Leah’s Cafe

With pains of the wounds after surgery and the uncertainty of this cancer scare, my blogging mojo have been misplaced in the last week or so. Hope to be back in the swing, with deadlines approaching and pocket emptied by medical bills, sooner …:-)

Have been resting and taking it easy in the last few days, after the heroic act of driving around town to run some errands. Hey, even a simple movement like shifting the gears actually used a lot of the muscles around the abdomen, where the wounds are. Have to take care of the diet too, no Kim Chi and kava kava for now, as they both can potentially cause obstruction in me. The pelvic pain is killing me right now.

Today I went for the scheduled colonoscopy and gastroscopy.

I have to start the preparation yesterday. The gastro specialist gave me some phosphate soda, it caused me going toilet 6-7 times after an hour of taking the solutions. I had to take it once last night and another time this morning.

My dad drove me to the doctor’s office since I would be put on sedative and not suitable to drive after the procedure. The colonoscopy and gastroscopy procedures only took about 10-15 minutes, but had to wait for one and half hours for the doctor, even with an appointment!

We can see the inner lining of the digestive tract  on a CCTV when a fiber optic camera passed through it. Nothing unusual was  found, except for a small ulcer in the stomach, this probably in a great extend rule out the possibility of colon cancer!!

Right after the scope, before the doctor typed out a report, I rushed down to the cafe at the hospital, had a bowl of beehoon soup. Really exhausted and hungry after all the purging!!

If you are online a lot, you do need to have a reliable and robust anti-virus and anti spyware program that protects your computer from all the malicious attacks. However, not all security software are created the same, some just slow down the computer so much, it’s a pain in the butt.

Our current security software has expired and we haven’t not decided to renew or to get a new software. I don’t like the fact that the current software is so intrusive and slow down the computer considerably. Anyone has experience using NOD32? Will you proceed with NOD32 renewals without hesitant when it expires?

Went to meet up our oncologist friend at his office. He looked at the pathology reports and CT scan results. He gave me a few advice, one of them is to check out the colon and if possible the whole digestive tract. Since both the gynecologists suggested that I check out the colon, I am going ahead for a colonoscopy and gatroscopy this coming Tuesday on the 22nd.

The second gynecologist and our oncologist friend thinks removing the left ovary (like the first gynecologist Dr Eugene suggested) is a bit too drastic when there is no evidence of malignancy. He thinks further screening to rule out other possibilities and close monitoring of the hard cells on the left ovary plus tumor marker tests every other month would be more appropriate.

This is going like a roller coaster ride, one minute I am convinced that going for another surgery to remove the left ovary is the best thing to do, the next minute, it seems there is really nothing to worry about. Of course, I pray that all these are just false alarms, a cancer scare, instead of the real stuff!!

Age is really catching up with me in the last few years. Not only the energy level has gone down to the drain, the crow feet would probably need one ton of top wrinkle cream to smooth them off.

The good complexion is now replaced by all the acne marks. Sometime I wonder whether that’s the result of dealing with  marital stress. Are you aware of the statistics: married men live longer and married women live shorter! As usual, the ones outside the fence are trying to get in and those who are inside are trying to get out. :-)

I talked to the oncologist friend at the bible study tonight about the O & G’s suggestion of seeing a gatro specialist and to do the colonoscopy. Though his family are going for a family vacation on Saturday, he is kind enough to schedule an immediate appointment for me.

He asked me to go to see him at his office at 10 a.m Saturday morning, so he can look at the pathological reports, the CT scan and advise me accordingly. I am really grateful for this kind gesture. The other four doctors in the bible study group also prayed for me.  I have informed Jo, the group leader’s wife earlier, so in fact they have been praying for me all along.

Since the O & G Dr Eugene at UMSC who did the previous surgery suggested another surgery to remove the left ovary as a diagnostic and preventive measure, I went to see another O & G yesterday, for second opinion. I am glad I did, because the second doctor told me something that I was not aware of and the first doctor didn’t mention.

Since both the O & Gs advised me to check out the colon (the biopsy expressed CEA, a color cancer tumor marker), so I went to see a gastro specialist and made an appointment for a colonoscopy and possibly gatroscopy on Tuesday.

Both the O & Gs also agreed that the PCOS may be the root of my hormonal and acne problems. No need any acne treatment, just need to keep the PCOS problem under control!

The CT scan of the abdomen and lungs yesterday was normal, didn’t detect any malignant. It’s rather expensive, it has cost us close to a thousand out of pocket with no health insurance. Good thing we have saved up an emergency fund for medical expenses!

SL called me on the phone, her mother was recently diagnosed with cancer, so she is quite familiar with various scans available. She mentioned about the PET scan, so I asked Dr Eugene the gynecologist, he thinks it’s not necessary as it probably won’t be able to pick up anything smaller than a ten cents coin too.