks to all those who have been praying for us and please continue to do so.
I’ve been thinking, you know how you always felt you had to drag yourself to mass when you were much younger and never really understood why you went anyway.
Well, today its just the direct opposite. With God’s grace, V’s mum decided to stay for the weekend. Normally she’d hop off to V’s sister’s place so that she can spend some time with their family, and we could never attend mass together because initially she was too ill and we’d take turns with the baby cos we really can’t concentrate with him around. But today, she was up and about and we could go together!
Her 3rd chemo session was also due today but because the doc wasn’t in town, she postponed it til Monday. This itself is another blessing as we couldn’t spend time on the weekends together as she’ll just be sleeping off the effects. With this cycle change, we’ll now have more weekends to do simple stuff like having lunch out.
Je-in has started taking his first few steps, and can stand un-assisted for a minute, most times he still comes back down to all fours but is quite keen to get up and try again
He can also mumble “o-ma” and “dada” and i heard “daddy” once
Nowadays its really the simple things in life that are meaningful.
Well since there are some cancer cells on the spine, the doc also confirmed that technically its at Stage 4. I guess the number sounds pretty intimidating, but it really makes not much of a diff to us right now.
I’ve been crazily busy the last two weeks or so at work and hardly even had time to play with Je-in though i still managed to put him to sleep a couple o times. He seems to be sleeping earlier at about 9ish these days. Probably because he’s so hyper and he takes less naps in the day-time.
O yes, he’s been trying to walk and can go a few steps on his own before coming back down to all fours. Its really quite cute to watch.
Anyway, V is doing alright as can be. There were a few days of gastric symptoms and the doc confirmed its a common side-effect of one of the drugs used to prevent another side-effect from chemo. So you need another drug to fight the first drug that fought the chemo!
She’s still strong and sticking to her routine of a morning walk and 2 intense prayer sessions a day. I guess that’s what’s giving her strength. Her parents are also staying strong and they are taking it all in as a blessing because they are finally reunited together for longer periods and get to bond to make up for the lost time since they left the daughters here to go and do their mission.
You sometimes hear how God uses illness to call people back to him, i can see this clearly at work and am humbled.
One more week til the next chemo session.
Originally uploaded by gr3gtan
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