Day +269 : Common Misconceptions About Cancer

I am fine today.

On my blog Day +262, I posted a newspaper cutting where the chairman of Malaysian Oncological Society (MOS), Dr Gurcharan Singh Khera, warned the potential risks of taking natural supplements indiscriminately. MOS has a very informative though brief website that provides valuable information to cancer patients.

One of the attractive sections is “Common Misconceptions About Cancer”. I extract the most frequent misconceptions that I encountered from friends and relatives after I was diagnosed with the disease:

Many people suspect my disease is caused by my diet. See what doctor says:

Doctor, what food should I avoid?
Food is not the most important cause of cancer. Neither is it an important modality in the treatment of cancer. It is important that cancer patients observe a diet high in protein, calories and vitamins while undergoing treatment. However, that is a far cry from saying that "this food will prevent cancer" or "that food will cause cancer!"

People sent me document warning me how damaging the conventional treatment could be and advised me to go for alternative treatment – taking organic foods, vitamins, mushroom and many other 'magic' foods, and stop taking many other foods such as sugar, dairy product, meat etc. See what doctor says:

I don't want to undergo cancer treatment because 'good' cells are killed.
Cancer treatment is a judicious combination of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and molecularly targeted therapy. There is no such thing as medical treatment (for any disease, including cancer) that is devoid of side effects, just as there is no such thing as a free lunch. However, most side effects of cancer therapy are temporary, reversible and manageable. Much progress has been made in the control of nausea and vomiting, which is a frequent side effect of treatment. 'Growth factors' (G-CSF, erythropoietin) are available to combat bone marrow suppression, which is another common side effect of cancer therapy. And the list goes on… If cancer is left untreated, there will be great suffering. Death will ensue within two years in most cases.

I received countless proposals to go for one form or another kind of alternative therapy. See what doctor says:

What about alternative therapy?
What about it? There is no alternative civil engineering, no alternative computer technology and no alternative chemistry. Any treatment for cancer has to be subjected to the rigours of scientific enquiry. This inevitably means a slow, laborious, intellectually honest process that starts in the laboratory, proceeds onto animal studies and finally studies on humans. There is only medicine that works and has been proven, and medicine that is not proven and may not work.

The full article can be viewed here. If you have friends or relatives who are diagnosed with cancer, please refer this to them. I believe this would help them to clear a lot of unnecessary doubt.

The MOS website is at http://www.malaysiaoncology.org/.

See you next post :-)

Day +268 : It is more blessed to give than to receive (3)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

Why is it more blessed to give than to receive? The very first reason is that there are a lot more opportunities for us to give than to receive, and giving is within our control while receiving is beyond our control. If we enjoy receiving we have to wait for someone to give but if we enjoy giving, we can do it right away!

I opened my house to my nephews and nieces who came here to study and to work. Currently, three of them stayed permanently at my house and another one or two would come during the weekend. No one needs to pay anything to stay with us – food and lodging are provided free of charge.

One of them sent me a message thanking me providing him free delicious food and lodging for a whole week during the last Chinese New Year :-) I replied to him that I was so happy to have him here and my house was always open to him. He could come and stayed with us anytime he likes – free of charge :-)

My heart was full of joy when I saw them enjoy staying here with us, especially when they said that some foods that I cooked were more delicious than the restaurant :-)

I am not the richest and my house is not the biggest or the most beautiful one, and yet they feel that this is the most comfortable place they could stay. I like them staying with me. To me, they are like my children :-)

Someone said that I am over generous, but if you know the reason behind, it may not be that generous anymore :-) I will explain the reason later.

See you next post :-)

Day +267 : It is more blessed to give than to receive (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

When I was young in Sarawak, I liked to follow adults to visit the native Iban friends during the eve of Gawai Day - their major festival equivalent to Chinese New Year celebration. These Iban friends, though normally poorer than Chinese, always served us the best food they had happily. In contrast, when they visited us during the eve of Chinese New Year, we hid the best food and gave them only the inferior food. Who was more blessed? I believe the Ibans were more blessed because they gave truly. They were poorer externally but abundantly rich internally. I saw the Chinese, busy hiding superior food, were richer outside but poorer inside.

It had been so many years I did not have chance to celebrate Chinese New Year in Sarawak. Next time, if I were celebrating Chinese New Year there, I will definitely treat them good food, as good as what we ourselves have :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +266 : It is more blessed to give than to receive (1)

I am fine today.

