before i turn another year older

Browsing around my Facebook, I was trying to find when was the year I got married..yup the dates didn't quite stick to my brain after all :)

…and no I didn't actually find it and too lazy to grab my wedding ring to check…

I found this, the About Me section:-

I wrote

much awaits
a destiny precedes
a life un-ridden
the future forbidden
to ride the wild horses
to unleash life exuberantly
to live and breathe
to face the fiery storms
and go against all odds
to have it all
to be who i am called to be

I think it was probably more than 10 years ago that I wrote this? 
Reflecting back, I am amazed at myself. The maturity, the passion, the faith, the hope..all in the heart of a young teenage girl.

Life is all about choices and perspective. 

And heck it sure ain't easy growing up :) I have had my fair share of life's experiences for the past 27 (or is it 28?) years of living. In a couple of days time, I will be turning another year's chapter of life. Reminding me the day that I was born into this world.

I am now a working adult and a wife. Still a daughter, a sister and a friend. :)

Life brings about challenges in all aspects, in terms of career / family / social / spiritual. I am not ashamed to say that I have my setbacks, my weakness, my imperfections in every aspect of life. I am on a journey and will always have something to work on. On some aspects, it may just take me an entire lifetime but this doesn't mean I shouldn't try.

I don't always get things right the first time nor the second time or even the third! Realising this enables me to give second chances a little bit more. Everyone is on their journey in life. 

Having an open mind and heart allows me to live life simpler, not to judge too quickly (I am still working on it) and to try to love a little bit more.

Dealing with people ain't never easy, with all the variability only God knows the hearts. 

This season of my life and so will every season onwards, I will be learning and re-learning and working on this aspect. The more you grow up in life, the more variabilities of people that you have to deal with. The more thought that has to be put into it and most of all the more heart that is required to keep things real and sincere...

2nd CT scan updates!

It was a great relief to know that the 2nd CT scan was better than the first! :D

God's been great!

During the 1st CT scan something small was detected in Pavel's lungs but the doc mentioned that it should just be a residual from the side effects of chemo. So we left it aside and thank God for His peace that really kept our smiles on our faces :)

Life's just so real in a sense knowing the nagging fact that cancer could just strike us back anytime. But His grace is sufficient which has enabled and empowered us through this season of life! I know I keep repeating about God's grace but yea it is the fact that I never grow tired of it, simply because it is what that keeps us going =) I thank God that His grace never grew tired of us too!!

So yup for the 2nd CT scan the small stuff in the lungs were completely gone! YAY! Praise the Lord!!

What a journey life has been for the both of us and His grace never fails to amaze me :)

Our lives has been blessed with amazing people in it!

4 months and counting :)

It's been 4 months now since the last cycle of chemo, how time just flew us by!

Our first CT scans and blood results were an ALL CLEAR!! Praise the LORD! :D
We have already done the second CT scan and awaiting the results for it.

Pavel is doing tremendously well! His hair is growing back at a tremendous speed now, we're happy to have his hair growing back ;D One look at him today and you won't even notice or know that he had gone through chemo just 4 months ago. God's grace not only enables but empowers too! Our lives have been remarkably touched by the people around us, both near and far.

We've been pretty busy since than! We got our on place now in Prague, sharing the flat with 2 lovely flatmates =) Building up our home bit by bit. Pavel's been busy with his work too as some of the projects are coming to an end. I've started a new job and met some nice people :)

So yea life's still full of challenges as we live it up! And thank God, He is the ever constant to keep us sane!

our own nest

It's been awhile since I updated this place...

A lot has happened which has took up my time :)

We got ourselves a new place to call home now and we're slowly building it.

The frantic rush of getting everything into some order while enjoying each day as it comes by leaves me not much time to write

Really delighted that Pavel is really progressing well :D His hair is growing pretty fast! What used to be a fuzzy head just a few weeks back is now covered with dark seemingly black hair =)

Looking out my squeaking clean window (which was thoroughly cleaned twice!) I see a renaissance style  building which I can never mistaken myself that I'm in Prague. It has been 5 months since we came back to Czech Republic and the 6th month has already begun...time has literally flew us by with all the ongoings.

