Monday, November 17, 2008

concern

While browsing through the visitors in the "Live Traffic Feed-jit : Watch-in-Real-Time "column in my blog, I was surprised to learn that there are so many people anxious and worried about stomach cancer : some are survivors, some are patients, some looking for information and others with many enquiries and they all come from all over USA, UK and ASEAN countries.
I can understand how it feels when you or someone you love is afflicted with this stomach-cancer and how desperate and fearful it is to gather as much knowledge as one can about this illness. I told my surgeon Dr Ramesh about this and he is willing to answer the queries if the visitors will write in as comments into my blog and give their email address. I will do my best to forward all the queries to him to answer. This week (24 Nov - 26 N0v ) Dr Ramesh is attending a world conference on stomach-cancer in Hong Kong.

The patient from Mersing ( with the stent in his oesophagus ) is eating well and sounds cheerful. His next check-up with the surgeon is in January. The young doctor patient in KL has completed the 1st phase/round of chemo and radiation treatment. He is fine and promised to keep a record especially on his diet and nutrition which he will contribute to our stomach-cancer support group. Hopefully our future patients will have a guide and reference on what to eat and do while undergoing chemo and radiotherapy.

In August, after 6 or 7 months I have recovered; my family members and I went for blood tests through our family doctor at the Pathlab in Seremban. Thankfully everything is normal for me and my Helicobacter pylori is negative. BUT my husband and daughter were tested positive for H.pylori bacteria . My husband's reading is 60.9 +ve and my daughter's 113.0 +ve. We were shocked as both of them did not experience any stomach discomfort or pain. My son-in-law who is also living with us was tested negative. Quickly both my husband and daughter went to see my surgeon Dr Ramesh who prescribed 2 types of antibiotics and romesec omeprazole, a proton-pump inhibitor for them to take for a week or two. A month later, they went to the Pathlab and took a breathing urea blow test and were tested negative. Even my two young grandchildren ( 2+ years old and 6 years old) were tested and found to be negative. We all sighed in relief and thanked God.

Nowadays, we are careful in what we eat; we try to eat more vegetables, soups and steamed food. We all drink fruits and vegetables juices early in the morning three times a week, take our vitamins and supplements daily and do exercises according to our level of abilities. Sometimes we do go out to eat our dinner in the restaurants. We try not to be too paranoid and become health-fanatics but we eat and do things moderately, normally and use common-sense. We have many friends who recommend us (especially me ) to eat this and that food, seeds or plant-leaves in order to prevent recurrence of cancer and be healthy. Everyone of us has some cancer-cells in our bodies but we must make sure that our immune systems are strong enough to destroy them. So we must eat well, rest well and "listen" to our bodies by choosing our food wisely.