One Sunday morning, while we were driving to the church, my son Daniel told us that a bird was eating one of the papayas on the papaya tree at the backyard. My mother-in-law quickly responded, “It can still be eaten,” meaning that we should ‘fight’ with the bird for the papaya. “Do you all agree we give this papaya to the bird?” I asked. Everyone agreed and felt very happy about this.

This is one example that shows the blessing – joy and happiness – that we enjoy through giving unconditionally. Even giving a papaya to a bird will reap such a blessing, what more to say when we give to human?

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +265 : Pray for my friend

I am fine today.

Yesterday, while I was in the hospital, I called a friend whom I meet while doing post-transplant follow-up in the General Clinic. We met quite regularly and became good friend. As mentioned in my blog Day +162, he did his bone marrow transplant 5 years ago. Unfortunately, he experienced severe chronic GVHD until now.

Lately, due to infection and GVHD, his lung is damaged quite seriously. CT scan showed that his lung was collapsed and he has difficulty in breathing now. His breathing needs to be aided with external oxygen supply in order to get enough oxygen for his body.

He is very kind, nice and friendly. Please pray for him. He name is TS Tiong.

See you next post :-)

Day +264 : Follow-up

My Blood Count Today:
Red Blood Count (RBC) = 145 (Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 119(Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 6.3(Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 5.292 (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)
Potassium = 5.1(Normal 3.5 - 5.2)
ALT = 146(Normal 30 - 65 )
AST = 31(Normal 15-37)
GGT = 267(Normal 15-85)

I am fine today. I went to UH to do my routine follow-up in the morning. The ALT and GGT level reduced quite significantly compared to last follow-up’s reading. This means that my liver function is improving over the past two weeks. With this, doctor reduced my daily steroid Prednisolon dosage from 60mg (12 tablets) to 50mg (10 tablets) this week, 40mg (8 tablets) for the following week, and then 30mg (6 tablets) for the remaining two weeks before the next follow-up, which is one month later.

Upon doctor's advice during my last follow-up, I did not visit any friends in the hematology ward today. This is because my immune system is still suppressed through the drugs Ciclosporin and Prednisolon and thus is prone to infection. “I will tell you when you can visit them,” said the doctor.

I reached the hospital at 10:00am this morning. After drawing blood sample, I had to wait until 2:00pm to see the doctor. I cannot be busy body this time, talking and visiting patients and friends in the ward. So I brought along a notebook computer, running here and there to investigate which location in the hospital has wireless access to internet. In the end, I found two spots with internet access:-)

Still busy body, isn’t it?

See you next post :-)

Day +263: You are always there!

I am fine today. I went to attend Sunday service this morning. Pastor preached a sermon based on Psalm 139.

Our God knows us so intimately that he knew our days even before we were conceived as written in Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Apart from this, the beautiful verses below gave me tremendous strength and peace to face Leukaemia treatment:

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

8 我 若 升 到 天 上 ， 你 在 那 里 ； 我 若 在 阴 间 下 榻 ， 你 也 在 那 里 。
9 我 若 展 开 清 晨 的 翅 膀 ， 飞 到 海 极 居 住 ，
10 就 是 在 那 里 ， 你 的 手 必 引 导 我 ； 你 的 右 手 也 必 扶 持 我 。

During the treatment, I strongly felt the presence of God regardless my everyday’s health condition and the environment. I knew He would be with me and guide me no matter what would happen to me and where would I be; just like what the above verses say.

You are there, whom shall I fear? You are there, whom shall I afraid?

See you next post :-)

Day +262 : Nutritional supplements, the more the better? (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

My common sense told me at that time that this kind of argument is seriously flawed though I did not normally confront them directly. No matter how good and natural a product is, we still have to exercise control in taking them. Of course, our body is clever enough to maintain an optimum level of vitamin or mineral by disposing any surplus through organs such as kidney and liver. But we have to consider the unnecessary burden that the organs have to bear in doing this; which might eventually lead to organ failure. In the end, we pay money to make our organs to do extra work unnecessarily, worth it?

I share with you the following Chinese newspaper cutting on the possible long-term side-effects of taking nutritional supplements. The chairman of Malaysian Oncological Society (MOS), Dr Gurcharan Singh Khera, warned the potential risks of taking natural supplements indiscriminately. These includes possible organs damage and shorter life span.

Click the newspaper cutting to get a larger view.

The more you take, the better they are, not you are :-) Who are ‘they are’? You guess.

See you next post :-)

Day +261 : Nutritional supplements, the more the better? (1)

I am fine today.