My life would be able to make a pretty good movie one day :) or maybe a book...

Who would have ever thought that I would have started a newly married life while not even two weeks into in and I'll be fighting cancer at the same time starting a new life in a country where English is not widely used and than building up our first nest altogether!
It's even a  mouthful to say it all in a sentence :)

What a journey it has been!
To have faced a glimpse of the reality of death
To have faced disappointments
To be one of the very few and in fact first among the circle of my friends to fight cancer
To adapt and change at all levels
To once again start from ground zero
To laugh and cry from deep within
To love like there's no tomorrow
To be able to smile each day because of a wonderful man in my life
To experience the amazing grace in my life
Oh what a journey it has been!

And now after all these, here I am eager to start off a new life =) once again!
Excited to build our very first home together with the man who captured my heart and has never stop being amazing :)

God has been awesome to have bless us with this new place where we can build our lives together :)
Although it was a really long and hard search! It was worth it =)

My parents has been really awesome and supportive :D They brought us lots of stuff from home totaling 75kgs! =D
I was close to moving my whole room to Prague ;) but mostly it was food stuff, chinese herbs for Pavel and myself and all the other 101 things that I wanted ;D


Although sometimes I do wish that I would have a different life story but I would never trade it up for any other story than this =)

Will get around posting pictures of our room soon :)

Living My Dreams!

in Prague

Our journey continues in life =)

Now after 4 months in Czech Republic, we are finally in Prague! =)

Although our temp flat is crappy but it's still the best place with my darling around ;D

Only reason why I'm writting now is that I'm badly sick..just recovered last week and now the bug got the better of me again...totally not used to the weather here just yet...since now we gotta do a lot of walking and all..just reminds me of my Uni life back in Glasgow

Pavel is doing well =D he's just down a bit with sore throat but he's doing good still =) I guess he's immune system is more suited to this environment than mine XD

We are still in the quest of hunting down our semi-permanent flat ..since we're gonna be renting it..it only become 'permanent'when we buy it ;)

There are always a lot of facades in life
Things that we may never comprehend
Things we would always wonder
The questions of why can never be completed
And that's how faith grows
That's how trust builds
Through life with all it's intricacies =)

Lodz, Poland

Well that's where I am currently in :)

Pavel came here for work and I just tagged along and keep him company ;)

Been quite awhile since I wrote here...as Pavel is well on his way to complete recovery, we both have been quite busy! Pavel with work and me with all sorts of stuff!

Have been occupied with my triops, harvesting their eggs, all of'em died. My last soul survivor survived till about 34 days old I think..so tonnes of eggs now. Just preparing it and getting it ready for sale :D

And than I've also been occupied with flat hunting!! By golly! It's tough when there's lots of things we want :) Important factor is the PRICE! We want to fully maximize it and we were so close! 95% to have our flat! And than it didn't happened due to some reasons...too lazy to elaborate here. So there we go again...have to start from scratch to hunt one down! Now armed with higher expectations!

So yesterday we managed to get hold of a flat! Cause we figured that if we are not in Prague itself, it's HARD to get a hold of the good ones as they go all too fast! So we locked down on one, price is good, location doable..it's pretty old and crappy though the place. But with my magic touch and cleaning it's good for a month ;)

And the other thing we were busy with is also my LTR (Long Term Residence), that way I don't have to go out of the country every 3 months, quite costly to do so here. So this is the cost effective way PLUS I am eligible to work! I am looking forward to it :D New challenges! New people! How exciting! :)

Vacation & updates! =)

Well first it was the vacation in the mountains than the vacation from blogging and everything else! :)

Last 2 weeks ago we went for a lovely vacation in Krkonose mountains =) weather was perfect! good company! and I even learnt skiing! Pavel has evolved into a pretty good teacher ;D

We went to the Dvur Karlove Zoo, watching animals in the winter is pretty cool :) Although quite a fair bit of animals are hiding and they don't wanna come out! Too cold for them.

