Happy New Year!

Ok, so Friday, the day care called us to pick Kai up because he has 102F fever. So we got him and put him to bed, and I realized I have a fever also. On Sat morning, I felt better and went to my acupuncturist in the morning and then went to a friend's house for a "forget the year" party, then went to see Dr. M. I was doing ok but in the evening I started feeling the chill again. Jim stayed home to watch Kai. His fever is much better now. Jim also had a little fever yesterday but he's ok now. Anyway, I couldn't go to church this morning. At one point my fever went up to 39.7C. As I mentioned before, cancer cell is weak against the heat, so I was hoping the fever would go a little higher to take care of them. But I take pain medicine for my bone pain, and it reduces the fever. My fever is down a little now so don't worry! I have to go in for Pet scan and MRI tomorrow - I hope it shows improvement! I'm happy the new year 2008 is coming soon - my healer told me the new year would be a better year for me.
By the way, for my birthday gift, my sweet friend arranged for a cleaning lady to come to our apt. We finally got our apt organized and she came to work on Fri. I felt so happy to see the bathroom so clean! Unfortunately Kai and Jim already messed up the living room - I guess that's the guy thing! Anyway I wish everyone a happy new year 2008!

Under the weather

I went to work this morning as usual, but as the day progressed, I felt worse and had to leave early. When I got home, I went straight to sleep. When I woke up, I finally checked my temp. - 37.6C (I guess about 100F?). I am ok but my bones are more painful than usual. I'm wearing lots of clothes but I still feel a little chill. I just can not wait for spring to come - when the weather is so nice and warm!
By the way, I've been reading this funny book "I'd rather do chemo than clean out the garage" borrowed from the hospital. As my healer said, laughter is healing. So I'm reading funny books to lift my spirit. (Don't worry, I'm not reading "lovely bones" anymore!)
OK, I'm going back to bed. Good night!

Christmas

Oh, I can't believe Christmas is over so quickly! It was very hard for me to go back to work this morning. I worked on Christmas eve, but we went to a friend's house for dinner. They had a really great Christmas tree (actually two trees) and we got a picture of Kai in front of the big tree. (You know us - we have a miniature tree only.)
We spent Christmas at another friend's house as well - so we didn't have to cook at all this Christmas! Kai really enjoyed eating good food at our friends' places. We really had a good time visiting with our friends this Christmas - I hope you all had a good Christmas too!
By the way, how many times have you seen "Christmas Story"? That is a great movie and we usually watch it every Christmas.
Oh, we just watched a movie "Ratatouille" - it was awesome. I highly recommend it!
Good night!

Weekend

Oh this weekend went by so quickly! It is always the case as it gets closer to Christmas.
We went to the Lenox mall on Sat to ride "Pink Pig". We waited in line for a long time, too (like 20 min?). The ride itself was so short but Kai really enjoyed it very much. So we were glad we did it. We went to eat at Korean restaurant afterwards, and Kai really liked eating some of the food (non-spicy ones). This boy can eat everything! We went to a friend's house for a Christmas get together on Sunday, and Kai ate more than I did (ate half of Jim's plate!). But he is not that heavy - we just weighed him. He weighs 21lbs. I guess all the activities are keeping him fit.
Have a wonderful Christmas eve and Christmas, everyone!

Happy Friday

So, I went to see Dr. M yesterday and told him about my bones. He gave me good suggestions about how to keep my bones strong but he also said he can do Reiki. For people who are not familiar, Reiki started in Japan and I just looked it up but it is a method of energy healing. (see what is Reiki on this website) http://www.reiki.org/FAQ/WhatIsReiki.html
Dr. M happens to be a Reiki master also - what a great news. He said he will try to get some other Reiki masters to have a session (works better when multiple masters work together). Some friends of ours suggested us to try Reiki before but I wasn't really sure what it was so I hadn't looked into it. But I was having lunch with some friends today, and one friend said her grandfather was also a Reiki master in Japan. Now I'm really excited about trying Reiki.
By the way, I'm really in a high spirit. Dr. M told me I need to exercise - so I even went for a walk in the gym at work today. I can't walk as fast as before but I managed to walk 1.6 miles. The gym at work is really great - I should go there more often.
Jim wants me to mention that my next treatment for my cancer in the lung (not in the bones) is most likely to be a pill called "Tarceva". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarceva
This pill works best on patients like me - Asian woman, never-smoker, and adenocarcinoma (my cancer type) so it seems very promising! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Good night!

