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Monday, August 21st 2006, 08:35 PM
I've created a new page for updates on Jasem's fight. Starting from now, Aug 21st, I'll be writing in there and this old page will remain as it is. This page will be linked from the new one so you can come back here anytime. Thank you for being with us! Click Here To View our new "Update Page"
Sunday, August 20th 2006, 09:36 PM
Sorry if we've kept you waiting for so long, it took me three days to complete this update and that's because I've been REALLY spending a lot of my time with my kids now. I'll do my best to relate what happened cos our entire stay there was kinda blurred together to me now. The only thing that's clear to me is that I've had crazy days in that building... view full story and photos
Sunday, August 6th 2006, 09:56 PM
Yey! It's Daisy's 4th birthday today. We had a small celebration for her. I want to throw a party for her but, hellooo... we're in Taiwan... I've been living here in Taiwan for 5 years and there's no such "kid's birthday party" on their vocabulary. Cake, candle and family... that's all there is on a kid's birthday here... view full story and photos here
Friday, August 4th 2006, 11:05 PM
A week ago, Jasem has been admitted at Chang Gung Pedia for his 10th chemo. Yeah, July 27th wasn't for his CT scan... I guessed it wrong. Carbo and Doxo were infused for the 5th time which started 11 am of July 28th (friday) and ended at 6pm of July 30th (sunday). We were not sent home early as expected because of Jasem's fever and cough... full story and photos here
Sunday, July 16th 2006, 9:38 PM
If you remember from my previous journal, I wrote about the "no bed" thing at the 6th floor so we were sent back last Thursday (July 13th) and had to wait for their call. Right after I uploaded my story, we got a call from the hospital so we drive back and checked-in by 6:30 pm. It's really crazy cos it's like there's a reunion there. What I mean is, people we've known at Chang Gung Pediatrics were also there. Thursday night was like a crazy night of exchanging hi's and hello's. The house was really full, and I've heard that some patients were sent up the 7th floor, which is really strange... more
Thursday, July 13th 2006, 02:50 PM
Hey, It's been a little while, huh?
While I'm writing here, Jasem's back there riding his rubber donkey. He's still wearing the cool grey shirt that his "Lala" gave him, I let him wear that cos I think we got to impress our oncologist today. Yeah, we had an appointment with Dr. Hung today but we were sent home not because his blood counts are low... it's because of one crazy reason: 6th floor is full!.. more
Wednesday, June 28th 2006, 11:35 AM
It's been a long time since I wrote here. Jasem's 9th chemo was scheduled June 26th but we brought him back earlier (June 19th, Monday) to the hospital due to fever which started on sunday. At the hospital, they found out that his platelet count is down to zero while the white and red blood cells are terribly low as well. Jasem received 2 bags of platelets and one bag of rbc during our 7-day stay at Chang Gung. We insisted to check out last sunday (June 25th) bcos Jasem seemed to be ok and we wanted to avoid those antibiotics that they inject every 6 hours. We thought that we just let his remaining white blood cells do their thing and make the "counts" come back to normal naturally! By monday, jasem had diarrhea and vomitted 3x. He's still weak and has no weapon to fight the "bug" that might have been attacking him that time. The bug must be from his sister, Daisy, who got it by friday while Jasem and I were still at the hospital. It was all vomitings and loose bowel movements last monday. They won't eat either. I was crazy as hell that day. By late afternoon, Daisy was taken to Taoyuan hospital to take IVs.. after that... everything went smooth for her. About Jasem, we were planning to send him back to Chang Gung by Tuesday but thinking of those antibiotics again... we decided to just control Jasem's intake and observe if he'll vomit again. If he vomits once, then we'll just take him back... fortunately he didn't. So, we'll just wait 'til tomorrow to discuss this with Dr. Hung. We have an appointment with our oncologist tomorrow, June 29th, to check again Jasem's progress after all the infusion last week. I have no idea if we will need to stay there again. Perhaps, they will give him Cisplatin... but I don't think Jasem's ready for it already. We'll see... That's all for now. I'll try not to be lazy posting updates next time =). Take care y'all! ~quely
Thursday, June 8th 2006, 10:35 PM
For those of you who were not informed... I'm sorry that I wasn't able to tell you before that Jasem's 8th chemo was moved from May 29th to June 5th. We've been sent home by Dr. Hung last 30th of May (jasem's bday) due to low wbc count. Even though we don't need to throw out party that day, I'm happy that we did not spend the whole day at the hospital.
more on 8th Chemo..
