Got the Cold, Cough Flu again

For almost a week now, I've been miserably sick and under the weather with yet another cold, congestion and unrelenting, hacking, phlemy cough. This time, the cough came back with a vengeance and just riddled my whole body with constant cough attacks. Kinda like a perfect storm of sorts, mixed with upset stomach, very scratchy throat, vomiting, chills, sinuses stuffed up and achenes. This time I was so sick, I took a sick day from work and stayed in bed pretty much all day Tuesday.  Sleeping was tough due to the constant cough attacks, stuffy nose, congestion and all that yuckiness (nasal drip).
I'm not sure how I got this cold/flu again, but it sure seems like whenever I come back from Stanford appointments on Wednesdays or from a weekend mall outing that I get sick by Monday. On top of the terrible cold/cough this week, my stomach was also recovering from some form of food poisoning (result of eating bad Chinese food from the mall since my 2 girls also had the stomach bug). Perhaps with the cold weather and with an already weakened immune system, I easily catch lots of germs. And when I do catch a viral bug, it's hideously unforgiving and inescapable! Lovely. I'm a germ magnet.

Definitely, it's no fun being miserable with this cold/flu combined with having lung cancer. It's just awful. If it weren't for the CT scan results from last Wednesday, confirming that the tumors in my lungs are now less dense and that Xalkori is working, I would have thought my cough is a result of worsening news from my lung cancer. Thank goodness for Xalkori.  I hope this cough goes away soon and it doesn't ever come back. Please don''t come back.

Radiologist Report of CT scan
The radiologist reading from my CT scan report pretty much confirmed what my doctor stated, except it was mixed news regarding the 2 tiny spots on my liver. The report stated that one spot conspicuously grew to 6 mm from 5mm and another spot that used to be 9 mm, now is 6mm. Regarding the tumors on my right lung, it states that it has "Decreased reticular nodular opacities in the right middle and lower lobes".  I hope in 2-3 months when I get another CT scan that the 2 spots are gone with this Xalkori treatment.

Side Effects less bothersome
Now that I'm on Xalkori for almost 2 months now, the side effects are a lot less now or not as bothersome. The trails of lights happens still a little bit, but it doesn't bother me quite much or it's not affecting my vision. I can still read, drive and see as normal.  The diarrhea, well, that's comes and goes without any warning. I usually don't take any anti-diarrhea meds for it, unless I really, really need to.

Back to Kumon
The kids are doing well. But I since I've been raggedly sick with the flu up and down and back up with another cold/germy bug, I haven't been working diligently with the kids with the academics and they're slacking off. Ethan's progress reports came home after the parent/teacher conference and needless to say, he needs more work and more help. Immediately, I called Kumon and had both him and Ellen scheduled for an assessment, evaluation and a strategy plugged in. He'll have to head right back into the program. He needs all the help to get back onto mastering the basics of reading and math. I tried all sorts of ways to avoid having him enrolled in Kumon since, he hates it and I hate having to always remind him to do his Kumon.  I tried printing study materials/worksheets online, math and phonics flash cards and workbooks, etc. But, somehow, the Kumon method works really well. So, back to the drawing board and this time, I really hope Ethan can gain good, solid grounds and get back on track on achieving reading, writing and math at his grade level. I'm worried about all of them falling further behind in school. 

Raising self motivated, educated, well rounded, self sufficient, independent problem solvers and thinkers is really a lot of hard work and takes lots of dedication. It's not easy. I guess in life, nothing is easy. But, with a lot of hard work, practice, focus, and training, the rewards are worth striving for.

Thanksgiving Plans
I can't believe next week will be Thanksgiving. It's creeping up so fast. Time really flies. If I don't get around to writing another post, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We won't be heading anywhere or be out of town. We'll be right here in town, celebrating it with friends and family. Kids are all excited to start decorating the house ready for Christmas right. Turkey feast pre-cooked dinner is already all ordered in advance.  As always, I'm full of gratitude for being here to celebrate it with my family and friends and living life to the fullest.  Happy Thanksgiving!! Lots of Love.

