Tuesday 20 October 2009

Menstruating again

Just as I have expected, I'm menstruating again. I had the sign few weeks back and here it is, 5 mths after my last one. I thought I was going through a menopause already :-) Well, am I happy or sad about it? I'd be happy if the cancer cells are all gone and I would not have to go through the aging process too soon. I'd be sad if the cancer cells are still there. I'm ER positive and with the presence of estrogen, it really is badddd. I now have to double dose my lemon grass tea intake!

We'll just have to wait and see whether it's good or bad. My husband is getting the GL for me to go to the hospital soon. In the meantime, I'm tolerating with the backpain, it feels really weird...

Monday 19 October 2009

HER2 negative ER positive

I went to the GP this morning to get a reference letter to go to the hospital. While waiting for my turn to see the doctor, I read again the report from my previous doctor. To my surprise, I found that my HER2 is actually negative and not positive as I thought so. What a relief! The estrogen receptor is positive which is also a good news. I'll have the endocrine treatment as ER positive will respond well to the anti-estrogen therapies. A quote from a website, "If you have an ER-positive cancer, you may respond well to tamoxifen, a drug that works by blocking the estrogen receptors on the breast tissue cells and slowing their estrogen-fuelled growth".

Well, it doesn't really matter actually whether I'm ER positive or negative as deep down I really hope that I wouldn't have to take any more drugs after this. In actual fact, I decided to go to the hospital just to check whether the cancer still exists. I came to know that a friend of mine, aged 38 with four kids, eldest 13 and youngest 2 has recently been diagnosed with BC and she just had her mastectomy recently.

Well, BC is quite common nowadays. Recent statistics, every 1 out of 14 women in this country are having it. The doctor that I met just now said his wife had it way back in 1996, had her mastectomy and chemo etc and is keeping herself busy, enjoying life. It's a matter of when you discover it and how you seek treatment for it...

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Uric acid and urine

I was googling yesterday to find out why I am having this pain on the forefoot especially when I get up in the morning. My personal doctor, my hubby, suspected that it could be because of cold. The body heat is released through the feet when I sleep at night and he suggested that I wear stokings at night. I practise it although it really feels uncomfortable because it is hot here.

Although I wear stokings at night, the pain still exists. Could this be a sign of mild gout? I came across this blog about treating gout and discovered another indicator that is really useful. Gout is caused by a lot of uric acid in the body and it is washed away through the urine. And the indicator is when the urine looks bubbly, it shows that the body has lots of uric acid. Since then, I have been watching my urine to see whether it's bubbly or not :-). My first observation showed that it is not. Coming back to the treatment of gout, the author suggests to drink 2 liters of water everyday. I guess I should drink more water from now on. I used to drink 8 glasses of water in the morning 10 years back, got the idea from circulated emails about water treatment, believed to cure all diseases. I remember I had to stop by at the LRT station everyday to pee before boarding the LRT to go to work in KL.

Drinking lots of water seems like an easy thing to do. I should unpack my ionizer to ionize my drinking water as well. Double the effect, I hope the pain will go away. I probably will try misai kucing tea too, in addition to what I'm taking now. These anti oxidants will certainly be good to cure the cancer...

Thursday 8 October 2009

Ramadhan, Syawal and now

It’s almost a month since my last entry. Well, I just could not find the right time to write and post it in this blog. I’ll recall what I was up to since the last entry.

Towards the end of Ramadhan, I was busy doubling the effort in search of Lailatul Qadar. Alhamdulillah, during the month of Ramadhan I managed to perform the Tarawikh prayer everyday at the mosque except day 1 & 2 (we went back to our hometown), day 16 ( unloading stuff from the container) and day 19 (husband was not feeling well). So far, this was the best Ramadhan ever coz’ I was able to fast for the whole month. The best tarawikh nights were during day 27 when the Imam recited the last juzuk of the Qura’an, day 28 being the Friday night, and day 29,the last day, when we had reciting of Qura’an as a group. We broke our fast at the mosque as well, during that day.


















Right after the last tarawikh, we went back to our hometown, reached there around 3 am. The traveling was smooth although there were lots of cars. During the last day of Ramadhan, we usually cook a big feast. I have missed it for two years and really enjoyed this one. Since my big sisters were not back yet, I had to do the tough jobs – cut 8 whole chickens into pieces and cut off 7 kgs of meat! You could imagine how tiring it was. But it was really worth it. During the breaking of fast, my doa was for me to meet the next Ramadhan, Insya’Allah.



















Raya was celebrated with the Aidilfitri prayer in the morning, and asking for forgiveness from everybody. This is quite a touching moment especially for me having gone through this BC. Aunties and uncles came to visit; they were really thrilled to see me since they knew that I was not well. Days after, were spent visiting families and friends. My mother has 15 brothers and sisters and few days were not enough to visit them all.

We went back to our home after spending a week at our hometown. Too bad, I had a terrible skin infection - rashes and skin inflammation all over the body. My best bet was I was allergic to the bamboo trees that I passed through while surveying a piece of land for sale. I went to the pharmacy to get the anti-histamine and Alhamdullillah, the rashes is settled in a few days. My skin is now back to normal. While having it, somehow it struck into my mind that it could be a skin cancer. Being worried, I now have resumed drinking my lemon grass tea. Hopefully it will kill off the traces of cancer cells in my body. Although the lump is gone, I still take the extra virgin olive oil, the black seed oil and the hempedu bumi capsule. So far, I’m feeling good. I have yet to go for the follow up, maybe one of these days. Frankly, I like to believe that the cancer is now gone and I don’t bother to go and check. After all, everyone of us has cancer cells in our body. So why worry…