I wanted to post up some pictures but apparently Pavel has not uploaded it yet to FB and ...ok just one picture...to show how awesome the weather we had ;D

Ain't it amazing? Pity didn't spend much time taking pictures though ..too busy learning how to ski ;) and yup it's pretty fun after all...although I was pretty much afraid that I was gonna kill someone or myself! But I guess skiing is a lot like life...especially ours lately :) Being afraid of the unknown...so many things to worry about...but if you let it bogue you down, it will! So I decided to take a step of faith, trusting that Pavel would save me anytime (he's a really good skier ;) and I will be alright. I need to trust in myself too that I will be able to do it. And once I got past the fear, I was able to ski and even have some fun! =) I was actually enjoying it :) Just 2 days of learning and I got pretty good at it! haha well not as good to even quality as an amateur but good enough to get compliments to be a fast learner! haha ;) Valentine's Day Oh we had a really nice Valentine's Day :) just the both of us of course ;) A visit to the dentist in the early morning for Pavel - I finally know that he's on a root canal treatment (thanks to my mate/dentist) Than a trip to the hospital for CT scan and blood test - Pavel didn't faint this time round, he did on his first CT scan...he left out - I need to lie down when you jab me or take out canula part ;) After that we had a cuppa of hot chocolate! A really nice best-ever-chocolate-drink-so thick you have to use a spoon to drink it! :D Than we made ourselves a lovely dinner of bramboraky aka potato pancake :) our favorite =) Report Results We got our results back just last Friday and it's an ALL CLEAR!! =D =D And the next checkup will be in 2 months time ...it's gonna last for 5 years these checkups but will gradually decrease over these 5 years and than just anually =) so off to bed!

Juicer!~

Well our healthy lifestyle with the juicer have already started :) Since we manage to find a really good buy at Lidls! :)

It only cost us about RM150 not more! :)

We have obtain this as one of our money saving motto - buy it when it's cheap
Through this motto, we have already bought waffle maker (i love waffles!), it makes 3 nice little design too :) & it gives us a fluffy waffle :) only for RM20!

And steel cookie cutters! - 25 designs in total for only about RM15 :)

I suppose you just need to browse around for a good price ;) Although in Czech it's not a cheap place to live in as nearly everything is quite rather expensive but with some hunting you can get good bargains :)

Our Wedding Web :)

120 days!

A lil' note that I posted on FB:
120 days seem like a long time...
but we have lived it through together
120 days...if anyone would have told me what was installed
i wouldn't have thought it was possible 
to keep the smile 
to keep the faith
but hey 120 days
we have lived it through together =)
Pavel Bednar
ps: i didn't count :p http://fionnawyandpavel.ourwedding.com/

It was really nice to visit our wedding website again :) and it keeps track for me on how many days we've been married!

How lovely it was and how lovely it is! ;D

I'm already thinking about doing something in one of our anniversaries :D Gonna be fun!
I just love parties! And organizing one is just as much fun! :)

Oh now I've moved up to The Nest instead of The Knot :) A really handy website =)

Looks pretty much like me :)

Interesting Sights in Prague

Well apart from the usual stuff like Charles Bridge and Prague's Castle, here's some of what I find interesting in Prague =)

In no particular order..

NOTE: If you're a student, always bring your along your STUDENT CARD!! Czech is a student-friendly place :) Nearly everywhere you go, they have special discounts for'em ;)

1. Prague's Zoo
Pay

A whole day trip. I love this place :)
Perfect when you're bored of historically architecture richness and overdose XD

2. Reon Argondian's Gallery
Pay
Full of mystical creations. A mystically romantic spot ;)
It's located below Petrin's tower, nearby the cable car about 200 - 300m away.