After I was diagnosed with this disease, I was approached by many people to take health care products, herbal, vitamin and nutritional supplements.

The reasons given to me to take them include but not limited to the following:

1. They are natural products and thus it is impossible they could cause harm to you.
2. Someone took them and their health improved or disease got cured.
3. Once you are diagnosed with cancer, the end can’t be too good either, so why not try this product, who knows you will get better?

Apart from this, they encouraged me to take as much nutritional supplements as I could. “They are natural products, the more you take, the better you will be. There is no such thing as over-dose in natural products”

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +260 : A Minister without Portfolio (不管部长) in the company

I am fine today.

My boss decided not to let me involved in any software development management work which I was doing before, even though I see many areas that I could contribute. Apart from this, I am given total freedom of doing whatever I would like to do in the company. Now, I considered myself a minister without portfolio (不管部长) in the company :-)

I have a broad range of interest. Therefore, a minister without portfolio should not be too boring to me. Now I am free to learn new technologies and see how these technologies could benefit the company; either absorbing them into our software or utilizing them to support the company operation.

However, to be minister without portfolio is not without side effects. One of the most notable one is that the income is significantly reduced :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +259 : From David Ting to David Healed

I am fine today.

When I was admitted to hospital for bone marrow transplant procedure on the 26th of June last year, I was unaware that my ward had access to internet until the 4th of July; that was more than one week later. Upon knowing I had access to internet, I immediately got the idea of sharing my first hand transplant experience with family members, relatives and friends through blog. This was extremely useful because the procedure had to be done in an isolated environment where no visitors were allowed. Thus, the best way to keep them informed of my daily progress was to post my progress through this blog.

The first thing I had to do in setting up this blog was to give it a name. I tried david.blogspot.com and obviously this popular name was taken by someone else. The next choice was david-ting.blogspot.com which was still available. After some more thought, I finally named it as david-healed.blogspot.com, a name which reflects my strong desire of getting healed.

By making some logical deduction between my name david-ting and this blog name david-healed, we manage to come to a very interesting conclusion.

Here is how it goes.

Comparing david-ting and david-healed, we have ting = healed, and since ting is my surname, we come to the conclusion that healed is also my surname.

Now I have two surnames, the old one called ting and the new one called healed. If you tend to be forgetful, just remember anyone of them. I totally don’t mind if you called me David Healed. In fact in some occasions I also named myself David Healed, for example using david.healed @ gmail.com as my email address.

See you next post :-)

David Healed

Day +258 : Side effects of holiday

I am fine today.

After our Genting trip last week, my mother-in-law and Aaron were down with flue and fever.

My mother-in-law looked very tired but she always insists that she is fine and reluctant to see a doctor. She would never inform us when she fall sick or felt uncomfortable. Sometimes, it is quite a challenging task for my wife and me to make sure that she is fine; lots of guessing works, and very often we only came to know her real problem after beating around the bush(转弯抹角) :-( One occasion, she had toothache. Instead of telling me her problem directly, she said to me, “I heard so and so saw a dentist last week, didn’t he?” Hearing this, I suspected she had toothache and asked, “You have toothache?” She said yes. I brought her to see dentist immediately.

I brought Aaron to see doctor this morning and the doctor found out that he was having throat inflammation. So we put him on antibiotic.

I enjoyed the cold environment at Genting very much, but the same environment made my mother-in-law and Aaron sick. How could this happen? Doctor said the cold environment did not make them sick directly, but it lowered their immune system making them more susceptible to infection. I must remember to keep them extra warm if I were to bring them to cold places again.

See you next post :-)

Day +257 : Oh! My hair

I am fine today.

My hair was straight before I was diagnosed with the disease. After going through a series of treatment including the bone marrow transplant, my hair becomes curly now :-( And I am having difficulty in managing my hair to make it looks neat and tidy.

Looking at my hair, one of the nurses asked, “You macam ini bagaimana menghadapi student?” (How you face students like this?) She thought that I was still teaching in the college :-)

Using hair jell might be a good solution, but I don’t like the sticky jell at all and also don’t want to spend too much time on the hair everyday. In the end, I went to the barber shop and asked the barber to cut my hair short enough until it looks neat and tidy :-)

No combing is necessary and yet it is still quite tidy. Save me lots of time :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +256 : True forgiveness, true freedom

I am fine today. I attended Sunday service in the morning. The Pastor delivered a sermon called “Joseph, a man who magnified the Lord”(尊主为大的约瑟).

