Happy Friday

I had an acupuncture this morning before going to work. For my cough, my acupuncturist (Dr. L) gave me a recipe to fix it, so I got the ingredients after work and just made this soup. You use sweet rice, leek (white part only), ginger, and rice vinegar. But you can not add any seasonings, so it tastes pretty bad, and actually you only eat rice part and don't even eat leek and ginger. Sweet rice gets pretty sticky, so my soup became more like a porridge. Maybe I should have added more water! When you have a bad cough from cold next time, please try this recipe.
Also, now I have to eat food that are good for my spleen (because spleen supports lung function). According to Dr. L, yellow colored food (like squash or pumpkin) is very good. Also, lemon juice with honey, Daikon radish, and pears. I have to avoid cold food and processed food, sugar, greasy food, eggs, milk, shellfish, fish, and cheese. Now, it is getting more and more challenging to plan my meals.
By the way, we are going to the zoo again with my friend & her son (a few weeks older than Kai). This time I hope Kai is awake enough to see all the major animals.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Good night.

Already thursday!

I can not believe how quickly this week has gone by. For some reason I thought today was still Wednesday. I only realized today was Thursday when I came home and watched the TV guide channel.
I went to a super Wal-Mart tonight for much needed shopping. I hadn't been to a super Wal-mart for a while and hadn't realized how big this store was. Just walking in the store was a good exercise. I bought some weights there since Dr. M recommended me to start working with weights to build my strength back. After I got home, I cooked some Japanese food and by the time I finished cooking I was just so exhausted. I'm trying to eat the food recommended by Dr. M, so it is really difficult for me to eat out or do take-outs these days (except for occasional Chinese food). But cooking is such a pain!! If I didn't have cancer, I'd be eating pizza every week. You know me - I'm not a picky eater as long as I don't have to cook.
I slept very good last night (I think my foot bath worked). I'm going to bed now - good night!

Wednesday

I went to see Dr. M today. I have been so tired for the last few days so it was so good to get a good massage. I always feel refreshed afterwards. Anyway, Dr. M told me to soak my feet in hot water before I go to bed so I can sleep better. I'm going to start tonight! He always teach me something about my body (where the pressure points are, what's to eat, etc.), so it is very educational also.
By the way, my on-line friend who also has lung cancer and was running the Japanese lung cancer community website had been in a hospital for the last 5 weeks or so. I had been thinking about her a lot and finally today I learned that she will be out of the hospital in a few days. I'm so happy to hear the news! The community lost one person last month already and I had been really worried about her. In any case, I am so happy and grateful she is doing better. By the way, I received a call from the church today (I filled out the new comer's card last time). I told her about my cancer and she prayed for me over the phone, and she's putting me in a prayer list. I'm very impressed with this church - we'll be going back this Sunday also. Good night!

Monday!

Monday after the long weekend isn't a happy day to go back to work on. But I first had a dentist appointment. My doctor is a very nice person who was worried about me and was in touch with Jim about my condition. So it was very good to see him to show him I'm doing much better. By the way I realized we soon need to bring Kai in for a dental appointment. A baby book recommended the first dental appointment around 12 months. He is still teething so we'll wait until this round of teething is over.
I also had a session with my healer tonight. I'm feeling very good and I think I will be able to sleep better tonight. Good night!

Thanksgiving

We had a busy Thanksgiving weekend. Luckily I had a four day weekend to fit everything in. We went to our family friends house for a great Thanksgiving dinner (we brought Kai and Jim's mom too). Our friends from MN were visiting, so it was great to see them. They also have two kids, so it was very fun and lively night! On Friday, I had an acupuncture session in the morning, then, we all went to Yellow River Game Ranch (near Stone Mtn) with the kids. You can feed and pet the animals and it was really fun - although if you are going to go, I recommend you go in spring or fall. Then, at night, our friend took Jim & me to an ice hockey game (Thrashers). Although we didn't win, we had a great time! I like ice hockey better than baseball or football, because the game is very fast and they make it very entertaining. If you haven't been to a game lately, I highly recommend it!
Saturday, I finally got out to shop but I was done after 30 min since I was too tired to look anymore. This morning, we got up early and went to Mt. Paran Church of God. I've been wanting to go to a church for a while and we found out that Mt. Paran has a nursery, so we finally went today. (Jim's mom used to go there when she was active.) They have a beautiful building with a great nursery. If you have kids and want to go to a church, I highly recommend this place. Mt. Paran is a unique church because they are very lively and do lots of music and they are really good music. So before the sermon begins, you feel like you are in a concert. During the sermon, if your kid needs you, they flash a number (each kid is assigned a number) on a screen so you can get to the nursery. I really like this system. Also, compared to some of the local church services (which I've been watching on TV lately), their sermon is more lively and more uplifting, I thought. Anyway, I had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving also!

