La la la ...

Howdy folks !

Long time no blog huh? Been busy... melayan itu, melayan ini...

Alhamdullillah. Today I've finished my 3rd out of 10 sessions of radiotherapy to the neck and para aortic lymph nodes. So far so good. This time around I'm getting 1 zap to the neck and 1 zap each to the front and back of my tummy for the para aortic lymph nodes. Total = 3 zaps per day for 10 days, that will bring to 30 zaps. The last time I had 2 zaps per day, one to the front and one to the back of the pelvis. Multiply that with 10 brings to an amount of 20. So by the end of February I would've have been zapped 50 times.

Satu benda yg klakar, to me lah... tp bila fikir balik ... nampak sangatlah DOL nye. I don't know what was I thinking at that time. On the first day that I was to have my radiotherapy to the stomach, I did not eat anything except drink a cup of plain water. When asked by E-Ya whether I've taken my breakfast or not, I confidently replied, "Dah..."

My appointment was at 11 am but we arrived at HUKM early, around 10.30 am. The waiting period that day was quite long and I only got to go into the radiotherapy room around 12.45 pm. Naturally since I had not taken anything since morning I was sooo damnnn hungry while waiting. I only drank water, lots of it pulak tu and apa lg terpaksalah pulak ke toilet... In short, my tummy growled = more water consumed = more trips to the loo.

By 12.30 pm I had my fingers pressed the lefthand side of my stomach as I already felt a slight pain there. Pain yg kita selalu rasa bila kita lamaaa tak makan tu lah... alah macam gastric pain tu...

Seeing me do that E-Ya asked, "Kenapa Acik ni tekan-tekan perut? Sakit ke"? I shook my head then answered, "Lapar..." She asked again, "Tadi sebelum datang kan dah breakfast, takkan lapar lg?". I gave her a lame smile and said, "Sebenarnya Acik tak makan, minum air je"

"Yang Acik tak makan tu kenapa?" Dah start dah Cik E-Ya kita..., "Td Ya tanya, Acik jwb sudah... Hee.. Acik ni kan..."

"Acik sengaja je tak nak makan..." I began my explanation , "Sengaja nak minum air je sebelum radiotherapy ni"

"Kenapa pulak?" she asked.

This is the DOL part. "Yelah... Acik fikir, Acikkan nak kena radiotherapy kat perut. Radiotherapy tu basically is about radiation. Jd kalau Acik makan, nanti makanan tu terkumpul kat perut. Kena radiation bukan ke makanan tu nanti jd mcm kena masak je kat dlm perut tu? Tak mau lah. Lagi selamat minum air je, perut kosong. Lepas habis radiotherapy baru makan"

I think E-Ya couldn't believe what she had just heard for she replied, "Acik ni kan nama aje cikgu Sains, apa kebende Acik merepek ni?"

"Eh logik apa ..." I said, still trying to convince her with my theory.

"Sapa cakap kat Acik ni? Baca kat internet ke?" she asked.

"Tak de la sapa sapa cakap. Tp kan haritu Acik ada baca kat internet dia kata, org yg kena radiotherapy mmng ada bhgn-bhgn dalam badan dia become infused. Siap kalau nak betulkan kena pergi buat therapy lagi. Haritu pun doktor ada cakap mcm tu kan. So kalau bhgn dalam badan boleh melekat-lekat, kenapa tidak makanan? Acik rasa bolehlah kot. Tak mau Acik makanan terlekat-lekat kat dalam perut..." Bagus tak reasoning aku? Hahaha ...

E-Ya dah tak kuasa nak melayan for she rolled up her eyes and looked the other way. Hehehe... mesti dia cakap dalam hati, "Lantak kau lah Acik..."

When my turn came I was quite surprised to see that the room was filled with 6 radiographers. Normally its only 2. Only later did I know that the others are trainees. They were there to receive the practical part of their training. Basically this 2nd round of radiotherapy is not much difference from the first. No feeling of pain or anything during the procedure, however the duration of being exposed I noticed, has increased.

I had E-Ya to time my session, from the moment the buzzer starts to the moment it is stopped. Previously for the pelvis, duration of exposure was about 1 minute on each side. Thus I was exposed per day about 2 minutes only. But now, for the neck alone it's 3 minutes, while the back and front stomach is 2 minutes each. In total 7 minutes of exposure to radioactive per day. Hemm ... wonder what's it like now in my body ... ada yg terlekat-lekat tak? Kalau yg dulu mcm soggy noodles, kali ni dah macam jd mashed potatoes gamaknye?? Hishhh ...!

Nonetheless, apart from feeling tired the first day of being zapped, I am much stronger yesterday and today. Alhamdullilah. Yesterday, after coming back from the hospital, I even have time and strength to bake three moist chocolate cakes and a bunch of sardine puffs. Two of the chocolate cakes are for my fellow teachers and staff mates in school. Its an annual thing that we have in our school whereby after every celebration the teachers celebrating the occassion will treat the other races for lunch. This time its the Chinese teachers' turn. They will be holding the makan-makan today, Friday at 12.40 pm in school. I took the opportunity to bake the cakes for all of them. Lgpun nak tunggu Hari Raya lambat lagi daa. Its the least I could do after all the encouragement and support given towards me.

While the other one chocolate cake and sardine puffs are for my niece, Linda who called me yesterday morning while I was on my way to the hospital. Wth loudspeaker on, she asked how's my treatment going, how am I feeling to which E-Ya replied, "Oh Acik sekarang vogue the vast..", whatever that means. Then more of her bla bla bla... saying her office will be having family day at the Zoo Negara this Saturday, so she wants to borrow my camera coz her camera was already taken by her younger brother who wants to take photos of him and his girlfriend, who hails from Malacca... More bla bla bla... updating us on her engagement plan, maybe in March, maybe in May, her boyfriend parent's intention of meeting my sister and brother in law to discuss the matter, my sister's plan of coming down to KL coz her mother in law will be having an eye operation sometime next week. More bla bla bla asking us whether we want to go to Jaya Jusco Seremban 2 to catch a movie and after that stay the night at her older brother's house to see Baby Haidar - her nephew = my cucu saudara ... yesss dah tua dah, ada cucu dah ... Drat! ... and all this while I thought I was only 25 going on to be 26 this year ;P

Then more bla bla bla ... Yes, she talks non stop and she's good at it by the way. In fact E-Ya and her are both good at it. Bothpun are "yackity yack" punya people. Oh God what did I do to deserve not one, but 2 such nieces ... But luckily only one stays with me if both, boleh mati "heart failure..." Hahaha

So after about 20 minutes of her doing the talking and me mostly doing "Hem, huh, ohh, ye ke and hahaha" she finally bids goodbye ... but not before she said how long she had not seen me and taste my delicious sardine puffs! And knowing that I am going to bake chocolate cake she too said my chocolate cake is just as awesome. So I said "Nak ke?" Initially she malu malu kucing le by saying, "Tak pe ke Acik? Acik tu kan tak berapa sihat... Takut menyusahkan Acik je tp kalau nak buat, Da terima aje... Petang ni Da dtng rumah ye..." Hampeh punya statement. Nasib baik lah Acik kau ni tak boleh dah makan mee sangat, kalau tidak sebagai balasan dah suruh dah dia belikan Mee Bandung yang sedap 2 bungkus , jual depan ofis dia tu. Hishhh!

So it has been set that this weekend E-Ya and me will be off to Seremban to makan makan angin menghirup udara estate coz my nephew's house is near one. Tengoklah kalau rajin we'll drive down to PD, tp fikir-fikir balik ... nak buat hape...bukan boleh dah nak makan seafood... Uwahhhh!!!