3. Prague Castle's park
Free
(north side of the castle)
A serene park filled with little surprises!~ And it's a really big park and lots of places in which you can wonder around.

4. Mirror room
Pay
under Petrin tower - good fun =)

5. Night view of Prague is a must!!!
Free

6. Štefánik Observatory
Pay
500m South of Petrin tower
it's really cool to see the universe =D

8. Kampa
Free
The island which houses the contemporary art museum...so you'll find unique pieces around the place

9. Krizik's Fountain 
Pay
Awesome date night :D
Musical fountains with lights, videos and even performances!

10. BobovaDraha.cz  
Pay
Prague is all about romance and when you're tired with it, it's time for some good laughter and squeals!
Super cool bob sleighs kinda thing. Really good fun!! =D


Lots of things in Prague to check out :) 

Sperm Bank

Here's the post on the sperm bank that I mentioned earlier that I would write :)

Well the only time I've seen a sperm bank was on TV, typical of how we learn and get to know things ;)

This is not much of a difference from what you've seen in the TV too...

We went early in the morning, as ours was a last minute appointment...since our blood result was late...we only had 1 week to decide on everything (to chemo or not to chemo) seen the nurses and just had to wait out turn...Mostly young couples were there, Pavel commented that that's obvious you don't need it when you're old. True true =)

Pavel was quite anxious...who wouldn't be?...when you're EXPECTED to perform and deliver results into a small tub XD And this was like our backup just in case chemo kills off everything...and this would be our only hope. Both of us like kids enough to have our own :) not now but in the future...
We have already planned not to have kids during our first year of marriage and with chemo, it kinda just falls in nicely..although with chemo it's 2 years.


Back to the sperm bank:

We got our room, just a small room, with a bed, heater, chair, sink..and of course scantily dress pictures on the walls and mags by the bed. Just like in the TV ;)

Earlier in the morning, we were laughing in the car joking about it...and I told Pavel, remember don't spill it.

Without going into details :p

He really did spill it onto bed...and of course he had to scoop it back into the tub...XD

Well we checked it in with the nurse waited for our results, if it's any good since it was on the bed...
Results were back: sperm count in a good range -  i can't recall the numbers. Usable for freezing.

It's a good thing we know a little bit about sperms because prior to sperm banking you're not suppose to ejaculate for 2 - 3 days. In order to have optimum results. And you're suppose to bank in 5 times...we didn't have time for 5 times and our doctor didn't tell us about it. We read it on the paper that the nurse gave us during our waiting time in the sperm bank.

So we scheduled on our own to back again 3 days after, Monday morning. And the sperm bank doctor was kind enough to accomodate us. =) Monday morning was our first chemo already, so we had to do it in the morning before the chemo.

And the sperm bank was like 45mins away from our hospital for chemo...

So our 2nd banking was much easier and faster :) Since Pavel already knew what to expect...he wasn't anxious about it :)
Results of the 2nd banking were good as well :)

Even with a ball less, it does affect the sperm count ;) that is before chemo.

Now the sperms are all cryogenically preserved in liquid nitrogen tanks...sounds pretty cool eh? :D

hmm i wonder if we ever conceive through these sperms...would the kids prefer cold than the heat? ;)

Pavel's tooth & everyone's sickish!

Yay good news: Pavel's tooth is quite ok :)

This is what I got from Pavel -
The dentist said that the tooth is already dead for a long time but there's something inside the tooth...so she drilled a bit hole, put some liquid in and foam and clean it. This hole needs to be there for awhile and he needs to go to the dentist 2x week to clean the hole.

WHY?
Because the body thinks that the tooth is not suppose to be there..so it's rejecting it. Now the treatment is to make the body understand that the tooth IS suppose to be there..

This treatment takes about 2 - 4 weeks, it really depends...

ME:
Huh? Got such treatment??
Why is your body so complicated sometimes?

Pavel:
I don't know it's broken..