First of all, this Joseph is not my second son Joseph; it is a Biblical character in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Joseph was a Hebrew who honored God. His brothers sold him to Egypt. Despite many difficult circumstances, he raised to become “the governor over all the land of Egypt”.

Based on the life of Joseph, Pastor explained the characteristics of the one who magnifying the Lord, using the life of Joseph as an example.

1. God be always with him no matter under whatever circumstances, and his faith in God will not be diminished by any circumstances.
2. He fears God so that he won’t fall into temptation.
3. He forgives truly and thus enjoys true freedom.

In the end Joseph forgiven what his brothers had done to him. Yes, only the one who forgive truly is able to enjoy true freedom. So freedom is not a result of circumstances, but a result of our choice. If we choose to blame others making our life miserable, then we are in fact imprisoning our freedom ourselves - not the one who offends us, because the choice to forgive is ours :-) On the other hands, if we choose to forgive, we are free!

True forgiveness, true freedom! Start to forgive to enjoy freedom now and I guarantee that this principle will work for you :-)

If you would like to listen to the sermon, you can download it here free of charge :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +255 : Holiday Photos

I am fine today.

I would like to share with you some photos of our holiday :-) Click any of them to get a larger view.

A family photo. Many people said that my face is getting chubbier (round and plump), but I am definitely not gaining weight. The chubby face is caused by the steroid (Prednisolone) that I am taking as a mean to control GVHD. This type of face is also called "moon face".

Joseph and Daniel were having fun :-)

Adriel is enjoying cool morning air.


Adriel with clowns.

The three kids.

My niece was very lucky to have a chance to take photo with one of the characters from "FLY : DEFY GRAVITY" show. We met a few characters while they were promoting their show.

Another character from the show.

Here is another one.
See you next post :-)

Day +254 : A children holiday, adult hard-work day

I am fine today.

It is almost impossible to enjoy a relax holiday by bringing so many children along. Parents normally need to put in extra effort to take care of and manage them during the trip.

Our children are of different ages and many attractions in the theme park have age or height restrictions. In order to maximize the ROI (return of interest) of one-day unlimited theme park ride pass, the best way to do is to divide and conquer. Since my wife has to take care of 11 month old Aaron, it is impossible for me to lead two teams of children (分身乏术). Fortunately, my two nieces are around, so that we can split into two teams (兵分两路). Joseph and Daniel joined the two nieces to enjoy the best deal - the outdoor, indoor and Wet Park unlimited rides for a day, while I accompanied Adriel for indoor unlimited rides.

By now, Joseph and Adriel are too tired and fallen asleep, but the two nieces and Daniel are still enjoying the fun in the indoor theme park which will be opened until 1:00am. In fact, Adriel fallen asleep half-way while playing in the indoor theme park in the evening, I have to carry her back to the room :-( I ‘enjoyed’ too many ‘turtle-slow and boring’ family rides, but when I saw Adriel enjoying them, the ride became more and more fun.

My wife and I are very tired now – a children holiday, adult hard-work day. But deep inside our heart, we still say, “worthwhile, worthwhile.” Why? Because we are family!

Anyway, I think I should arrange a holiday for my wife and me alone, leaving the children to my mother-in-law and the two nieces. With this, we must be able to enjoy a relax holiday.

Posted at StarBucks (without coffee), First World Hotel, Genting Highlands, see you next post :-)

Day +253 : Hurray! We are going for Holiday!

I am fine today.

This morning, I am bringing my family including my mother-in-law and two nieces to Genting Highland for a three day two night vacation :-) Again, this is the first time I ever bring my family for holiday since I was diagnosed with Leukaemia.

This vacation was arranged by my brother Richard. About two weeks ago, he booked the rooms and passed the confirmation slip to me. Neither he nor I paid anything for the rooms because it was booked under someone else timeshare package.

I really appreciate him for this kind arrangement.

See you next post :-)

Day +252 : Think and Grow Rich

I am fine today.

A kind friend of mine invited me to attend Napoleon Hill International Convention 2007 on 12 – 13 March 2007 free of charge. The two days conference worth RM1880.00 and it was was held at Putra International Conventional Centre. This is the first conference I ever attended since I was diagnosed with the disease.

A photo of the Putra International Conventional Centre.

Delegate tag.

I missed the first day convention and the delicious (I think) GALA dinner because I needed to do my regular follow-up at UH on that day.

The convention is propagating the principle by Dr. Napoleon Hill in achieving success in our life. At the end of the convention, I purchased the book “THINK AND GROW RICH” by Dr. Napoleon Hill.

If you are interested to read the book, you can download a copy here absolutely free of charge.

