Saturday, April 11, 2009

Round 9 : Staying Alive....

Yesterday, I applied for homestay from the hospital. This morning, I went back to the hospital again to discharge my self from the ward. Well, today marks the end of seven rounds of chemotherapy. Earlier in the week, I consulted the Oncologist who agreed with me to put aside the intravenous dripping of chemotherapy and just focus with the daily oral chemo drug. So, tomorrow marks the beginning of a new round of my fight against cancer. Well, after seven rounds of dreadful chemotherapy, I am still walking tall and in high spirit. I thank the Almighty for anointing me with the strength to fight on and shielded me from fears and anxieties.

Although the test conducted earlier in the week show a very positive result of improvement, but I need to work out a new strategy to fight even harder to counter those remnant cancer cells within me. So, what is my new strategy ?

For the next 30 days or so, I will work towards a “meatless diet” of vegetables and fruits, and at the same time carry on with Tarceva as my main daily drugs. On the physical aspects, I will still carry on with my daily morning walks, and hopefully have the stamina to practice Qiqong on daily basis. On spiritual level, the Almighty is my healer, I will pray more often to the Almighty, and read the scripture on daily basis, the words shall be my medicines. The Almighty is a merciful God, I know, he will answer my prayer and heal me in the event modern medicine does not provide the desired result. For I have the faith to claim that "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." (Luke 18:27) and "But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing." (Psalm 34:10)

I had also enrolled myself to attend a 5 days health farm in Malacca. Hopefully, the combinations of these efforts can further achieve better remission results.

Looking back, it has been an expensive affair to receive all these cancer treatments. I am indeed very lucky to be blessed with the ability to meet this aspect of the financial obligations. The costs of treatments during the past seven months is around RM 100K. For example, a round of chemotherapy costs approximately RM 5K, and a 30 days supply of Tarceva costs approximately RM 8K. Sometimes, I do wonder how can all those poor cancer patients afford these expensive treatments ? I do hope the Health Ministry can do something to make treatments for chronic illness to be more readily accessible and affordable. If the government can spend billions of dollars buying weapon of destructions such as submarines, war plane, guns, bullets, etc., why can't these money be used to subsidize the costs of medicines ? There must be a way for the government to communicate to all those pharmaceutical companies to forgo a portion of their research and development costs to make the drugs affordable as part of their social obligations. I sincerely hope that all those pharmaceutical companies can have a heart to be compassionate to all those poor cancer patients.

Whatever it is, I realized, the past seven months or so has been an amazing journey of enlightenment for me, come what may, I shall keep my faith and fight a good fight to win this battle against cancer. I know, I will, and I shall overcome. Anyway, I got nothing to loose – If I win this battle against cancer, I shall be a walking testimony to glorify Almighty's greatness and goodness, and if I loose, the beautiful Kingdom of Almighty awaits me.

Praise the lord............

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