Dr. M

I just came back from a session with Dr. M. I was asking him about what kind of food I need to avoid - and he told me milk, cheese and ice creams. I don't like milk that much so that is ok but avoiding cheese is difficult, because it's in everything! I don't eat ice creams that much either, so it would be ok. In the meat department, I have to avoid beef and pork. He recommended I eat lamb chop and baffalo once a week, and organic chicken twice a week, and fish once a week (except for cat fish and tillapia). I'm going to try hard to stick to his recommendation. In the Japanese cancer surviver book, many of the survivers do not eat meat or dairy food, so his advice makes sense.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Happy shopping!!

Doing better

I had a session with my healer last night. She is so wonderful - every time I talk to her I feel more positive. I truly believe God has sent her to heal me.
I want to share a story with you all. I told you I have been reading "The Secret". The secret is the law of attraction. So if you want to attract something, you just ask for it (there are ways to ask, explained in the book.). Our apt. had a problem with hot shower (no pressure at all) for a while. It has been a week, because the maintenance has to special order some part and they still have been waiting for the part. Anyway, I don't know how, but this morning, our hot shower suddenly came back (I was wishing for a good shower this morning). Now, you can call this a coincidence or you can call it as a result of my attraction!
I also had an acupuncture this morning. I have to tell you it hurts at some points (but at some points, I don't even feel it). Dr. L said it will not hurt when my body fully recovers. I think the acupuncture I had last Friday really helped me. Today I actually ate some pot roast (until today, I was eating soup and soft food) at lunch and I couldn't believe it didn't hurt that much.
By the way, Kai was sick today so Jim stayed home to watch him. He's doing better - I put lots of babyrub on him and put him to bed.

The Secret

I hadn't talked about all the cost associated with my treatments, but the hospital and doctor bills are coming in. I am so grateful I have a good health insurance but if you are unlucky and don't have one, one tiny surgery or treatment could bankrupt you. I don't know why the original charges by the hospital are so much more than the negotiated amount with the insurance company. Even with a health insurance, there are co-insurance amount and non-network charges that you have to pay out of pocket, which are pretty expensive. I'm so lucky that I had an insight(!) to get an Aflac cancer insurance about 5 years ago. I am not a sales person from Aflac but if you don't have it, please consider getting this insurance because it is so totally saving me. One thing about this insurance (both health and Aflac) is that they never cover alternative treatment such as Holistic doctor or acupuncturist as cancer treatment, too bad. I think they are totally essential for my well-being.
By the way I discovered that Jim was hoarding all these bills for the last few weeks. He said he meant to organize them and deal with them (half the time the bills are wrong so you have to call them to fix the problem), but one of such bills was totally past due and they had sent a final notice to threaten that they are sending it to a collection agency. You can imagine how upset I was when I found about these bills. Luckily, I called in time to take care of the problem. Now, I have been reading a book titled "The Secret". I saw a movie "the Secret" recently (have you seen it?), and it was so good that I borrowed the book from the library. Anyway, the book tells me that if you put your energy into a negative, you will attract more of it (the opposite is true also). So my new thing is minimize the talk about my health/illness (unless it is a good news!) and talk more about good things. I have another session with my Healer tonight and will see an acupuncturist tomorrow. I'm feeling really good and so looking forward to my talk with the Healer. Good night!

Acupuncture

I went to see Dr. L, my new acupuncturist yesterday. I told her about my esophagus pain and my tiredness. She is treating me to increase fluid (saliva, etc.) to help with the esophagus burn as well as to boost my immune system and improve energy. She took my pulse and told me my liver is working very hard (so my liver is not in good condition), so that is the reason why I can't sleep well (Dr. M also told me about this before). But she said considering everything I went through, I am still doing pretty good. Anyway I noticed this morning my esophagus is much better (like 50% better than the last few days)! I don't know if it is solely because of the acupuncture or what but I'm happy. Today, I had some sandwich without a pain medicine. If I can just get my appetite back I should be ok! It's been like a month since I ate a normal meal so I have to get used to eating normal amount of food.
By the way I am drinking Kefir (strawberry flavor) and it taste pretty good. Actually tastes better than I remember. I gave some to Kai and he liked it, too.
Kai has a little fever today - so he's little bit cranky. But he still has an appetite so he should be better soon.

Cold!