Frankly speaking, I still don’t know much about the principle as I have yet to read the book. At first glance, the title of the book seems to be very materialistic if we link the term “RICH” to money or wealth only. However, as I read the publisher’s preface, I came across a meaningful paragraph which says, “Riches cannot always be measured in money! Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, harmonious family relationships, sympathy and understanding between business associates, and introspective harmony which brings one peace of mind measurable only in spiritual values!” Do you agree?

In the convention, one speaker also stressed that accumulating wealth without a purpose is in fact a curse. This implies that a blessed way of accumulating wealth has to be always in accordance with the spirit of giving :-)

I believe while the principles do help many people to achieve material richness, there is no guarantee that it will work for everyone as we are so unique. However, one thing I am very sure is that, despite all circumstances, we are still rich by 'ourselves'. Why? You can read my perspective of ‘We are born rich' here (Day +234 blog).

See you next post :-)

Day +251: Nothing she brings from this world but loving kindness she planted deeply in my heart

I am fine today.

Today we mourn the loss of my third sister’s mother-in-law who lives in this world healthily for 88 years. She encountered major health problem only at the last few weeks of her life.

As you all know, my third sister was the one who donated her stem cells to me that allow me to complete the bone marrow transplant successfully last year. Her mother-in-law was very supportive throughout the donating process where my sister had to come from Sarawak to Kuala Lumpur twice. Not only this, she was very concerned about the progress of my treatment. On one occasion, when she heard that I was recovering very well after the bone marrow transplant, she made monetary offering and shouted “Halluyah!” in the church. For your information, “Halluyah!” is the most joyful word of praise to God. She said to everyone, “God is so good! He cured my nephew!” You see, for some reason, she treated me as her nephew! (外甥)

About 20 years ago, I studied form 6 in a school nearby her house. As the school did not provide sufficient motorcycle parking lots for students, I often parked my motorcycle at her house and then walked to the school. Very often, my sister’s mother-in-law cook me “kampung” (village) chicken eggs to eat at her house and then gave me a few raw eggs to cook in the school hostel during the week days. She said these chicken eggs would boost my memory so that I could study well :-)

She ended her journey in this world and now she is just starting her new life where heaven is her home, a home full of peace, joy and happiness as what the Bible says, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Nothing she brings from this world but loving kindness she planted deeply in my heart. May God bless my sister’s mother-in-law and may God bless my auntie!(姑姑)

A photo taken with her on January 2005. Click the photo to get a larger view.

I have asked someone to read this post during tomorrow memorial service.

See you next post :-)

Day +250 : Follow-up

My Blood Count Today:
Red Blood Count (RBC) = 129(Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 118(Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 6.4(Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 4.928 (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)
Potassium = 4.1(Normal 3.5 - 5.2)
ALT = 265(Normal <51 )
AST = 44(Normal < 41)
GGT = 327(Normal < 51)

I am fine today. I went to do follow-up this morning. The blood test result showed that my liver is quite badly affected by GVHD. The ALT (Alanine Aminotransferase) level increased to 265, a value which is 5.2 times more than the normal level. On the other hand, GGT (Gamma-Glutamyltranspeptidase) is also increased to 327, a 6.4 folds increase than the normal level :-(

High levels of ALT in the bloodstream mean that there may be liver inflammation or damage while high levels of GGT may indicate the inflammation or damage of bile duct.

Persistent dry mouth and eyes also indicates that I am now having chronic GVHD, which doctor said would take a few months to cure. The doctor supposed to cut down my Prednisolone (steroid) dosage but when he looked at the result of my liver function test, he decided to maintain the dosage. He also wanted to see me sooner, so my next follow-up will be two weeks later.

After the nurse drew my blood sample this morning, I went to visit a friend in an isolated ward in the haematology ward. One doctor spotted me and said, “What are you doing here? I know you are very kind but he got bacterial infection! Go away from here!” She also reminded me that I am on immunosuppressive drugs now and thus prone to infection.

I was later worried that I might be at risk of infection because I entered the isolated ward. After seeing the doctor in the General Clinic in the afternoon, I returned to the hematology ward to find out what type of infection my friend had. The nurse told me that my friend was infected by a type of bacteria called Salmonella which causes foodborne illness (food poisoning). It can only be transmitted through contact with the patient's faeces or food contamination. What a relief! Next time I have to be very careful in visiting patients.

When I told this incident to my wife, she scolded me, “Busy body you! You are getting more like your eldest sister!” :-)

See you next post :-)