I am fine today. I would like to continue sharing my second chemotherapy’s experience in UH.
The Chinese New Year (CNY) was just around the corner. Every patient wished they could recover fast enough to be discharged at least on the New Year Eve on 28, January 2006. It would be my chemo day 20 on the New Year Eve, but the blood test on day 19 showed that my white blood count was only 0.5. Therefore, there was no chance for me to celebrate the New Year with my family.
There was a very generous discharge on the New Year Eve. I remembered doctor visited bed by bed and told those patients who were fit enough to go home, “You can go home.” These patients would then be greatly delighted and started to pack their personal stuffs while their family member handled their discharge procedure. When the doctor passed by my bed, he said, “This one, no need to say!” :-(
One female patient who stayed within the same cubicle cried because the doctor did not discharged her. She wished to celebrate CNY with her family very much. Her mother who was always there to take care of her also cried. The mother cried not because she could not go home to celebrate CNY, but pitied her daughter.
I was quite happy when the assistant nurse passed me a CNY menu on the first day of CNY. This mean the hospital was providing special food to us during the CNY. But I was quite disappointed to find that my special order was never fulfilled. They still served every patient with ordinary food as usual :-( I wondered where the special food had gone.
Finally, I was discharged the 4th day of CNY, which is on 1st February, 2005. I stayed in the hospital for 24 days for this cycle of chemotherapy. I didn’t mind to miss the CNY because everyday is as good as New Year to me to be able to stay with my family member.
See you next post :-)
Showing posts with label 2nd Chemotherapy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2nd Chemotherapy. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Day +88
I am fine. Just continue my story at UH.
The boil became bigger and the groin pain increased each day. Doctor warned me that when my white blood count started to pick up, the swelling on both sites would become bigger. He might need to call in a surgeon to poke a hole at the groin to release the pus if it grew too big. When he saw my white blood count started to pick up a few days later, he expected the swelling at the groin would became very big. The expectation is reasonable because more white cells are available now to fight with the bacteria which result in more dead cells to be deposited at the groin, making the swelling bigger. “Now the show begins”, he said to me just before he examined my groin. Fortunately, there was no show for him as the swelling at the groin did not get too big :-)
The blood culture for the blood sample taken on day 16 grew E. Coli bacteria. The same blood culture also grew fungus three weeks later, but nobody knew this at that time.
See you next post :-)
The boil became bigger and the groin pain increased each day. Doctor warned me that when my white blood count started to pick up, the swelling on both sites would become bigger. He might need to call in a surgeon to poke a hole at the groin to release the pus if it grew too big. When he saw my white blood count started to pick up a few days later, he expected the swelling at the groin would became very big. The expectation is reasonable because more white cells are available now to fight with the bacteria which result in more dead cells to be deposited at the groin, making the swelling bigger. “Now the show begins”, he said to me just before he examined my groin. Fortunately, there was no show for him as the swelling at the groin did not get too big :-)
The blood culture for the blood sample taken on day 16 grew E. Coli bacteria. The same blood culture also grew fungus three weeks later, but nobody knew this at that time.
See you next post :-)
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Day +87
I am fine today. Let me continue to share my second chemotherapy’s experience in UH.
According to doctor, no body escaped fever during chemotherapy. This means a patient who undergoes chemotherapy will develop at least one occasion of fever and chill. I told doctor I would like to break this record. So I tried my best to take care of myself, put on mask even when I was sleeping, ate well cooked food, limited my movement within the cubicle and took other necessary measures to make sure that I would not develop fever. Despite all these efforts, I failed to break the record.
On day 14, a small area of my left groin turned reddish in colour, and started to swell and experienced pain. At the same time, a boil developed near the left side of my anus. I suspected the boil caused the swelling at the left groin. The doctor started to administer intravenous antibiotic to me.
On day 16, I developed fever and blood sample was taken for culture to determine the type of infection that I might had.