Me:
kisses my army boy's head and laugh =D

Pavel:
smiles and continue to work =)


OK today I tried sprouts! It was really nice until all 3 (mum-in-law, Pavel & I) feels sickish now -_-
Pavel threw up a lot! and was down with slight temperature... XD and diarrhea too

Mum-in-law has stomache...

Me - feeling kinda woozy -_- & had diarrhea

I just basically followed what was written on the recipe...I soaked the beans, for the whole night...it sprout up this morning, so I prepared it for lunch...next time I'm gonna steam it for like 5 mins or let it sprout longer -_-

I just googled up and eating raw sprouts that are contaminated can cause such symptoms...hmm may be the beans are not clean -_-

oh well..so much for sprouts! 

Cycle 2: Day 20 & Day 21 - Completion!

We have officially ended chemo as today is Day 21! :D Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 have indeed past by really fast and it was an amazing journey! Simply because we lived on God's grace and His miracles :) He never failed to be with us each step of the way and carried us on His wings when we have no strength left.

God never let us down and indeed Amazing Grace :) He always sent us angels to put a smile on our face and warm up our hearts =) You are my dear friends and family are our God sent angels...your kind words, thoughts, support, encouragements & prayers have really lifted us up. =) What amazing people we have in our lives and we really thank God for all of you!

A lot of times, we didn't need anything elaborate of eloquently phrased paragraphs...just a simple line or two of you are being thought of and kept in our prayers are more than enough :) Encouragements such as your lives have inspired us or we admire your courage and sending you our love really brightens up our day. =)
And how marvelous you were at doing just that! :D

Even now that I am in a foreign land to call home, with skype, Facebook, emails & THE internet I always felt at home :) with all you wonderful people reminding me that I am not alone in this journey =) Though far and wide this world may be, a click here and a click there, I have you all to stand by me :)

We are very touched by your sincerity =) and even in this cold winter (it's getting colder by the day! It's -9 now..gonna hit -20) our hearts are warm by you :)

We did a little video for all of you but I have yet to edit it was caught up with my Triops still :p Now there's 3 sole survivors! And they are getting bigger :D I will post the video up by tomorrow hopefully!

Love you all!!

ps: Pavel is doing just fine! :) Body is slowly recovering, the bruise (which I suspect extravasation) on his arm is slowly fading away and the pain is much lesser now.
Gonna be visiting the dentist tomorrow morning, will update you guys on that.

We started juicing already with our new juicer! :D gotta show you guys our new kitchen gadgets soon ;) Today Pavel had: tomatoes, orange, kiwi, celery, cucumber, apple - all in one. haha cause usually we always have over supply of vegs and fruits, so we decided to clear it up ;D

Sometimes winter can get into your bones but we thank God that we have you to warm us up =)


UPDATE: video is now live :)

Our story begins...

Cycle 2 Day 17 - 19

Today is Day 19 - 2 more days to completion of our 21 days cycle :D

All's been well thus far :) Now the only thing left would be Pavel's tooth...

On Thursday he went to the dentist and go a X-ray done on his bottom front tooth, as it was painful...apparently there's more to it...dentist told him to come in on next Tue morning, 7am...there's something inside his tooth, so she needs to open it, clean it, leave it open for awhile and than fill it.

I have no idea exactly what is wrong, Pavel just listen and said ok...so he didn't really ask any Qs as it doesn't occur to him...I'm the one usually asking all the Qs..but than again when it's me, I don't ask the Qs...weird I know...

So do pray that everything will be well and I do highly suspect the bruise on Pavel's arm along the vein is caused by extravasation... -_- chemo nurses must be thoroughly trained to avoid all these unecessary complications. It's good that his WBC are not too low, Neulasta definitely helped, so it should recover fine :)

I really thank God that Pavel has only a few really bad days, some guys had it real rough even after their first week of the first cycle!

