Thriving & Celebrating Life...

Let's talk about Bum-Bum, Ehem!  Let's talk about Coffee Enema! I have struggled with sugar addiction, mood swing, and bloating most of my 30s and 40s. And with the never ending drugs and poison that are pumped into my body regularly, my liver suffers.  I get constipation too after chemo, so toxins are literally sitting in my colon and this affects my entire body. The coffee enema has been around since the 1940s and has endless applications for vibrant health. Palmitates in coffee increase the production of GST (glutathione s-transferese) by up to 700 times. These powerful free-radical-quenching enzymes assist your liver to more effectively detoxify your entire body, which in turn allows your body to function as it was created to, and to heal and recover from all health issues. If you do the research, you will find that many kinds of poisons, like pthalates from plastics, and heavy metals are very difficult to get out of the body. Not only that, but the toxic load in our bodi...

I have never been much of a morning person.  Not even an any day person hahah! But from the beginning of this cancer journey, Azwat pushed me to go out for a morning walk and inhale all the oxygen into the body.  His rationale is cancer can't exist in oxygen.  Makes sense to me. So this would be my routine: 6.00am: Wake up, stretch, day dream a little 6.30am:  Get up, Subuh prayer 7.00am: Get out and walk walk walk, minimum 30 mins.  Can't walk too long as I have to get ready for work.  I'll do longer on weekends. Pre-Covid times, I will walk to this nearby park - Taman Tar.  One round is 3km, up & down hill. Nice park with lots of trees, naughty monkeys and pet dogs.  I even met a pet goat once!  Every morning there will be a group of Tai Chi enthusiasts doing their thing.  Anyone can join them.  Sometimes I join them when I don't have the energy to walk. There were times I was able to run, and happily did 10km around the park....

Back at home. But all I could do is lie down, sleep, eat and drink. Not much different from being in the hospital. Thankfully appetite is not too bad, although I can't eat anything too spicy yet. One glaring thing though is my mushy legs. I can't really walk fast, more like a sloth. After about a week home, I managed to go down for morning walk. I have a cool looking cane with me for support.  So that's what I do every morning for at least 30 mins. I walk around my apartment blocks. Round and round, me and my cane. Slowly like a sloth. Frustrating coz I could really feel how weak my legs are. But hopeful as always this will strengthen them. And I get to breathe the fresh morning air.  Azwat usually will walk with me and we'll chat, or argue, or he will do his song and dance haha! Good times. After about a month, I stopped using the cane woohoo! Syukur alhamdulillah.   And I never stop the morning walk.  I even manage to do 5km occasionally. Road to marathon (one day?...

Managed squeeze in a short trip to Cameron Highlands.  I drove while Azwat cycled up. Crazy fella Enjoyed lots of strawberries, fresh cool air, scones, steamboat and a nice accommodation at the iconic Smokehouse Hotel.

Read this somewhere: Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone mar...

I must say, Qi Gong saved me.  Knowing I was diagnosed with cancer, my husband's old friend contacted him and wanted to meet me.  He has been practicing Qi Gong and wanted to teach me some moves and also gave me some energy.  When I heard that, it sounded like a hocus pocus, not something I would go for.  But my husband was adamant on meeting his friend, so I did. Turned out this man is a Godsend !  He came to our house and taught me some simple moves that can be done standing up and if I didn't have energy, I can even do it lying down.  Anyone can do it, it's really simple.   After learning the basics from him, I decided to learn from a master for self healing. And on a weekly basis I visit the Qi Gong master for in depth healing.  It has become a very important part of my life journey.  But what is Qi Gong really?  Qi Gong is an ancient system of self-healing that’s been around for 2,000 years. It’s a practice that’s meant to ...

In a way I consider myself lucky.  Since young, I never really enjoyed any type of meat.  After being diagnosed with cancer, I read that I have to make sure my body is not acidic as cancer thrives in acidic environment. Meat is acidic.  So naturally, this is the one thing to avoid.  When I was going through chemotherapy, doctors and nurses' advise to me was I can eat anything I want, as I need the energy to fight this.  This is true, I do need the energy but this is also conflicted from what I know my body needs.  I know I can get the energy from a lot of sources other than meat, so I embarked on the no-meat diet from there on.  I doubled up vegetables and had some fish. The menu was simple in the beginning, as chemo killed my taste buds.  The only prominent taste that I could tolerate was sour.  It's not advisable to eat out, so I cooked myself mostly.  Having a typical Asian taste buds, my menu was like this: Brown Rice Porri...

Krabi is just magical!  I love that it's so close to Malaysia, only 1.5 hours flight and we're there! I've always wanted to go to Krabi, and she didn't disappoint me at all.  Everywhere I looked, simply breathtaking.  Food was amazing, massage of course great! Everyday I would buy fresh cut pineapple and just savour it.  We explored different islands and really, I am just amazed with the beauty. This is the one place I must go back.    

