Life to live and explore

Migrating wordpress blog to a new host

Just done moving this blog from the old host to a new host. It’s not a big deal, I have done this a couple of times with other blogs. But, this time I encounter some hiccups along the way as the new host that I signed up for doesn’t allow access to the main directory. That posed a little problem for me to do a direct import of posts and comments using the “import” function in Wordpress.
Too much hassle to ask the support to do it, so I just switched to another host that I know for sure will allow this kind of migration ! Have to do the DNS thingy twice and this blog was down for two days because of that!

The Gucci Gang, wendy puyat, Tim yap, DJ Montana and Celine Lopez took care of my blogs

Took a break of two and half weeks from this blog, it was meant for a laparoscopic surgery for removal of ovarian cysts . But, it turned into a open surgery and cancer scare!

Back to my parents’ house recuperating from the surgery. The external wounds have healed well but there is still pain internally. At the same time, going through all sort of scans and scopes, to clear the doubts of the cancer tumor marker expression. Hopefully, a clear diagnosis will surface, so that next course of actions can be taken.

While I am away in the hospital, the Gucci Gang scandal, Wendy Puyat, Tim Yap, DJ Montana and Celine Lopez have been keeping this blogs alive! There is much to catch up in this two weeks, after burning a hole in my pocket with the medical treatments and diagnostic scans and scopes, time to catch up with April’s blogging income. :-)

Good news, good news

What thought to be a simple laparoscopy surgery to remove cysts on the ovaries has now developed into something else! After seeing the lab report and the biopsy expressed the CEA and CK7 tumor tests. The doctor recommended to go for a CT Scan to determine whether any other organs have cancer cells.

Since I am allergic to paracetamol, the doctor gave me a type of steroid, I have to take three doses of the blue pills 12 hours before the scan to avoid allergic reaction.

So the CT Scan was done this afternoon. The good news is: no other organ has traces of cancer cells. Well, this is only true to a certain extend, because CT scan can only pick up spots that are fairly big. The results of the scans just showed that there are no big spots detectable in other organs, which is good news!

Sweating over small stuffs

In the last few weeks, I realized that the perspective that I used to adopt very much determines my attitudes and my responses towards people around me.

May be there are lessons to learn in the midst of all this cancer scare!!

When you are facing with life and death, sweating over small stuffs does seem so silly, doesn’t it? I was a master in sweating over small stuffs in the name of principle. :-)

Bad news, bad news

The wounds were healing well, I was moving around doing some simple house chores during the week when I was staying with my sisters after the surgery. I even cooked dinners for my sisters and helped my brother to clean up his messy room and laundry that piled up everywhere.

So we planned to go home right after after seeing the doctor this morning. We got up really early, hoped to be the first patient when the doctor’s office opened at 8.30 a.m. Sure enough, I was the first patient!

The doctor checked the wound, took out the knot of the stitches and told me that the wound healed really well. Then he asked whether I would like my sisters to come in to listen to what he had to say next. He looked rather serious, so I thought he might have some bad news to disclose. I walked out the room to look my sisters, they have walked away to the other corner, I couldn’t see them. So, I went back in, told the doctor I couldn’t find them and he could talk to me alone.

He showed me the lab report and highlighted the part that mentioned the biopsy expressed to CEA and CK7 - two out of three of the tumor marker tests, so it may be malignant (cancerous tumor)! The doctor went on to say that he didn’t expect this kind of pathological report as the “hard cells” looked benign to the naked eyes. Guess it’s going to be the beginning of our headache, we need two cups of coffee, where is the vending machine?!

Discharged from the hospital and the recovery

I had to stay at the hospital for two nights instead of one night. Early morning on the 5th, the doctor told me I could check out after he see me in the afternoon. After settling the bills in the morning, we waited patiently for the doctor to come back. He was a bit late because they were too many patients during his consultation hours. My two sisters got impatient and started joking with my roommate and the doctor came in when we were all laughing about something.

The wounds were painful in the first two days, but I was able to get down to a walk around the ward the next morning. With the help of painkillers, I was actually sleeping quite well at night. Minus the pains while getting up and lying down, I was having a fun time, chatting with my roommate, a 53 years old woman who had breast cancer, reading the newspaper and the novels that my sisters brought for me.

The doctor visited me twice a day and he was satisfied with my recovery. A few friends came to visit me and they were surprised I looked pretty healthy and could still laugh!