And this is an awesome place for info and support on TC - www.tc-cancer.com
They have the best forum for TC! =) And people are really nice too ;)

We made a special thank you video for all of you who have been supporting us :) I'll need to edit it later and will post it up =)

Life's awesome with God in it and definitely with wonderful people like you! :D

the wonders of nature :)

BEP Regimen

Bleomycin, Etoposide & Cisplatin Regimen

Short overview on the drugs.


Bleomycin
- anti-tumor antibiotics
- destroys the DNA
- Major side effect: Affects the skin (hyperpigmentation) & lungs due to low ability to degrade it. About 10% of people suffer from lung toxicity.
- aka the Shake & Bake Bleo - unless you premedicate before taking Bleo, you are gonna be experiencing shivers & chatters due to chills and followed by a hike in temperature. Pre-medication: paracetamol/benadryl/tylenol - these are known to work really well :)



Etoposide
- acts by inhibiting topoisomerase (an enzyme that assist in cell duplication)
- Major side effect: Decrease in white blood cell: lowest point on Day 10 - Day 14. Recovers within 3 weeks.


Cisplatin
- platinum based drug
- disrupts the DNA of the cell and inhibits it from replicating
- Major side effect: kidney toxicity

General Side Effects of BEP:
Nausea & vomiting - ensure you take the anti-emetics prescribed & drink loads of fluid

Fever & chills - especially after Blemoycin is given. Apart from that, do let your doctor know about it. Paracetamol can be taken in this case. Ensure proper rest after taking bleomycin, not even short walks even if you feel fine, it will just quicken the side effect of it. Keep warm and drink loads of fluids.

Fatigue - as treatment progresses, this may just get worst. Get plenty of rest and have short walks. Short walks will help. Pavel had it during his Day 6 - 9, after that it was not too bad. Walks helped him a lot.

Weight gain - increase in appetite due to dexamethasone (steroid) and also tendency to munch. Increase intake of fiber and have low calorie snacks to munch on.

Weight loss - make sure you have adequate food intake. And maximize your calories, especially if you don't have any appetite to eat. Pavel's losing weight even though he's eating a lot!

Sore mouth - ensure good oral hygiene. Brush gently after each meal with a soft toothbrush and rinse with salt water.

Hair loss - 3 to 4 weeks into the treatment during Cycle 1. And may be completely lost. Good news! It's just temporary =) it will grow back after treatment. Pavel started losing his hair on Day 17.

Constipation - due to the anti-emetics. Ensure lots of fluid intake and fiber (physillum husk is good). I make sure Pavel have his bowel movements daily, so that all the toxic waste is removed. So I give him lots of cooked veggies, oats, yogurt, physillum. No problem with it now :)

Diarrhea - make sure adequate fluid intake to replenish the body. If it's more than 2 days, do consult your doctor. And do replenish with oral rehydrating salts.

Sore eyes - may be dry, become reddish, discomfort. Artificial tears may help.

Bone aches - try a hot bath and always keep yourself warm. Ibuprofen is good for bone aches. To have a good sleep, take ibuprofen and a sedative. Pavel had a night or two with terrible bone aches and body aches, after the ibuprofen and sedative, he managed to sleep. Please consult with your doctor first.


I have covered in brief since Pavel only had 2 cycles of BEP, the side effects aren't too bad. Now we're in Cycle 2 Day 18 and he's doing good :)

Usual side effects are tires out quickly and muscle ache, we are now SLOWLY building up his body again. Simple exercises such as walking and supplements.

I do believe in taking supplements but not on a daily basis. Supplements should be like your food intake, you don't eat the same veggie everyday, so why take a supplement everyday? It's just my rational ;D

Calcium and Magnesium have shown to aid the body. So I did give Pavel these two supplements off and on.

There's quite a lot of reading to do on it when you want to optimize chemo treatment with supplements...because there are thoughts that it will aid the cancer cells thus bringing more harm than good...so if you need some advise I can shed some light onto it and it would be best to consult your oncologist still :)

I think the best is taking in RDA amounts and follow the food concept = you don't eat the same type of food everyday, so don't take the same supplements everyday. NOTE that it's a SUPPLEMENT, so please don't spend tonnes of money on it. You don't need to spend your whole lifesavings to save someone's life, we just need to be smart about it and not get sweep up by commercials/sweet talk.