It was so cold today - I didn't realize it was so cold until I got to the Day Care to drop Kai off. It was so warm in our apt and in the garage so I didn't put a jacket on Kai. I hope he didn't play outside today. (I forgot to put shoes on him yesterday - so today is a little improvement!)
By the way I got my acupuncturist appointment tomorrow. I'm so looking forward to seeing Dr. L, the acupuncturist, since I heard such a good thing from Ms. S. My condition is improving every week but I haven't been able to get over the esophagus pain (slowly improving), coughs and the tiredness. I hear it is a common problem for people after chemo/radiation treatment to be exhausted and have muscle cramps/joint pain for a while (bone marrow gets depleted by treatment). So I am physically doing much better and able to eat/drink more but I am also just exhausted - especially in the afternoons and evenings. I'm hoping Dr. L will be able to help me with that!
Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week already? It seems that this year the fall just flew by.
Keep warm everyone and Good night!

More about health

I don't know if I talked about this before but one thing Dr. M told me to do and I do it every day is skin brushing. You can use a regular hair brush or you can purchase a special skin brush but you directly brush your skin three times each towards your heart. You can start from the tip of your foot and hand, and move in closer to the heart. This is to boost your immune system. We have a similar thing in Japan where we use a dry cloth to rub your skin. We usually do it in winter not to catch cold, so I think skin brushing works in a similar way.
Also, I received an article from Jim's aunt about the power of Vitamin D. Instead of taking the regular recommended daily dose, you take like 3 times the daily dose, and it can help prevent cancer among other things (and in some cases, it helps to eliminate cancer). So I increased my Vitamin D intake also. The only problem is D is kind of strong so I have to have a full stomach before taking it (or it makes me nauseous).
By the way, remember I got a speeding ticket last month? Well, it was from the City of Atlanta, and now the city has a very good website where you can see how many points you are going to lose on your ticket. I checked mine and it was 0 points, so I went ahead and paid the fine on-line (which is also a very good feature). I hope all counties/cities get this system!

New Day Care

Kai is doing well at the new Day Care. He seems to be happy so far. This place is new, so everything is clean and bright. It is also so convenient because it is by Jim's office. We like it very much but the only thing I don't like about it is Kai is very thirsty when he gets home. Jim's going to talk to them about that.
I went to see Dr. M today. I feel refreshed! I told him about the antibiotics and he told me that it destroys the viruses but it also destroys good guys (probiotics) in your intestines, which you need to keep healthy. So now I have to restore my good germs by drinking kefir (not sure about the spell. kind of like yogurt - which I used to eat in Japan also) and eating fermented vegetables. By the way when I met Ms. S last week, she told me that she goes to this acupuncturist introduced by Dr. M, and she highly recommended her. I asked him to introduce me also, so I'm going to try to get an appointment soon.
Hope everyone had a nice day - good night!

Long weekend

Sunday morning, Jim had 103F+ temp. He took some Ibprophine and vitamins and slept for a long time. Kai was doing better but he also had a mild fever which went away by night. So we didn't take Kai to a new Day Care. Jim's fever came down by late afternoon, so he was able to go to work - he's doing OK today. So Kai started a new day care today - I'm going to pick him up soon. This place is a 24 hour day care (but you can only go for 11 consecutive hours/day). So it is a very good place for people who work night shifts. Plus, you can decide your schedule so you are less likely to be charged a late fee.
Today was my day off, so when I woke up, I had so much I wanted to accomplish. I completed only about 50% of what I wanted to do - but I was so tired by early afternoon that I decided not to push myself. But I'm doing a lot better compared to a week ago. I'm hoping by next weekend I will not have any more pain when I eat - we'll see.
By the way I spoke to my mother this weekend, and she told me more about the Japanese miracle drink (remember?). She has been using it in a bath and she says her skin is really nice and smooth. (My mother had suffered from a skin disease since she was a child.) so it cured her. Also, my father used it for his athlete's foot and it's cured also. I hope it will help grow my hair back soon!

Saturday

We went to Jim's friend's wedding today - Jim's Mom decided not to go so we decided to go to just the ceremony and took Kai with us. It was a nice ceremony and Kai was doing pretty good until about 10 min. before the end of the ceremony (it was close to an hour). So Jim had to take him out and missed the kiss.
Anyway as I had predicted no surprise on my birthday from Jim. But I'm giving him a break because he's been just too busy with work these days. Also, Kai brought home a cold from a day care and Jim caught it pretty bad. In addition, he is having a little health problem which he usually gets when his body gets weak. He just needs to rest as well - but he's so busy that he has to go back to work tomorrow.
By the way, a good news! We found a new day care for Kai near Jim's office - they also operate on the weekend for additional fee. So we are thinking of trying it out tomorrow to get him used to the place. I hope he likes it.
Thank you so much for everyone who wished me happy birthday and for everyone who is thinking of me and praying for me. I feel so blessed every day! Good night!

