九月的检查 / Sep's Check Up

妈妈从星期一开始又住院了，这次的主要任务是作全面检查，做帕米治疗，打胸腺肽以提高其免疫力。检查结果基本令人满意，医生说跟以前比起来基本上没什么变化，看起来基本已经趋于稳定了，由此说来，生存超过五年是有可能的。白血球仍然偏低，只有3900（正常为4000以上），血钙也偏低，为2.04（正常为2.15以上），两项与癌症相关的指标，一项从原来的48降低至38.5（正常为35以下），另一项有所增加，由原来的1100+增至1300+（正常为1000以下），其他肝，肾，脾等均正常。爸爸听后很受鼓舞，他激动地跟大家分享这一好消息，然而妈妈听了很不开心，毕竟她并不完全了解她的病情。

Mama has been hospitalized since this Monday. The main purpose was to have a complete check up and have another round of pamidronate disodium treatment, injection of thymosin α1 to improve her immune system. Now the results are out and basically encouraging. Her white blood cell level, 3900, was still a bit lower than required (normal value should be above 4000), her blood calcium level was 2.04 (normal should be above 2.15), one of her cancer index dropped from 48 to 38.5 (normal should be below 35), the other increased from 1100+ to 1300+. The rest like liver, kidney and spleen etc, were all normal. From her CT scan, doctors said it looked like her condition was already getting stabilized. "This result shows it’s quite possible that she may survive beyond 5 years" The chief said. Father was so much encouraged. He couldn’t help sharing the news with others. But mama was very unhappy. Anyway, she doesn't fully know about her conditions.

妈妈生日快乐 / Happy Birthday Mama

祝妈妈在新的一年里身体更健康!

Happy Mother's Day

Mama, happy mother's day!
母亲节快乐!

Mama’s April check-up / 四月的检查

这个星期妈妈又去做了全面检查，总的来说结果还是很不错，7项癌症指标中只有两项不合格，但其中的一项已从原先的1300+降到1100+，另一项虽从44+增至48+，但医生说影响不大，这两个基本是一回事。虽然这个阶段的改善情况比起去年12月份来得不足，但医生对她的治疗结果非常满意。
感谢各路神仙！！！

Mama went for a regular check-up this week. The results came out yesterday. It was again quite encouraging. Both the white blood cell count and red cell count remain within the normal range. Her intensive brain CT scanning shows that there is no sign of any secondary spread to her brain. Her ECT scanning (for bone) shows that there is not further development since her last check-up. Her chest CT scanning shows that the affected area has slightly shrunk. Her fluid inside the chest is also reduced. One of the results for cancer index has dropped from 1300+ to 1100+.(normal values are less than 1000) The other slightly increased from 44+ to 48+. Her doctor said that it did not matter very much, because basically these two were under the same category. But the improvement was not as so obvious as last Dec. But all her doctors were very satisfied with this result. Thank all the gods!

Uncle's visit / 舅舅的来访

My uncle will visit mama this coming 26th. He will bring my 2 cousins also. One of my cousins told mama when she called:”Uncle is so happy after he bought the tickets.” My uncle is not at all an emotional person. You can hardly tell what he’s thinking, but this time he failed to hide his feeling. Mama’s maid will go for a tour from the 23rd. It’s good that someone will come and take care of her. She is so excited yet worried. “It’s so embarrassing that we are not able to provide them with a decent place to stay.” Mama’s apartment is a 2-rm flat. One is occupied by my parents. If they come, Uncle needs a room. So my two cousins have to stay in the sitting room. Besides, the place is not very clean and neat after mama’s illness. That’s why mama always has mixed feelings when she hears that someone will come to visit her. This is already the third time that my Uncle has come to see her. The first time was at the beginning of 2008. He came with my Auntie (mama’s eldest sister) who passed away slightly more than one year ago, also due to cancer (sad, cry, cry). The second time was at the end of the year before. My other Auntie (mama’s youngest sister) also came to see her three times. Each time she came, she gave mama ￥5000 and bought lots of things for her. She seldom did any household chores since she was the youngest of the family and had always been very willful. But when she was visiting mama, she always tried to help since she knew mama’s problems. She is a nun. So she always prays for mama and conducted some Buddhist’s rituals for mama. When she heard mama is getting better now, she was very happy. “Hmm, this is the glory of the Buddha and you are getting better after reciting the scripts and prayers .” She always makes long distance calls to mama and recites the script for her. She also encouraged mama to do that herself. Besides 3 of them, my other 3 cousins also visited mama about two years ago. Each of them only stayed for about 2 days’ and never helped mama. That’s why mama was very disappointed in them. She supported them economically by sending them ￥15 each month for about 15 years when they were young. (Her total salary at that time was ￥56) Now it seems that they have forgotten all about her .
Now mama is very excited. Yesterday she called my other cousin. She told me that he was also very happy to visit her. “I’m happy that I have this chance to come, since Uncle paid everything. Why not?” I hope that they will have a good time there .