Ms. S

I just came back from a dinner with Ms. S (remember her? she is also a cancer patient of Dr. M's). She is such a lively and passionate person and I really enjoy talking to her. She had been on a chemo for about a year(!), and she finished her last one in Oct. So she's doing great and guess where she's taking off to after a new year's? Going to Colorado to ski for two months. (Did I mention she's in her 70's?) We went to a little vegetarian place in Buckhead which I never knew existed. I have to go back there again because their sweet potato fries were so good!
We saw my main oncologist today. I will have MRI and PET scans on Dec 31 and the doctor will finalize which treatment method to use. But for the bone cancer, they recommend "radio isotope" injection which targets the bone cancer (you can only do this once or twice). It sounds very promising. For other cancer (lung or other parts), they talked about a pill called "Tarceva", which is also a targeted therapy (unlike chemo - which destroys healthy cells also). So I won't be doing chemo for a while. (I think the doctor thinks my cancer spread to the bones because I got too weak from the last chemo/radiation combo.) Anyway, the problem I'm having (bone pain - caused by calcium melting into blood) will be taken care of by a drug "Zometa", which is a monthly infusion. So I'm hoping these treatments will help me carry on my normal life, unlike chemo. When I talked with my healer on Monday, she gave me a big hope for recovery (she even specified when). So I'm determined to do whatever it takes and make it through to that date (I'll reveal the date when it comes!). By the way, she told me I need to watch funny movies and laugh a lot because laughter is healing. So you guys, please recommend which funny movies to netflix to! Good night.

Therapist

Hi all - I've been searching for a therapist or counselor who can work with me in line with Dr. Bernie Siegel's work. (I talked about his books before.) So I actually e-mailed their group (Ecap, exceptional cancer patients) yesterday. Amazingly, I received a response from Dr. B directly. I was so touched. He knows a doctor in Rome, GA, so I contacted him hoping he can recommend someone in Atlanta. We'll see how it goes!
I attended a kick off meeting for Ascend tonight (Association for Asian professionals in Accounting and Finance, or something like that!). We now have a chapter in Atlanta, so if you know anybody who may be interested, please encourage them to join (www.naasa.org). It was a fun meeting but I'm exhausted now. Good night!

Bone scan result

Unfortunately they found cancer in my bones - in the spine and in the right ribs. I guess the backache was partly from cancer. I was really sad about it but after talking to my healer last night, I'm more optimistic and hopeful that I can still recover from this.
I had a shoulder pain this weekend and was taking painkiller, but I went to the acupuncture yesterday and had a session with my healer. I just woke up and noticed the pain is almost gone even though I didn't take any medicine before I went to bed. I'm really grateful.
So, I will see my main oncologist on Wed to talk about the next treatment (they told me it will be chemo). I hope we don't have to start it until after the holidays.
Have a nice day everyone!

Weekend

We just came back from a funeral of a lady (Allene Davis) who lived in Jim's neighborhood when he was growing up. She was very close to Jim's mother, and Jim was close to her children. She was a lively lady and will be missed by so may people who came to the funeral. Other than that, we didn't do much this weekend - the weather suddenly turned cold and we didn't feel like going out much. Last night, we went by a friend's house - she is moving out of the country soon and gave us lots of toys for Kai. Kai was so happy when he saw her big dog and kept slapping her (he does it to Tango, our cat also - Tango hisses back at him.) but the dog was so good, didn't even make a sound. My backache is back (and no - it didn't get cured by a church service this time) and I'm taking Tylenol, which helps a lot. I think maybe this cold weather has something to do with it - it is better when I am standing in a hot shower. Hope you all had a nice weekend - good night!

Thursday

I saw Dr. M yesterday. I was feeling nauseous on and off for the last week or so, and I was feeling nausea when I saw him. But Dr. M cured it! He said the nausea is caused because my liver isn't working well and massaged those points. So after the session, I felt so good and was able to eat well last night and was able to sleep better as well. I was massaging one of the points today so I'm feeling fine. I attended an accounting seminar hosted by P*C today and yes it was very interesting but I fell asleep a little - they fed us pretty good.
By the way - Jim's wallet was stolen and we found out some of his cards had been used. Of course the credit companies will take care of the charges but it seems the thief has been shopping for Christmas gifts for herself (guessing from the store she shopped)! Anyway, I hope it doesn't happen to you - just calling these credit card companies is a major pain. Good night!

Bone scan done!

Ok, so I finished the bone scan today. It was a long process, because they give you a radioactive shot, then, you have to wait like 2 hrs before they can actually scan you. I didn't want to drive, so I went to the library in the cancer institute at the hospital to rest. They have a very comfortable chair and have lots of books you can borrow. Anyway, I've been meaning to borrow this book called "Lovely Bones" from my library but I've never done it. But I found it today at this library. This library is much better because they let you borrow books as long as you need (not like a regular library!). So it wasn't a bad wait. The scan itself probably took like an hour total - but I fell asleep. This machine wasn't noisy like other machines, so I was really comfortable. There were lots of Christmas decorations at the hospital and it looked really nice and festive. I heard some ladies sing Jingle Bells (probably volunteers). Isn't it funny it is so hot this week? We have an AC on - and it is December!
I'm going to see Dr. M now. Have a nice evening!

