Sept 20th 2010 - A special day!

Monday, September 20, 2010

YES, guess what! Charmaine is going to school tomorrow!

~~~SCHOOL IS STARTING~~~
And SHE IS SO DARN EXCITED! Its been her wish to go to school like her brother, Jase and she is SOOOOOO looking forward to her first day! (Although she doesnt realise that she will not get to go to school on Tuesday because we have her knee biopsy... decided not to ruin her fun for now.)

But yeah, lets focus on the good and positive! Finally, Charmaine is going to school and I am one very paranoid mother, excited but yet so anxious and worried, all in a good way. Hmm, I dont even recall myself being so worried when I first send them to school years back! Lets keep our fingers crossed and pray that everything will go smoothly for Jase and Charmaine tmr! Going to school in NYC is so different and I am starting to appreciate Singapore school system even more, despite the stress and all!









~~~Liver is normal~~~
The other good news that I have to share is that her liver MRI turned out to be nothing but a good scare. Hence, the conclusion is the one site that is still having disease is her right femur. I will take that, although I had desperately wished that this was not the case but yes, I will take that because the alternative could have been worse. Continuing to look on the positive!

~~~Charmaine is walking and dancing again~~~
Yes, you heard me right. From a week ago of totally not being able to move, she started walking on Thursday and was even dancing to a show last night! This is my life, this IS OUR LIFE. :-) Justing having a charmaine with no pain and being able to walk is a gift. A BIG GIFT. A gift sometimes I take it for granted, and forget that walking is not a given, but a huge blessing. Looking at their backs, watching them walk down the streets, holding their hands, giggling and talking is something that can be taken away from me anytime... Hence, I am thankful, so grateful that I get to watch them do just that again! Its been a roller coaster week for me, with so many scares, so many twists and its not about to end yet.

~~~Knee Biopsy on Tuesday~~~
On Wednesday when I suddenly found out that Charmaine was scheduled a knee biopsy on last Friday, I was shocked. Partially because of the way things worked here; because I wasnt informed of it until I tracked down one of the Nurse Practioner, it really felt that information was not passed on efficiently. Especially, when I needed to arrange for Jase to be taken care of should Charmaine get admitted. And of course, I was also very worried and concerned abt the recovery from the knee biopsy. Nonetheless, when we met the Orthopedic Surgeon (finally!) on Thursday, she said we couldnt proceed with her biopsy on Friday as she was on antibiotics which would have made her results inaccurate. Great, now I know the different teams dont exactly communicate amongst themselves. Not a big issue this time but argh! Hence we are postponed to Tuesday instead and she got her last dose of antibiotics on last Friday. And from Saturday till her biopsy on Tuesday, should she spike a fever or her pain gets worse, than we will rush to Urgent Care and she will have an emergent biopsy.

~~~Worrisome Tuesday~~~
The vague picture that would happen on Tuesday is that she will have a knee biopsy sometime in the morning and the biopsy results will be out in an hour or so. If she indeed has a knee infection, than they will push her into Operating Theatre and have a surgery on her knee to clean up the infection on the day itself. What time, how long, or whatever else in terms of recovery and all, we have NO IDEA. I am just like this soldier on stand by, waiting to be activated anytime, with no clue. All I know is that it will be an admission for sure. So I have Iris and Stephanie on a stand-by with no back-up plans and no schedule... because I have nothing to work with! Everything will HOPEFULLY WORK OUT on the day itself. And the BEST PART is I have no telephone reception in the hospital! Hmm, communicating and co-ordinating everything with no phone reception, its going to be interesting huh! And with Jase attending school, life just gets more and more interesting. (I have to figure out how to shutter bet hospital and school when I have each kid at each location and I am only one person. But yeah, I will figure it out... no point thinking right now right?

To simplify everything, PLEASE PRAY THAT CHARMAINE HAS NO INFECTION IN HER KNEE and that we can start treatment for her cancer asap! Dear God, if you hear me, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET THE BIOPSY PROCEED SMOOTHLY AND SAFELY and THAT THERE IS NO INFECTION AT ALL so Chamrmaine doesnt have to endure more pain and suffering than she already has. PLEASE, Charmaine really treasures her ability to walk, she is so happy the last 2 days, regaining back her independence and capability to dance happily. I really hate to see her in pain and unable to walk...

THANK YOU EVERYONE, I really appreciate if you could say a little extra prayer for us. THANK YOU.

