The Big-C pretty much never left my mind since 20 Jan 2016. But this past 2 weeks, it was especially hard to take it off my mind because…
- I went for my 5th quarterly follow up since completing cancer treatment. That’s exactly 1 year since I started my post-treatment follow up and aspirin drug study too.
- My cancer story was published on Humans of Kuala Lumpur. As a result, strangers reached out to me for support. The story was long overdue so I had a throwback moment when it came out too.
- I attended a talk about genetics and cancer, where Mei Sze shared her cancer story. I exchanged stories with a few people, whose stories I want to remember.
Believe it or not, writing helps me process information better and let go of mind-boggling matters. I’d love to read back my journal at every step of my cancer journey too because I’m often surprised at how far I’ve progressed when I read back (i.e. This one written 1 year after cancer treatment).
So here we go.
5th Quarterly Consultation with Oncologist
I love how effortlessly I’ve viewed the hospital as a place my cancer was cured, instead of linking it to a negative connotation. I looked forward to meeting my doctors and nurses who have saved my life.
Not sure why I barely have the jitters for these consultations even though there’s always a chance I may be slapped with a relapse *touch wood*. But I’m glad it turned out this way.
So without further ado, let’s get the most important thing out of the way: blood test result was good. I’m still in Remission or NED (no evidence of disease). Yippie!
My oncologist, Prof Dr Ho, felt I see him too often even though I see him every 3 months, just like every other colon cancer survivor.
One of our routine topics still remained: where did I travel to in the past 3 months? He has been asking this since the beginning of this year because I stop my aspirin intake during travels. However, this time, I was warned to ensure I don’t skip aspirin so much or I’d be disqualified from the program. Oops.
Very interestingly, we had quite a long discussion on child sponsorship with World Vision! He became interested when I told him about my recent volunteers gathering camp. I love how we went off-topic and him saying repeatedly he wants to sponsor a child. Wee~! Who knew talking about a weekend activity to a doctor could recruit a child sponsor, right?
Have I mentioned before that I sent him a postcard from Taiwan? The postcard sits in my medical folder now so we see it every 3 months when he empties my folder. 😂.
Off-topic matters aside, I finally reached my pre-surgery weight after 1 year 8 months! In my last consultation, doctor gave me a 1kg weight gain KPI to be achieved in 3 months. I did it and even overachieved by 20%! Woohoo! Let’s do another kg by Feb 2018, shall we? 😊
Besides that, I reported red spots on my body to doctor. They have persisted since July 2017. It seemed that this may be another side effect of aspirin intake. I’m kinda sensitive to this aspirin thing, am I not?
Lastly, doctor told me to exercise regularly instead of just holidaying and playing around (camps and occasional hiking). Yes, sir… Who wants to keep me accountable?
Lastly, doctor finally scheduled me for my routine CT scan. This will be my first CT scan since Jan 2016. It’d be crucial because it’d be more detailed and sensitive than the blood tests I’ve been doing. CT scan is scheduled for mid-Jan 2018! That’d be the next hospital update before my next quarterly consultation in Feb 2018. *fingers crossed*
I wanted to continue the post with Humans of KL and the Genetic and Cancer event but let’s leave it for another day. The post will get too lengthy!
P/s Drop me a note if there’s any specific thing you want me to write about. I’m on a weekly blog challenge with a friend, Khai. You can expect regular updates at least until Feb 2018!