Monday

So, the weekend ended very quickly as usual! On Sat, I still had fever and decided not to go to my company's Christmas party. Too bad! On Sunday, my fever went away and I was able to attend church. Our church had the Christmas concert, so we went with Jim's mom. The church has great choir groups (adults, students, and kids) as well as orchestra, and the concert was really wonderful! We enjoyed it so much. When we were leaving the church, I realized that my terrible backache was almost gone. So I think God cured it - what do you think? But I'm very careful with picking Kai up now. I let Jim do it as much as possible.
At work, we had "white elephant" gift exchange. I heard this referred as "Chinese gift exchange" but people get to pick from open gifts as well as from unopened pile. I first picked a toss pillow with somebody's face on it (it was a special order)! I was sure no one would want it, but luckily his boss picked it from me. At one point, I had an Einstein doll (which is like a GI Joe doll with Einstein head). Amazingly, somebody else took it from me. Anyway, I ended up with a digital photo key chain, which is pretty cool. Have you seen an episode from the Office where they do this gift exchange? Anyway, this was a lot of fun!
I had a session with my healer tonight. She is amazing! Even when I'm feeling pretty bad, she always lifts my spirit up. After I talk to her, I am able to go to bed in a positive mood - which is very important. I hope this week goes better than the last week. Good night!

Weekend

The hospital called and postponed my bone scan to next Wed (they are short of some radioactive material used for the scan). I won't get the result until the Monday, 17th. Too bad. But I am pretty sure my cancer is not in the bones. It feels more internal. Dr. M said there are some receptors in that area, so it is possible that is the cause of pain. Anyway, I have been feeling a little bit under the weather these days. I went to Dr. L (acupuncturist) and she pointed out that I have a fever. Turns out I had a 38.7c fever (it is gone now). You know cancer is very weak against fever, so if you get like 42c fever, your cancer cells die. So there is a heat therapy (I found in Japanese website) where they heat the cancer area to raise the temprature so that cancer cells die. So I hoped my fever would go higher but it didn't.
My back is a little better after seeing Dr. M and Dr. L, but I still have pain. I try not to pick Kai up but it is unavoidable! Maybe we need a little steps so he can climb up to the crib himself!
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

Wednesday

I'm feeling better today. I was having a very bad lower backache as well as muscle sore, but it is a better today. Jim told me to do half sit-ups to help with the backache and I tried last night - I guess it helped! I think it was from carrying Kai around - he's getting really heavy. By the way I noticed my voice came back a little. It comes and goes, so when I have to talk on the phone, I just hope my voice is there. When my voice happens to be back, I can even sing a song. You know I love singing.
I had lunch with a friend who had a little baby girl. The baby was just so cute! Compared to this baby girl, Kai is like a little man! It is amazing to see how quickly they grow.
By the way, our carpet was steam cleaned today - so it feels really clean and nice. I don't think we'd vacuumed here for a while...
It's been really cold this week. Stay warm and healthy! Good night.

New Doctor

Today I went in to see a new radiation oncologist. My previous doctor (who was really great and gave me anti nausea acupuncture!) had moved to head the department at another university out of state. Anyway, my voice hadn't been so well and also I have been having a little pain in the left libs. The doctor took a look at my vocal cord and noticed that the left side is paralyzed. So they decided to do a bone scan to see if my cancer spread into the bone or not. The scan is this Friday but I won't know the result until next week. I try not to worry but it depressed me a little. But I've been watching "House" on TV just now and he said "your mind controls your body." He was talking about "mass hysteria" when people get sick (or make themselves sick) by watching other sick person. I will be keeping up the high spirit so my body won't be affected by negative feelings.
By the way I heard that a tea spoon of honey works better than a cough syrup. It is actually easy to try so I'm trying it today. I tried the soup recommended by Dr. L last week which seemed to work on me but I'd rather avoid cooking if I can!

Weekend

We went to the zoo this weekend with our friend and her son. The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful day. This time, Kai was awake enough to see some animals (but he missed gorillas again!). But we had lots of fun, riding a train (per Jim's request), watching a baby panda and her mom together, etc. We also went to our friends house for dinner. It was so good to get together - I hadn't been to their house for a few months. By the way, my voice hasn't been well for a while. I don't know if it is because of cancer, some side effects from the treatment, or cold. But I spoke to my healer tonight and she worked on it while we were on the phone, and she is also going to work on it some more. I have a total faith in her so it should clear up soon!
We went to a church again on Sunday. Every time I listen to the preacher, I learn something new. Jim was surprised at how little I knew about the Bible also. So I'm starting to read a little before I go to sleep.
Today, I stayed home to watch Kai, because the owner of the day care passed away suddenly (heart attack). I haven't met him but Jim's met him - he was probably in the early 50's. It really made me think - you never know what's going to happen the next minute of your life, so you'd better enjoy it while you can.
By the way, I have been watching "Rescue me" DVDs (gift from my friend!). For people who hasn't watched this show, it is about a NY firefighter who sees ghosts as well as Jesus (in recent episodes I watched). Lots of crazy things happen and it is a very entertaining show. To me it is so interesting to see his encounter with Jesus. In one episode, because this firefighter doesn't believe in him, Jesus says to him, if I make it (saving a child) happen, will it make him believe in God? Anyway, this show is totally outrageous, funny and also touching, and I just love it. If you haven't seen this series, I recommend you to netflix it.