~~~A mother who cannot decide whether to be excited or worried~~~
I have a really exciting Monday that I should be happy about but I also have a really stressful and worrisome Tuesday not far in sight... Just how much more extreme can things get... Focus, I keep telling myself. So for now, I am trying to focus on being excited and stressing about all the paperwork for school tmr. I will leave the fear, stress and anxiety of the biopsy till tmr, after school.

I think saying one day at a time is actually too much to ask for. I can only take it one step at a time.

Need to sleep early because I am a mom with school-going kids tonight! No cancer B.S. but just a normal paranoid mommy worrying about my own kiddos having separation anxiety tmr!

Goodnight to everyone in US and Good Morning to everyone in Singapore!
May everyone remain happy and healthy!

Love,
Cyn mommy

Getting better bit by bit...

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry that I have not updated since my last post...

Actually, dont know where did I stop previously, but she spiked a fever on Saturday night and we managed to persuade the doctor to allow us to go home and return daily for antibiotics so I can still look after Jase.

Anyway, Charmaine is doing MUCH MUCH better now. Her swelling has gone down significantly since our first dose of antibiotics. Although its still swollen and she still cant straighten her leg, her pain is now manageable with paracetamol and she can actually sit with more comfort on her stroller. So that has helped greatly in making me sane and calming my nerves. Being in pain just tears me apart...

So we are getting there, slowly but surely.

Charmaine is still a little upset with not being able to move and walk on her own, being reliant on me but at least she is able to take part in the activities in her stroller so that has definitely helped her mood.

I still have NO CLUE what is our treatment plan. And the orthopedic surgeon still hasnt seen her knee yet. Everyday, I have to ask and remind the doctors whether we have to come back the next day for antibiotics...

Thats about all I have for updates...

Please keep those prayers coming in, that all the other parts of her body is healthy and clean!!!

I am not thinking much, just living everyday routinely... hospital, meals, clean and wash...

Nonetheless, we are all doing okay!

Thanks for all your concern... they kept me going strong, thank you all.

May everyone be happy and healthy.

Love,
Cyn mommy

At Urgent Care with a darn fever now :-(

Sunday, September 12, 2010

:-(

That darn fever spiked at 1930hrs! Argh!

I nearly just wanted to stop breathing myself at that moment!
I could feel my tears wanting to burst out literally, overcome with fears, anxiety and desperation. Really wanted to crumble but I couldn't. Charmaine herself was already close to tears because she knew what a fever meant. Inpatient.

Anyway, I kept breathing and I kept pushing my brain to think what I should do and prepare next.

We reached the hospital abt an hour later. It's now 2300hrs and we are still here. The amazing thing though is the kids' spirits.

Jase didn't complain abt us having to rush down to Emergency. And that seemed to have influenced Charmaine's mood as well. As soon as I regained my composure and assured her that we are not in Singapore and that we have a chance of not being admitted, she calmed herself down too.

Right now, as we are waiting for her blood test results to come back, Jase is happily playing the Nintendo while Charmaine is looking on. That's THE REASON I'm breathing slightly normally, while still anxious.

Charmaine had a really long day today.
She woke up in severe pain this morning at abt 6am, crying terribly and complaining that she couldn't move her right leg... Such a dreadful and awfully familiar scene to me but still, I panicked and I froze. Checked her knee and darnit, it was doubled yesterday swelling!

Jumped off bed and gave her coedeine and her antibiotics (which doesn't even seem to work at all!!!). Checked her temp and it was 37.9! My heart sank. It is a temperature that brings out the most fear in any oncology mommy. I quickly sponged her, told her to drink lots of water and prayed fervently that the darn temp would go off!!!

The rest of the day she was just tired. She couldn't move her leg due to the excruciating pain and could only lay on the bed. It was so bad she couldn't even sit up. A few times, she wanted me to carry her to the window to just look at the BBQ party out at the terrace but the pain was too much to bear, she reluctantly said she couldn't do it. It is days like these that makes me appreciate my legs and the ability to simply walk. Whenever Charmaine can't move or walk, it just makes her extremely depressed. Today, she seemed to just totally resigned to the fact that she should be in complete bed rest and didn't cry over being bored or wishing that she could join Jase at the playroom. Instead she just cooperated and rest quietly on bed.