References:-
http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Chemotherapy.htm
http://www.cancernet.co.uk/chem-bep.htm
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertreatment/Treatmenttypes/Chemotherapy/Combinationregimen/BEP.aspx
http://www.tc-cancer.com/pdf/tc-chemo.pdf

Cycle 2 Day 16 - pancakes and triops!

Wednesday 

We made pancakes for dinner! :D

Was a good recipe too =) I used wholemeal flour and buckwheat flour for it :) ps feel free to ask for the recipe ;) too lazy to type it out now

My 1st birthday present! :D The triops have hatched! :D It takes about 48 hours for this tiny little creatures  to hatch..and now you can see that little speck of light brownish color near the marimo ball :D So cute! :D

It's really fun to watch them swimming around :)

My tank setup is complete :D

We hope to breed them and sell the eggs :D These are really fun pets to have! :)

So what are they?
They're basically small little fresh water crustaceans that have been around for about 300 million years! Basically a living fossil ;D

They are also known as tadpole shrimp :) Kinda look like a horseshoe crab ;)

The full name of my species = Triops longicaudatus

They grow up to about 6cm in captivity but in the wild they would reach 11cm, not so small after all :)

You can witness the whole life cycle as they usually live about 30 - 40 days and before they die they would lay dozens of eggs first.

So I'll be posting the progress of my little triops as they grow bigger! :D Here's a video on them :)

I'm writing less about Pavel's case now because he's getting better! So not much to write on apart from the usual tiredness and aches....oh and I think the chemo leaked during the infusion because on his left arm there's a darker streak along his vein..and it's painful to touch now...would need to look it up 

Cycle 2 Day 15 CNY dinner!

Day 15 - Chinese New Year dinner! :D

Pavel gave me a surprise dinner idea for CNY!~ He told me on Sunday about it and wanted to surprise the whole setup for me but he needed help with the soup and he has work to do...while now I have all the time in the world ;)


Nonetheless he's such a gem! :D

The whole setup

Relatively simple as we don't have Chinatown in Czech!
One of the few countries who doesn't have it 

This colorful veggie noodles are yummy! :)

champagne of course!

bubbly drinks

Our new rice cooker. We got it as our Christmas present...kinda ironic
cause both of us don't take rice..but it's perfect for steamboat! :D

Desserts to complete the night!

The soup turned out to be really yummy! :D Boiled for about 3 hours with chicken meat and bones, carrots, onions, garlics and chinese herbs :) So happen to still have a packet of Emperor's Chicken herbs lying around ;)

Both parents enjoyed the food too :) We had crabsticks, mushrooms, peking cabbage, pork's heart, prawns, tortelini (since there's no meatballs), smoked salmon, noodles and eggs...nothing like back home though ;)

Tatko (Dad in Czech) called the neighbours and greeted them happy chinese new year and teased them to come over. They said no but turned up later and wanted to try :) We kept everything already and was suppose to have it for the next day's lunch, as the soup is now super yummy! But they're nice so we gave it to them ;) They really enjoyed it :) Both husband and wife travels quite a fair bit so they're a bit more adventurous than the average Czech ;)

Cycle 2: Day 14

Day 14 (monday)


Today is his last round of bleo! :D

All chemo drugs are finally over! :D
Today is also the first day of Chinese New Year :)

I kinda miss the buzz of Chinese New Year...first time in my 26 years of life that I'm not busy for CNY..there's a lot of first things in life this season ;)
And for that my amazing darling suggested yesterday that we can celebrate our own Chinese New Year! :D We will make steamboat :)
What a gem eh?! He actually wanted to give me a real surprise with the whole thing but than again I have the extra time since I'm not working and he is :)

well after the infusion we went and did a blood test as well cause Pavel needs to go to the dentist..blood result was out in mere 10mins :D
And his results are looking good! =D