Doctor advised me to do sitz bath twice a day. My brother-in-law gave me a bottle of original Dead Sea salt, which he purchased while visiting Israel, for me to do sitz bath. Since patients were sharing toilet, so I have to wake up at about 5:30am each day, while other patients were still sleeping, sit in salt water for at least half an hour in the toilet. Fortunately, my nephew brought me many JinYong (金庸) novels. Therefore, the time passed very fast in the toilet while reading the novels. If I met a nurse on my way to toilet with my PDA, novels, the salt and other stuffs, I always said to them: “See, I am going to enjoy my sitz bath now.” :-)
See you next post :-)
According to doctor, no body escaped fever during chemotherapy. This means a patient who undergoes chemotherapy will develop at least one occasion of fever and chill. I told doctor I would like to break this record. So I tried my best to take care of myself, put on mask even when I was sleeping, ate well cooked food, limited my movement within the cubicle and took other necessary measures to make sure that I would not develop fever. Despite all these efforts, I failed to break the record.
On day 14, a small area of my left groin turned reddish in colour, and started to swell and experienced pain. At the same time, a boil developed near the left side of my anus. I suspected the boil caused the swelling at the left groin. The doctor started to administer intravenous antibiotic to me.
On day 16, I developed fever and blood sample was taken for culture to determine the type of infection that I might had.
Doctor advised me to do sitz bath twice a day. My brother-in-law gave me a bottle of original Dead Sea salt, which he purchased while visiting Israel, for me to do sitz bath. Since patients were sharing toilet, so I have to wake up at about 5:30am each day, while other patients were still sleeping, sit in salt water for at least half an hour in the toilet. Fortunately, my nephew brought me many JinYong (金庸) novels. Therefore, the time passed very fast in the toilet while reading the novels. If I met a nurse on my way to toilet with my PDA, novels, the salt and other stuffs, I always said to them: “See, I am going to enjoy my sitz bath now.” :-)
See you next post :-)
Friday, September 29, 2006
Day +86
I am fine today. Now back to my 2nd cycle of chemotherapy at UH again.
As I mentioned, I was receiving a chemotherapy regimen called “7+3”, which means that I was given a chemo drug called Ara-C throughout the 7 days and another chemo drug called Daunorubicinn for the first 3 days only. This means I was receiving both Daunorubicin and Ara-C on the first 3 days, and then Ara-C along for the following 4 days.
After the 7 days, the red blood, platelet and white blood counts started to drop. I was transfused with red blood or platelet when their count became very low. But if the white blood count was too low, a condition called neutropenia, no white blood transfusion could be done. Whenever this happened, the patient's immune system became very vulnerable to infection. In order to reduce the risk of infection, a drug called Neupogen (growth factor) was used to simulate the bone marrow to produce white blood cells. Therefore on day 8 onward, I was given Neupogen until day 23, a total of 15 doses of Neupogen. Each dose of Neupogen costs about RM260.
The patient will be allowed to go home (home leave) for two or three days immediately after all the chemo drugs for that cycle were given, provided his/her white blood count is still within acceptable level. However, I always chose not to go home because it was too troublesome to shift many personal belonging back and forth, and to go through the discharge and admission procedure, just to get two or three days of home leave. Furthermore, if a patient developed fever, bleeding or other symptoms at home, he/she had to be admitted to hospital immediately no matter when does it happened.
I had to stay in the hospital at least 21 days for a cycle of chemotherapy. You might wonder what patients normally do after chemo drugs were completely given. The answer is to wait for the blood counts to drop, fever and infection, and then for the blood counts to pick up again. Some patient managed to recover faster than me, but a small percentage of patients never recovered due to serious infection :-(
Whenever I was discharged from hospital, I praised God through the Bible verse, “Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4.
“我虽然行过死阴的幽谷，也不怕遭害。 因为你与我同在。 你的杖， 你的竿， 都安慰我。”诗廿三：四
See you next post :-)
As I mentioned, I was receiving a chemotherapy regimen called “7+3”, which means that I was given a chemo drug called Ara-C throughout the 7 days and another chemo drug called Daunorubicinn for the first 3 days only. This means I was receiving both Daunorubicin and Ara-C on the first 3 days, and then Ara-C along for the following 4 days.
After the 7 days, the red blood, platelet and white blood counts started to drop. I was transfused with red blood or platelet when their count became very low. But if the white blood count was too low, a condition called neutropenia, no white blood transfusion could be done. Whenever this happened, the patient's immune system became very vulnerable to infection. In order to reduce the risk of infection, a drug called Neupogen (growth factor) was used to simulate the bone marrow to produce white blood cells. Therefore on day 8 onward, I was given Neupogen until day 23, a total of 15 doses of Neupogen. Each dose of Neupogen costs about RM260.