Happy Friday & Weekend!

I went to work this morning and found out we have Monday off for Veterans Day! Great!! I knew something was up when 2/3 of the parking spaces were empty. By the way if you are not one of the lucky people to be off on Monday, sorry!! My birthday is tomorrow by the way - so I think I deserve a long weekend. I don't have any plan - I am still on a half liquid diet (mostly eating soup) because of my esophagus pain. It is much better than before, though.
I just put Kai to bed (8pm - yes!!). He only had less than one hour nap at the Day Care today and was so tired. I hope he sleeps well tonight.
By the way I now started reading "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni. I have to read it for work - we are going to attend some team building training and I'd better finish reading by then. I also had to take an on-line psychology test for this purpose. I'm interested in knowing how it went, because I think because of my current situation, my "life view" had dramatically changed since the last time I had taken one of these (when I originally joined the company just about 5 months ago).
I wish everyone a nice happy weekend. Good night!

Antibiotics

OK - I went to see a doctor and got antibiotics today. Hopefully it will do the trick and cure all my little problems!
I just managed to put Kai to bed (around 8:30pm). It suddenly got cold this week so we have our heat set on 73F because Kai's room gets really cold (maybe 10 degrees colder than other rooms?). I put him in a sleep sack (it's like a wearable blanket for babies) so I hope he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night tonight!!
By the way I learned that you should not wear watch on left (from Ms. S, Dr. M's patient I met on Monday) because your energy comes in from left and goes out on right, although it is best not to wear watch at all. So I now wear my watch on right. If you are interested please try. I really liked Ms. S, and I'm looking forward to meeting her again after she comes back from her long trip.
I have to do my breathing exercise and do my healing meditation now. Good night!

Middle of the week -

Good morning - I'm at home getting ready to leave to see a doctor. It seems now that the worst is over, several little ailments I had came back - such as coughs, fever, pink eyes, etc. So I'm seeing a regular doctor today to take care of those little problems. I guess when your immune system is down, every little ailments you usually can deal with start to attack you. I am still ok - just need some time for my immune system to come back.
By the way Kai woke up around 3am this morning - I changed him and played with him for an hour before he finally got tired enough to go to bed. I guess he was cold! I finally turned the heat on yesterday. I hear it's going to be another cold night. I hope everyone is keeping warm and staying healthy!

weekend

Hi - sorry I haven't updated for a while. Just been too busy. We went to Atlanta zoo on Sat for my company's outing. We had fun but Kai only got to visit a petting zoo - he slept through the major animals such as panda, elephant, zebra, etc! He finally woke up when we moved him to a car seat when we leave. We'll have to go again. Jim's work has been really busy so we have been busy juggling work schedule with taking care of Kai.
This evening, I met a lady who also has cancer (Dr. M's patient). He gave us each other's contact info so we could meet. She is in her 70's with a cancer which came back after a year, and still doing very well and active. She had her last chemo last Wed, but she has been able to tolerate it very well. She actually picked me up tonight on her way to pick up her grandson from soccer practice. Anyway, it was wonderful to meet her. Also I talked with my healer tonight and that's why I'm in a good mood. She told me I just need to rest and be positive, and the worst is over, and my cancer is all gone. I really have a faith in her and every time I talk to her I get positive. I actually can not wait to get my next scan in January so I can prove that my cancer is gone from my body.
By the way - my esophagus pain is almost gone, I think (I hope!). I was wearing the pain controlling patch but I was feeling too nauseous that I took it off this afternoon. I think I'll be ok without a patch - we'll see how it goes.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend and have a nice week!

Back to work

I'm doing better now - thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers! I had tried the double dosage on the patches on Tue but it just made me too sick, so now I'm back to one patch. But I think my esophagus is actually getting better. The pain isn't as bad as before!
By the way our friends babysat Kai for the last two days because Jim's work was busy. Thank you so much Watsons - we really appreciate it! But we missed him also - it was really weird not having him at night.
Today was my first day back to work - I was a little worried but it was fine. I think it is better to go to work - I haven't been anywhere but hospitals these days and it was good to drive myself.
By the way, the Healer I mentioned before was really incredible. I had a session on Monday night and will have another next Monday. She healed five terminal cancer patients in the past and all of them were cured of cancer (except one patient died from blood clot and not from cancer). She said if it is not my time, she can heal me and she thinks it is not my time yet. So I'm very encouraged that she can heal me and everything will work out!