I went through Axillary Dissection to remove the cancer cells under my armpit.   Doc removed 30 lymph nodes and 27 were cancerous.   I checked in the hospital on 1 May (labour day!), and surgery was the next day. The surgery took around 5 hours and I woke up with a bag hanging our of my wound to drain the blood.  I had to live with the bag for a week.   Discharged from the hospital after week, rested back home for a month.   I have to exercise my arm daily, and have to be extra careful forever as arm can develop "lymphoedema" anytime as my lymph nodes have been cleared. 

Food is something I love, more of a passion actually.  I love cooking, baking, experiment new recipes, enjoy feeding my family & friends and savour the taste.  Having cancer changed me.  This new chapter of my life has changed my eating habit tremendously. I have read books, blogs, watched youtube, listened to different doctors & nurses, other cancer thrivers, here's what I learnt. One thing to note.  Please eat regularly, do not skip meals.  Remember, you need lots of energy to fight! Sugar is off-limits Sugar feeds cancer.  One of the way to fight this is to starve cancer cells and the best is to cut sugar off completely.  Some say it can be substituted with honey, but it is debatable as honey is high in enzyme and natural sugar.  It is great for cancer prevention but once cancer has surfaced, avoid honey at all cost. Meat is a no-no Cancer thrives in acidic environment and meat is acidic.  It is important to avoid meat of a...

Everyone face different side effects after Chemotherapy.  Mine differs after every cycle. Here goes the list.  I am still going through my cycles, so the list will grow, I'm sure. Mouth ulcers.  Oh boy this is the one I hate.  It's painful even when I open my mouth.  Couldn't talk properly.  Luckily a friend recommended GelClair - a mouthwash specially formulated for cancer patients.  It worked like a charm!   Rashes - I have rashes all over my body.  It appeared bit by bit and one day you realize that they are everywhere!  Only way to overcome it is lots of patience and apply ointments diligently.  I also take drowsy anti-itch pills at night so I don;t spend the night scratching. Pimples - this one is bad for me, I never have pimples this much growing up, so it lowers down my self esteem a great deal.  But again, patience is the only friend I have. Hair loss - inevitable.  2 weeks after my first chemo, I play...

What do I bring to my chemo sessions?  A series of stuff! At least 2 litres of water to get me through the day. Some healthy munchies - steamed sweet potato, organic eggs and almonds will be good A thermos of green tea, this will calm you down A pair of cool socks, coz you might get the chills, and one should only wear cool stuff A nice comfy soft jacket A good book - you will have a lot of time to kill An iPad, or tab (with a good headphone) where you can watch a movie - you will have time for a movie  Lotion to keep your skin hydrated Lip balm - coz you want your lips to be hydrated and look good while pumping drugs into your body of course! A nice calming essential oil that you can smell - great if you have a necklace or bracelet diffuser.  I love Geranium, it makes me feel happy and I always have peppermint with me, just in case I feel nauseous (so far so good)    Wear comfy loose clothes A notebook and pen - so you can write whatever thoughts...

So here's the thing.  I'm afraid of needles.  Really really afraid.  Since I was a little girl.  The thought of having needles poked into me month after month with poison pouring into me gives me the creeps.  I am seriously not looking forward to this.  And I haven't even thought of the side effects!  Man, I have watched countless movies and all those movies with cancer in it is like a bloody horror stories!  And I have some experiences with cancer among people that are close to me.  I know what to expect. It's not going to be pretty. The morning of chemo, I had butterflies in my stomach.  I can't eat, can't drink, can't do anything. Walked into Oncology in a daze.  Saw other patients, all thin and bald.  Is this what I'll become?  The lady next to me was being poked for her chemo, and she screamed.  Seems that her veins have hardened due to the previous cycles of chemotherapy.  That freaked me out, man!  ...

So I was referred to Gleneagles Oncology - Dr Rachael Khong. To be honest I'm hoping to hear from Institut Kanser Negara as I heard good things about their drugs and facilities. Prof Yip even called them to refer me but after a week, I still don't hear from them. I don't want to delay things, so Gleneagles it is. Made an appointment to see her to hear her treatment plan for me. I also made another appointment with UMSC oncology to compare the treatment. The day I met up with Dr Rachael, Azwat was busy with meetings. He wanted to ask for emergency leave but i told him absolutely no. He has missed a lot of work last week because of me, so better not jeopardise his work. I have the lovely Jaime to come along with me to see Dr Rachael. It was quite a long wait as we were told she has 10 patients that morning itself.  But the moment we saw her, we liked her.  She was open and easy to talk to.  And reminds me of Jaime and I - loud!  I had a series of questions...