Year End Checkup / 年终检查

今年底，我再度回家陪妈妈去作了一次彻底的检查，结果总的来说还不错，各项指标都合格，特别是一项标志着癌症的指数从原来的80+下降到44（正常人为35以下），CT扫描也显示肿瘤缩小了。妈妈加油！

This year end, I accompanied mama to have her complete check up. Generally speaking, the results were quite encouraging, especially her results for cancer index which had dropped from 80+ to 44 (normal people should be below 35). The scan also showed her tumor was shrinking. Good job, mama!

两周年

到11月20日，妈妈做手术已经整整两周年了。这两年来我们经历了太多太多，妈妈也几次面临死亡的威胁。第一次是在去年的春节前后，她的心脏已出现房颤甚至室颤，医生拒绝为她作第二次的化疗，让我们回家等待，万般无奈之中，我们提出想吃Iressa（每片约S$100)，医生说这药没什么用，只不过是大款儿的安慰剂而已，但我们也想不出更好的办法，又不忍心看着她就这样去了，所以坚持要吃，吃了差不多两个月后，因为不能忍受其副作用，我们再次就诊，但奇怪的是她的心脏却好了很多，于是医生建议她继续化疗。就这样她开始了长达半年的化疗过程。与此同时，她的状况也越来越好，去年九月我去看她时她能还陪我一起去小白楼走一走。就在我们以为癌细胞已经被控制的时候，11月初她又发生了骨转移，治疗前，每天需吃10片止痛片，医生建议我们再度恢复吃Iressa，并作了直线离子加速器和帕米治疗，经过大约两个多月的疗程，再度摆脱了死神的纠缠。然而，在今年的九月，她再次发生心脏失控，且伴随有血压不稳，忽高忽低，除了心脏狂跳不止外，头也不停地晕，再度陷入了绝境。经过反复研究，我们发现Iressa这种药固然有它的抗癌作用，但如果连续使用超过6-8个月后便会失效。我们只能再次赌一把，把药换成Tarceva(每片约S$130), 现在暂时得到了控制，但她依然感觉气短，且咳嗽严重，然而心脏得到了很大的改善，也几乎不再头晕了。愿各路神仙都保佑我们！！！

Two years (20/11/09) passed after my mama's so called 'operation'. All of us suffered a lot since then. Mama even faced the threat of death several times. The first time occurred around last Chinese New Year. she started suffering more and more frequent atrial fibrillation and even ventricular fibrillation. Her doctors refused to do a second chemotherapy for her, due to her unstable heart condition and advised us to wait at home. We were so worried. We proposed to take Iressa (S$100/pill). But doctors said that medicine was not useful, it's simply a palliative measure for those that can afford. We insisted on taking it as we believed we must do whatever we could. After taking it for almost 2 months time, we went to consult her doctors again due to the unbearable side effects she was suffering. Fortunately at this time, her heart was back under control. So doctors performed chemotherapy again. Since then, we started half a year of treatment and she's getting better and better. In Sept, she was even able to accompany me to one of the shopping areas in Tianjin. In early Nov, when we thought everything was under control, her cancer had spread to her bone. She needed to take ten pain killer tablets including morphine. Doctors suggested her to take Iressa again, meanwhile, performimg linear particle accelerator and pamidronate disodium treatment on her. After more than 2 months of intense treatment, she once again said goodbye to Grim Reaper. However, this Sept her heart lost control again, her blood pressure became unstable. Not only was her heart beating irregularly, but her head also felt severely dizzy. Again, we were faced with the threat of death. After some careful research, we found that although Iressa was good for cancer treatment, it would lose it's effect after 6-8 months. So we decided to change to Tarceva (S$130/pill). Now she’s temporarily under the control again, though she still gets short of breath and occasional dizziness, nevertheless, her heart has improved tremendously. May all the gods bless us!