A little reflection....

                             Let me reflect on my journey today. Where was I 8 weeks ago? Where am I today? How 8 weeks make the difference!.Time heals! When I first was diagnosed with tonsil cancer, Sally called me up from Penang  to have a supportive - motivational - inspirational chat. In that conversation something struck me deeply and reverberated in my head since. What was it she said? "Shakil soon every thing will be in the past, nothing is ever permanent, and time will heal."  Wow ! Time has passed and its ever so healing! . Today I feel I am no longer a cancer afflicted. I have crossed the threshold and now a new beginning, I am on the road of recovery. The hill climb and the rough ride is finally over. Its past. Now I can look forward to a new destination, The weight has been steady for the last 4 days at 77 kg, That's good news.
My appetite has improved and now have progressed to semi solids.Taste buds are dead, just waiting for the day when they spring back to life!.Perhaps its a good time to start taking the supplement that so many people brought over.I have Japanese Green Sea Weed to consume and a case of Brand Essence of Chicken and Sabah Snake Grass ( my brother Aziz brought this over to plant in my garden and consume the leaves,)
          The weekend saw many friends dropping by to say hello and catching up with old tales. Sunny and Sally dropped by on Sat whilst Gerad Gunter came by to say hello to Chris and I.. Sunday saw the PPC gang drop by for tea. Many thanks to all for dropping by the house.

We have come a long way

My first golf game....yippeeeeeee!!

     Wow! I have recovered from the worst, from now on it will only get better and better. My throat is almost 90% OK, able to swallow...no problem at all with minimal pain or discomfort.and day by day I am getting bolder in trying different stuff around the kitchen and pantry. The appetite is slowly improving. My diet is now semi -solids, so all that is good news. Had Sabri & Wati send over Kelantan food for Sat's lunch. Not that I could taste anything but I certainly ate my favorite nasi  kukused in banana leaves.dono what its called but it  was great.. My sense of smell is acute and so stuff like soy, sesame oil, curry all smells good. Sadly though my taste buds are non existent.So whether I get to eat sweets tau foo fah or delicious chicken soup noodled makes no differenence. I just wack it to survive. My weight has stablised, thank God, 77kg now.
      My voice is slowly coming back and so is the energy levels. Gone are the days where I would sit in front of the TV aimless surfing the sports channels to keep me occupied. Now I am back in front of the computer screen  doing what I do best and that is designing new materials for the lecture and presentations. I am updating the CRM manual and that is challenging and frustrating at times as I run out of ideas. Hope fully if my vertigo subsides and I am able to drive the car without endangering my self or others on the road, I will go back to work soon. Yeah....saw the ENT fella last Friday and got more medicine to stablise the  vertigo. Now it not so bad but still I can feel it that its still there.
       On the subject of driving, I drove to the golf course today around 5:30pm. in my old car WAR9394. Wow, no problem at all driving. Got to the golf course around 6.00pm and had just enough time to play 3 holes and work out a sweat. Not bad after 8 weeks of layoff. Yes after 3 hole I got pretty tired and my legs started to ache. Yeah I am pretty unfit. But the fact that I was able to drive my self and play golf just shows that the future is bright and the nightmare is slowly fading into history.
       I am already planing my exercise regime for tomorrow. I was advised by KAT to take it slowly, perhaps walking being the best exercise followed by swimming. The gym has to wait for a while.
Well its 0130 hrs and I better get some sleep. So bye every one. Goodnight!!

Its a topsy turvy world for awhile

           Recovery is slow and steady. The neck area has completely healed even though it does get itchy at times. The aleo vera from the garden ( a present from Annette) came very handy. Chris extracted the gel and spread it evenly over the neck area during the evenings and bed time remedy was to massage the area with virgin coconut oil. All in all it worked well and All's well that ends well.
           I am able to eat better and now venturing into semi-solids, but still no taste. Wondering when that will return? The weight has stablised at 169 lb or 77 kgs just on my ideal BMI weight index of 24.7. Hope fully I will regain the taste buds sooner than later.
           Now that the chemo and rad is over I am in a better condition to see and welcome friends, relatives and colleagues. Last weekend my old school mate Tiong, Chai, Huat, Sunny and Sally all dropped by to say hello and bring great spirits of laughter and fun. Not forgetting Madi and Kat for their constant "eye keeping" on my condition. Thank you guyz.
            The road to recovery is still rocky and bumpy topsy turvy. One of the side effects of the chemo drug "Cisplatin" is amongst a whole list is vertigo and dizziness. Somehow last 2 day I got afflicted to it and it can really make the world go round and round and round. It got so bad that I had to lie down almost the whole day. I have to be very careful walking. Bathing in the morning is done seated. Luckily the toilets in my house has grip bars installed and so that helps. I called Dr Lum and told him about my condition and he prescribed some pill. "Stugeron". This pill when taken makes you really drowsy. So now I am sleeping more and more during the day. The vertigo comes and goes and I notice it usually hits me if I move my head rapidly or change the position of my head from vertical to horizontal vice versa. So my movements are literally restricted until I overcome this. Well this is the Easter weekend and my wishes goes out to everyone celebrating Easter especially Karen & Linda plus family in Australia. Have a Great Easter Weekend and hope the Easter Bunny will bring greater fortunes and even more chocolate cookies over the year.