Chemo #7 done and dusted

Slow and steady wins the race... so we will continue to be patient.

The cancer marker in Husband's blood has gone down by another 11.4 - from 146.8 to 135.4. I must admit we were initially disappointed that it had only dropped that much - especially given how fast it had dropped the previous two checks - but the oncologist explained that this is normal. He likened the last two rounds of chemo as a successful onslaught against the 'low-hanging fruit'. In other words, the easily accessible cancer cells are easily found, easily destroyed. Now that these 'low-hanging fruit' have been stripped out, the chemo drugs have to go further and work harder to get the fruit at the top of the tree.

He has also adjusted the dosage of one of the intravenous drugs - Camptosar (Irinotecan) - downwards as diarrhoea is one of the major side effects of Camptosar, and that, in conjunction with UFT which also has diarrhoea as a side effect, just made the whole situation much worse for Husband. So, Campto dosage has been reduced, and Husband is going to try the UFT again. Am giving him today as a 'drug holiday' :-p and will continue with the meds only tomorrow. Key to all this is, of course, that he HAS TO DRINK, frequently - to maintain his blood pressure.

He is trying (again) to drop the pain killers and has not taken any since yesterday. His mood is pretty good, and he is feeling OK, but we have to get ourselves psyched up for when the drugs kick in again in about 2 - 3 days time. Fingers crossed!

That's it for now on the personal front.

On a separate note, today is another dark day in Malaysian political history - a 30-year old opposition political assistant, taken in for questioning yesterday by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), was found dead today at the MACC building. The MACC are, as expected, denying everything. The DPM, as expected, is telling everyone to let the police do their job of investigating - which is hilarious, ironic and scary, because even more people die in police custody in Malaysia and the police get away with it scot-free. For the ordinary Malaysian it is a scary testament of how far the ruling government will go... and the thought of ever being taken in by either the MACC or the police is absolutely and totally terrifying.

When I hear about something like this I am sorely tempted to pack up and leave Malaysia, with my beloved Husband. Do I have somewhere to go? Yes, of course I do, and a job waiting for me there too anytime I go (Let's face it, any Malaysian with a brain has somewhere to go) Do I WANT to go? No, not really. I still love this country. It is still my home... and I can't give up yet.

So, let's all do what we can, including pray, to get this country of ours out of the quagmire it is in, and back to being a country that ALL of us (Malay, Chines, Indian, and others) can be proud of.

Till next time, stay safe, stay HEALTHY.