CT Results after 1 month on Crizotinib

Yesterday was my usual follow up appointment with labs, Doctor and Xgena treatment and  thank goodness, my good dear friend R (Moanie) met me there at Stanford.  I'm so greatful for this big day of news with results and findings from my CT scan for her to be here for moral support, friendship and company.  I started the day working from home and then headed off to get my CT scan. This was the first time ever that I had scheduled my CT scan, Dr and treatment all in one day.  And I'm glad I did as it all worked out well. It's just easier now that I hardly drive during the weekdays now that I carpool to and from work. And also, getting poked once for scans, blood lab draws, getting flushed with heparin all about once per day is just ideal and just less pain and agony.

Other than the crazy traffic, congestion due to the rebuilding, expansion happening at the Stanford campus which will take about 5 years to complete, I was able to weave my way through all that madness on time.

CT Results
So, after lots of waiting, I finally saw Dr. Neal. He came up with a smile and said, "I have great news!  Let's take a look at the results of the images from your Ct scans today."  So we looked through the images together, with side by side CT images from Sept and he explained what the before and after image mean after about 1 month on Crizotinib treatment.  The images of my right lung now look so so much better than images from Sept!  He pointed out how dramatic the differences were, like how the tumors looked almost to be "melting" away. Definitely fantastic news. I was amazed to see the images and results.  The actual findings or study from the official radiologist reading will be coming soon to confirm the good news.  I'm just thrilled for great news that this pill is working. I hope it keeps on working more and more to melt all the cancer tumors away so that I can one day be cancer free. That would be the ultimate dream come true.

Busy, Busy
Work, kids school studies, their activities as well as my additional "to do" items around the house seems to keep my super busy. Since the last post, while I had the flu, I ended having take antiobiotics for 9 days so that I could shake off the miserable cough and fever. I tried letting my body fight it off, and after 3 days of fevers and coughing my lungs to point it started to hurt, I had to resort to antibiotics. And it worked like wonder!  But, as soon I was out from the flu, on a Friday night 2 weeks ago, when I took my usual Crizotinib pill at night before bed, the unthinkable happened. The pill got stuck in my throat or esophagus, burning like crazy all night! I was in mierable, miserable pain all night and all of the weekend, with the most brutal heart burn and acid reflux all day long.  It probably worse than labor pain.  I couldn't really eat or swallow much except water and light soups for 3 days until it finally subsided.
And of course, when this happened, I made calls to my primary care doctor right away to see what I can do. I took Zantic and tried everything.  Oh, when I had the flu, I drank lots of Orange juice, and even tried the old fashioned Vietnamese "saum" where my nanny boiled ginger, lemongrass, etc and then I would "blanket" myself with this boiling, steaming hot pot of water so that I can "sweat" off all the viral germs.  I did this a natural remedy to try to fend off the fever and cough, but to no avail, it didn't help.  I guess this method is like sitting in a sauna to sweat off bad germs. Perhaps I tried this method a little late in the game and it didn't work. And thank goodness for good, modern medicine. And yes, while having this miserable cough and cold for 2 weeks, I worked the ENTIRE time and never took a sick day.  I did work from home 2 days straight.  I guess I didn't want work to pile up and with taking the meds, it helped me get better each day as I was fighting this flu off.

The kids are doing great! Emma's attending preschool 5 days now and their dance and soccer is coming to an end next week. For now, with the upcoming holidays, I may just want to hang out with them in the weekends as a family and enjoy being toegther; without overdoing myself and them with too much activities.  We'll see, since they already want to start Karate, cubscouts perhaps for Ethan, and maybe even swimming and or piano lessons.
I'm just overjoyed and delighted with wonderful news from Dr. Neal about my current treatment. Hoping for continued good progress. Lots of Love.