I'm desperately praying that she is not neutropenic and that we can be allowed to go back to the house. And of course PLEASE let her body be good with NO infections!!!

It's gonna be a long night... Hopefully we can leave the hospital by 2am!

Love,
cyn mommy

Knee Pain...

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Have you voted today?

http://www.refresheverything.com/armswideopenchildhoodcancerfoundation

After spending almost an entire day at the hospital today and finally completing all my chores, I decided to use whatever energy I have left in me to remind you to vote.

How do I begin today's post? I suppose I have alot to update but yet nothing is meaningful in the whole lot I have to write about.

My facebook status pretty much summaries up my rather drained and long friday~

the getting worse knee pain, a more than 3hrs MRI today, a swollen knee, a CT bombshell - saw some tissues on liver, an emergency MRI of liver ordered on Monday and still no plans... thats how our friday went. Please help us make it better by voting. http://www.refresheverything.com/armswideopenchildhoodcancerfoundation
With cancer still in Charmaine's body, after 13 cycles of chemo and more to come, we need better and less toxic therapies. With time and funding being our biggest obstacles, your vote today means a chance of living longer for kids like Charmaine... thank you everyone.


From last week till this week, its 2 weeks, 10 working days of scans which revealed the need for more scans and more scans... and we are not even done yet...

Apparently this week's CT scan of her abdoman revealed some soft tissues on her liver. Well, no one called me. I wasnt informed. And today, it was only made known to me after I saw Dr Kushner and ran after him, telling him that Charmaine's knee pain seems to be getting worse again...

He asked if I was aware that they saw something on her liver and they have ordered an emergency MRI of her liver on Monday. NO. I DIDNT KNOW.

Am I still alive? Ya, I think I am. As a matter of fact, I didnt even cry. Maybe I'm just too tired. I've been up since 5am this morning. I think I'm void of emotions almost entirely. I didnt think that I even reacted to the news at all. I thought I felt my heart sank but I wasnt sure either. I just functioned on th basis of completing one chore after another. I brought Jase and Charmaine home at about 2pm and than I realised that they forgot to de-access or pull up the needle in her port. I decided to feed the kids lunch before I bring her back to the hospital again.

Everyone is just plain exhuasted from being at the hospital since 7am...

It is only now that I could feel the tears flow down my cheeks. I think I am actually glad that now I can be certain I am still alive and I am still human.

Nothing is actually registering in my head now. I dont know what to think. I dont know what to expect. The doctors are not saying anything until more scans and more reports are finalized.

Everything is so wrong. Everything that I had mentally visualised and all the various scenarios that I had prepared myself for had been nothing but just wrong.

Only ONE THING I had gotten right. This time around, things will be different, harder, tougher and more challenging. Yet, I wasnt expecting it to be SO DIFFERENT, SO TOUGH, and SO MUCH HARDER.

Just when will things start to look brighter and clearer again?

Please just let everything be a scare, be a nightmare and let the grey skies become clear finally.

We need a clear picture and we need a PLAN soon.

Please pray for Charmaine's knee plan to subside miraculously again and please also pray that the knee can finally heal so that she doesnt have to suffer this pain which immobilises her.

Please also pray that her MRI of the liver is clear and that we only need to focus of getting rid of the disease in her right thing and NOWHERE else.

Of course, most importantly, please pray that there is ABSOLUTELY NO NEW DISEASE ANYWEHRE in her body! And that her MRI of her legs and head today is all good!!!

Please also pray that we will have plan by next week and that we can start her chemo soon.

May everyone have a good long weekend in Singapore...

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Love,
Cyn mommy

YOU CAN VOTE FROM SINGAPORE!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Dear ALL, I was told that everyone can vote.
http://www.refresheverything.com/armswideopenchildhoodcancerfoundation

Its very simple and you can help save many kids like Charmaine.
Just click on the box that says "VOTE FOR THIS IDEA" and than choose to "LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK" and allow access to your account and you are DONE.

You can vote once daily. We are now at the #10 spot, we need more more more votes to reach #1. The $250k won will be used entirely for research on Neuroblastoma. We are a few steps away from new treatments and lack of funding is our obstacle.

So please help us. Please VOTE to help us extend the life of our kids suffering from Neuroblastoma.

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Love,
Cyn
 
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