Saturday, May 27th 2006, 11:06 PM
Check out Jasem's 2nd Birthday Celebration.
Tuesday, May 16th 2006, 7:09 PM
As promised yesterday, here I am for the result of the CT scan. Ok, where should I start.... first, I didn't go to hear the evaluation myself. Hubby chose not to bring me bcos he's kinda scared of whatever bad news Dr. Lai might say. So I stayed with Jasem and Daisy at home and waited until he's back. So, for the news, here it goes...
Full Story Here
Monday, May 15th 2006, 8:20 PM
Hi there folks! It's the 15th of May and I made a recap (shown on the left side) of what happened for those long months since diagnosis. Actually, I did it for myself to see how much we've accomplished so far. We went to the hospital today with my black baggage (the one I always packed with all our stuffs needed for a 3-4-days stay in the hospital) only to find out that we don't need to spend even a night there, which is of course a good news for us. At 10:30am, Dr. Hung told us that they only need to ct-scan our boy for the surgeon (Dr. Lai)'s evaluation. Now, I will be talking about Dr. Lai and not Dr. Hung anymore...
Full Journal here
Sunday, May 7th 2006, 03:21 PM
Jasem's 7th chemo (4th round of Cisplatin) started at 10:00am on May 5th, friday. According to Dr. Hung, t'was his last pre-surgery chemotherapy (there will be post-surgery chemo of course). That means all we need to do now is wait until his oncologist decide when he'll gonna have a surgery.
Full Story with photos here
Thursday, April 27th 2006, 10:04 PM
Yes, we are supposed to be in the hospital starting today for Jasem's 2 to 3-day-stay there for the additional round of Cisplatin. But for the third time in the history, we were sent back due to the usual reason... blood counts are still low. But we've got good news... the greatest news I've heard so far... his afp is now 3! Thank You dear God, it finally came back to normal (click here for his afp history). But the battle isn't over yet so please continue praying and be prepared for more good news next time.
~quel
Friday, April 14th 2006, 04:25 PM
Four long months had passed since diagnosis. It was a tough period of time with lots of ups and downs not only for Jasem but for us his family. We're so happy that this li'l boy of ours has responded pretty well on all of his chemo sessions. With his afp drop from 400,000+ (during diagnosis) to 160 (latest), there's a lot to thank our Big Boss up there and all our family and peers who continues to pray for our boy. He's more like his old self now...
Full Story
Friday, March 31, 2006, 10:02 AM
The liver transplantations program in Taiwan has performed a total of 315 liver transplantations since March 1984 up until August 2005; of these, 228 were living donors. All donors have returned to their previous healthy lifestyle while recipient has 1-year survival rate of 97.3%, and a 5-year survival rate of 93.4%, one of the highest survivals in the world...
Read Full story
Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 03:09 PM
We rushed him to CGMH by night of March 18 because of his fever that reached as high as 40.3C. We stayed at the emergency room for 6 hours because they won't give rooms during midnight. It was 6am, March 19, when we were admitted at the CGMH-Children Hospital (6th floor - for kids battling with cancer). Jasem's gum was swollen that you can hardly see his teeth. He had 110ml blood transfusion and was given antibiotics. He was released yesterday bcos his temperature stayed normal since sunday night.
THURSDAY, March 16, 2006, 11:15 PM
We've been sent home by Dr. Hung again just like what I've expected. Kulang pa raw yun White Blood Count nya... I can say so cos Jasem seems restless these two days. Nagfe-fever pa nga kasi nga kulang yun WBC to fight infections. If your WBCs are low, you are at risk for an infection. Common symptoms of an infection include fever, chills, sweating, diarrhea, sore throat, cough, mouth sores or burning while urinating. If WBC falls too low, medications to boost the production of WBCs might be prescribed. Our next trip to Chang Gung is on March 27. He's also scheduled for a CT scan and X-ray. After that, we will know if Jasem is ready for an operation or if chemo sessions be extended.