The patient will be allowed to go home (home leave) for two or three days immediately after all the chemo drugs for that cycle were given, provided his/her white blood count is still within acceptable level. However, I always chose not to go home because it was too troublesome to shift many personal belonging back and forth, and to go through the discharge and admission procedure, just to get two or three days of home leave. Furthermore, if a patient developed fever, bleeding or other symptoms at home, he/she had to be admitted to hospital immediately no matter when does it happened.
I had to stay in the hospital at least 21 days for a cycle of chemotherapy. You might wonder what patients normally do after chemo drugs were completely given. The answer is to wait for the blood counts to drop, fever and infection, and then for the blood counts to pick up again. Some patient managed to recover faster than me, but a small percentage of patients never recovered due to serious infection :-(
Whenever I was discharged from hospital, I praised God through the Bible verse, “Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4.
“我虽然行过死阴的幽谷，也不怕遭害。 因为你与我同在。 你的杖， 你的竿， 都安慰我。”诗廿三：四
See you next post :-)
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Day +81
I am fine today. Now back to my experiences in UH again.
I started my second chemotherapy in UH on the 9, January 2005. The protocol for this cycle of chemotherapy was the same as the first chemotherapy. It is called “3+7” regime. I could remember while the housemanship doctor injected the first dose of chemo drug through my PICC line at 6:00pm that day, he told me he really didn’t know what my feeling was. I could not answer him because this feeling was difficult to explain. What I had in my mind is to trust God completely and determined to face another round of challenge.
The environment in UH was very different from NMSC. Most of the patients here stayed in open space, separated by a few opened cubicles. A few patients were placed in each cubicle. There was no way to control the visitors. So I put on mask most of the time to protect myself, even though some nurses advised me it was not necessary to do that.
The first thing I did was to introduce myself to every patient in the cubicle. I must say that they were the most cheerful and positive patients I ever met throughout my stay in UH. A few of them can be considered world class “开心果” (jokers) who always created laughter, made fun of the nurses, the doctors and other patients. But of course, no one can be cheerful all the time. When one was having fever and chill, he/she always trembling under a few layer of blankets with his/her long “苦瓜脸” (Bitter Gourd face – Is this the right translation?), but once he recovered from the fever, the fun began again. Since we had a few of them, so the fun never stopped. May be this is “苦中作乐” (tries to find pleasure amidst suffering), but I think “苦中作乐” is a lot better than “怨天尤人” (blames everyone). Some nurses also joined the crowd to create a very friendly and relaxing environment.
So although my family members did not manage to accompany me all the time, the life there was not boring at all. In fact, I could handle myself most of the time if I was not having fever. Sometime Pastor and my brother, Richard, came to stay overnight with me.
See you next post :-)
I started my second chemotherapy in UH on the 9, January 2005. The protocol for this cycle of chemotherapy was the same as the first chemotherapy. It is called “3+7” regime. I could remember while the housemanship doctor injected the first dose of chemo drug through my PICC line at 6:00pm that day, he told me he really didn’t know what my feeling was. I could not answer him because this feeling was difficult to explain. What I had in my mind is to trust God completely and determined to face another round of challenge.
The environment in UH was very different from NMSC. Most of the patients here stayed in open space, separated by a few opened cubicles. A few patients were placed in each cubicle. There was no way to control the visitors. So I put on mask most of the time to protect myself, even though some nurses advised me it was not necessary to do that.
The first thing I did was to introduce myself to every patient in the cubicle. I must say that they were the most cheerful and positive patients I ever met throughout my stay in UH. A few of them can be considered world class “开心果” (jokers) who always created laughter, made fun of the nurses, the doctors and other patients. But of course, no one can be cheerful all the time. When one was having fever and chill, he/she always trembling under a few layer of blankets with his/her long “苦瓜脸” (Bitter Gourd face – Is this the right translation?), but once he recovered from the fever, the fun began again. Since we had a few of them, so the fun never stopped. May be this is “苦中作乐” (tries to find pleasure amidst suffering), but I think “苦中作乐” is a lot better than “怨天尤人” (blames everyone). Some nurses also joined the crowd to create a very friendly and relaxing environment.
So although my family members did not manage to accompany me all the time, the life there was not boring at all. In fact, I could handle myself most of the time if I was not having fever. Sometime Pastor and my brother, Richard, came to stay overnight with me.
See you next post :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