I was told to go back for a check up on the 12th of April and I could call to find out about the lab report starting on the 10th or wait until the 12th to find out the details during the consultation.

What happened in the operating theater

Finally was wheeled out of the freezing operating theater and back to the ward. I was half awake but was feeling so cold, the nurses wrapped me with a few blankets, but I was still shivering. I remembered asking my sisters what was the time and they told me it was about 10.30 p.m.

When the doctor came to see me at about 10.45 p.m, even though I was not 100% alert yet, the first question that blurted out from my mouth was “What happened?”, before asking him for painkillers. :-)

What happened? He started with the laparoscopy or keyhole surgery but had to perform an open surgery, cut up a 3″ incision on my tummy to clean up all the mess. The cysts were not the more common “chocolate cysts”, they were teratoma or dermoid cysts and a bunch of small cysts which the doctor believed they are parts of the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is the culprit for hay-wired hormone, skin problems and weight gain that I have in recent years. The weight gain is due to hay wired hormone that slow down the metabolism rate. Not sure whether diet pill or fat burner like Apidexin would help, but the doctor said there is known medication for it.

Ok, what it really was: the doctor took out about 10 bottle of “stuffs”!!! He showed my sisters the bottles before I woke up and gave them three bottles of samples. The rest were sent to the lab for further investigations.

The surgery took longer than expected

At about 5.00 p.m on the 3rd of April, after I took a shower, the nurses started to put me on drip (fasted since 10.30 a.m!), they also started prepare me for the surgery. Since my sisters were still at work, the nurse kept my purse and personal belongings. She listed out everything and applied labels with my names and ID numbers on them.

At about 6.15 p.m, I was wheeled into the operating theater. The last few things I remembered were: it was damned cold inside there, the nurse asked me whether a man who was wondering around was my husband, and the anaesthesist gave me some “fresh oxygen”!

I have told my sisters to bring me some porridge at about 9.30-10.30 p.m, thought I would be very hungry when I woke up after the surgery. My sisters rushed to the hospital at around 9.00 p.m, they waited and waited in the ward. At about 10 p.m, a nurse came up to look for my family members and brought them down to the operating theater and told them about what happened and why the surgery took so long.

First day at the hospital

Took a cab to the hospital about 8.45 a.m. The gynecologist who is going to operate on me came at about 10 a.m, he drew the blood samples for lab investigation and told the nurse to give me two packets of medicine for clearing the vowel. The nurse asked me to start fasting after taking the solutions meant to facilitate bowel movement.

A woman who had just gone through a mastectomy and chemotherapy came in at about 10.30 a.m. She looked alright, but was vomiting everything that went in. She slept off and on and we got to talk in between her sleeps. We also watched the soaps on the TV to kill time. Of course there is no home theater seating and sound system, we lied on the bed, watching the 14″ TV in the ward.

The anesthetist came in the late afternoon and asked a few questions. The gynecologist came in the same time, he told me that my surgery would be at about 6.00p.m, after another small surgery that he was going to do on the same day. Well, I was under the impression that I was the only patient scheduled on that day and the operation is at 4-5.00 p.m. Anyway, it didn’t bother me much at that time.

At 5.00 p.m, I would have been fasted for closed to 7 hours, the nurse started to put me on drips and my activities of the last one and half hours before I was wheeled into the operating theater were confined to the bathroom and the bed. :-)

The last supper before surgery

Arrived at PJ about 12.30 p.m on the 2nd of April, second sister sneaked out during her lunch time to open the door to let me into their condominium. I took a shower and nap while waiting for them to come home. They came home at about 7.00 p.m, ate the simple dinner that I cooked for them.

My good friends TJ and WT dropped by to wish me good luck. TJ baked me a walnut chocolate cake and I had my last supper before the surgery!

PL came by to lend her moral support later in the evening. She did the same surgery about six months ago, she told me about the pain, it did scare me a bit. But, I slept well that night. :-)

Going for a surgery

Will be leaving for PJ today, going to stay at my sister’s place for a night and check in the hospital on the 3rd of April for a laparoscopic surgery to remove the ovarian cysts.

The surgery is scheduled to be in the evening, but I have to be at the hospital at 9.00 a.m, to prepare the bowel and go on a fast after 10.30 a.m. Have to stay at the hospital for one night and then will stay at my sister’s place till the 5th, before coming back here.