Category: #sharestrength

Been putting off writing about my 5th chemotherapy cycle to the point it’s due to write about my 6th chemotherapy cycle. I know right… #procrastination

Liver working too hard was a big news for me. It got my demotivated. But here’s a bigger highlight: I failed my blood test at the end of the cycle. It’s the first time I failed my blood test and was denied chemotherapy so I could not carry on with my 6th cycle on time. Continue reading #sharestrength – Chemotherapy #5

Before I started my chemotherapy treatment, I wondered how the treatment room would look like. Will there be beds? Does it look like an inpatient ward? How many nurses are there? What will the patients look like? What will the patients be doing to pass time? And many more questions.

Unfortunately, most online search returned US-based results so I didn’t have a clear picture. But at least it gave me a glimpse of what to expect. And now, let me tell you how the chemotherapy ward at University Malaya Specialist Center (UMSC) is like.
Continue reading How Chemotherapy Ward Is Like At UMSC

In the midst of my fifth chemotherapy now but let’s talk about my forth chemotherapy first. Honestly, I don’t remember much about the forth because I was too distracted with the attention from the release of the video by AXA and National Cancer Society Malaysia.

As usual, I went to the hospital on Tuesday for my blood test; that normally takes less than an hour so I dropped by during lunch break since my office is just 10 minutes away.

Continue reading #sharestrength – Chemotherapy #4

I was aiming to blog about each of my chemotherapy cycle at the end of my chemotherapy weekend but I missed the third cycle. I’ve already completed my forth cycle but here I am trying to recollect the experience of my third cycle because as a chemotherapy patient, I enjoyed reading the progress of each cycle of other patients; it gave me a glimpse of what to expect at different stage of the journey. It’s reassuring so let’s do this.

During my third cycle, I learned that I’m just quite hopeless when it comes to productivity during chemotherapy and that hair fall is something I need to deal with at least until my treatment ends (FYI, colon cancer chemotherapy does not cause hair loss).

Besides that, RK learned alongside me that life is as usual even with chemotherapy, just like what my doctor told me prior to treatment. We went to the mall after my hospital visit. We caught a movie 2 days after finishing my third cycle. And I went for a 3d2m shopping trip to Bangkok a week after! This explains why I have less time for my blog now. Continue reading #sharestrength – Chemotherapy #3

My first chemotherapy felt like forever. My second chemotherapy felt like a blink of an eye. Seriously, I don’t know where time flew. I didn’t realize I have been away from work for almost a week until late this morning.

I have to say that the second cycle felt less intimidating because I already had a gauge of how my body would respond to the drugs. What I have forgotten however, was that I now have increased dosage of drug in my body. What this means is that side effects will be worse because of cumulative effect.
Continue reading #sharestrength – Chemotherapy #2

So it happened. 7 weeks after my colectomy surgery to remove 26 cm of my colon, I went for another surgery to commence my chemotherapy. This, however, was a minor surgery. So minor I was fully awake throughout the whole 1-hour procedure.

Awake? Yes, I was awake.

For my colectomy surgery, I was unconscious at the waiting ward. I did not see the operating theater. I did not see my surgeon’s face before the surgery.

For this minor surgery to implant a chemo port in my chest, I climbed onto the surgical table myself and even chatted with the surgeon during the surgery. It was surreal. It was scary just because. Continue reading #sharestrength – Chemo Port Surgery & Chemotherapy #1