SUNDAY, March 5, 2006, 10:20 PM
Jasem's another chemo session has ended again. It was his 4th treatment (2nd round of Carbo and Doxo). It started on March 2 at 7pm and lasted for 48 hours. Me and "the Papa" stayed at the hospital during the entire session...
Next chemo: March 16, 2006
Full story with images here
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2006 09:06 AM
3rd chemo, 2nd round of Cisplatin. It started at 11am friday then ended after 24 hours. No vomiting, no fever occurred but Jasem gave me a total of only 5 hours of sleep. I guess the infusion made him upset and feel tired so I have to hold him and give him a little comfy everytime he wake up at night. As usual, he's been given fluids into his vein before and after the treatment to avoid the drug from damaging his kidney. This kind of fluid causes frequent urination. Every chemo session, we're asked to weigh and record all his inputs and outputs to make sure that what's coming in is going out. For every 3-4 hours his average input is 160cc of milk and an average output of 450grams of liquid. He didn't eat a lot but he peed as if he was making a world record. I have to change his wet clothes most of the time because he really piddled that much. He's still kinda moody until now, but believe me, he's always looking good.
Next chemo session: March 2, 2006.
View Pictures Here
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2006 08:12 PM
Perhaps, you are wondering why there's a new post in here where I'm supposed to be with Jasem at the hospital for his 2nd round of Cisplatin. We were sent back home again today because the amount of WBCs are still not enough. Hopefully by Thursday (our next appointment), WBC count is on its normal state so that Cisplatin can be given again. It's not a big deal, nothing to worry about. Plus we've got good news, Jasem's Afp (Alpha feta protein - amount of disease in a body; normal amount is below 20) after injecting Carbo and Doxo is 100,000. It was 400,000 during diagnosis. Still along way to go but we're happy with the result of his 2 sessions of chemotherapy. Go, my boy!
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2006 02:02 PM
We are supposed to be in the hospital today but this morning, Dr. Hong suggested us to go home and let Jasem take some more rest. They can't inject Cisplatin (chemo drug) today because his Red Blood Cell (RBC), White Blood Cell (WBC), and platelet counts are still low due to the previous chemo drugs (Carbo and Doxo which he received last two weeks ago). It is very necessary to check his blood counts before injecting his chemo drugs, so everytime we check-in, they need to withdraw some blood from him to check out his blood counts. There's nothing to worry about... it's normal, that's what they say. I admit I'm not familiar with this chemo-chemo-thing but I'm starting to know a lot of things about it. Another instance is this, it's been two weeks since they injected Carbo and Doxo, within these two weeks, Jasem didn't started losing his hair just like what they told us and just like what I have read. I thought he's lucky not to lose them, but it worries me bcos of the thought that the drugs they are giving him aren't working. But while we are waiting for Dr. Hong to arrive this morning... I noticed the collar of his jacket with lots of hair on it. It doesn't bother me cos I know it's not hurting him. His falling hair gives me an assurance that the drugs are doing their job, they're preventing the fast-growing-cells to grow, and hopefully they're making the "monster" shrink. As Jasem's, I've got to bring out the positive out of whatever is happening... that'll keep us both strong, I guess.
We are expected to meet Dr. Hong again by next monday, Feb 13. Hopefully, they can inject Cisplatin by midnight of 13. Valentine's day at the hospital, huh?
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2006 01:35 PM
It's the 30th of January... Jasem is exactly 20 month old today. He'll be having his second round of cisplatin this coming February 6. Just finished his first round Carboplatin and Doxorubicin last week (Jan 23-25). He is scheduled to take at least 4 rounds of Cisplatin and 3 rounds of Carbo and Doxo before a surgery. After the second round of Carbo and Doxo, he'll have his CT Scan (maybe to check if the drugs are making the tumor shrink).
Chen-Wei, who we prefer calling "Jasem”, has been diagnosed with hepatoblastoma just this January 3, 2006. His Afp (Alpha Feta Protein - amount of disease in a body) was 400,000 something at that time… normal is below 20. Although Dr. Hong (the oncologist) was sure that it was hepatoblastoma, a surgical biopsy was done to confirm her diagnosis. The day after the biopsy took place, a port-a-cath was inserted in his right chest. Because of the need to intravenously access him, this device will be used for an easy blood withdrawing, transfusions, and chemotherapy.