Blood test:
Before Cycle 1 - Leucocyte 5.0; Erythrocytes 5.39; hemoglobin 145; thrombocytes 210
After Cycle 1 - Leu 5.6; Ery 5.14; Hb 137; Tr 180
After near completion of Cycle 2 (taken on Day 14) - Leu 4.9; Ery 4.9; Hb 139; Tr 193

So he's cleared to get his tooth out :)

Oh today was awesome cause we went to a really nice fish shop!! Both of us have turned fish fanatics..well not nearly there yet at least..now just looking up and studying :) Our new hobby since back in KL is in fishies and this summer we are gonna start fly-fishing!! so cool =D

This fish shop that we went to is really nice! :D Pavel bought me a marimo ball, drift wood & white sand! These are for my triops bowl! :D It's now waiting to hatch!! More about triops later on ;D

This is the current setup for now...just waiting for it to hatch and than place my driftwood and shells in it :D


Oh we had to rush home from the fish shop cause the side effects came earlier than predicted...usually it hits around 4-5pm but this time just 1 hour after the infusion it kicked in...it's due to the walk, as we were walking outside..so I guess things kicked up faster..

It's quite funny actually...Pavel forgot his beanie so he was wearing mine...it's a good thing it's white but it's knitted type :D so in the car, he's driving with heater full blast, beanie on his head and he was still chattering!! Poor guy XD
His front tooth was painful due to the chatter..so I gave him a packet of tissue to bite on...

Cycle 2 Day 11 - 13

Day 11

Traveling day! :)
Pavel had a meeting in another town called Plzen, so we left in the morning about 7.
Was still in consideration the night before as he wasn't feeling so well and there's a problem with his tooth. We think that he needs an extraction, so we would have to talk to our onco and see how things are.

It was an interesting day indeed! We took the train to Prague from Zabreh, about 2 hours. And Prague to Plzen about 1 and a half hours. Our journey from Prague to Plzen took us about 4 hours instead...a suicide occured...

Well apart from that, all went well :)

We stayed a night in Prague at a friend's place and it was a good time chatting up with Pavel's old uni mates :)


Day 12

Time to head back home :)

Pavel's tooth is still aching and while coming down from the train, he knocked his tooth. And it was really really painful for him...he was literally shaking from the pain. Popped in ibuprofen but it didn't help and he wanted to pop in more...I told him that we need to go to the pharmacy instead, to get something stronger...cause I could see it from his face that it was really bad.

The pharmacist recommended him naproxen, so we got that and he popped it in. The water helped as it cooled the tooth down as well. Naproxen works really well for him, so it's good. =)

We had a good journey back home and discussed about our future plans and ideas for business :)

oooo and I already have lots of nice presents from my darling! Birthday presents! :D


Day 13

Pavel's quite tired today from the traveling. He gets tired quite easily...so he's already fast asleep now as I type this :) It is good that he is sleeping and able to sleep. Had a bit of a temperature but now he's alright =)

He's drinking lots of fluids and it is helping him to recover.

I was doing some research on BEP regimen and optimizing his treatment with additional supplements. So far 'there's nothing concrete out there...and not much research has been done too. One day, I do hope to fund ongoing researches on complimentary and intergrative medicine. I do believe in chinese medicines, simply because it works and a lot of research by the chinese have been done. I think there is hope in it. =)

Tomorrow is our last day with bleomycin :) Just another 8 more days to complete!

Sucide = Selfish

Our not so close encounter with a sucide...

We were sitting in the train and all of a sudden the train stopped...in the middle of nowhere...
1st news: we don't know what happened, wait for the report.
2nd news: an accident occured.
3rd news: an asshole jumped out of a bridge into our train, on a sunny blue sky day...committed suicide.
4th news: we have to wait for the police and can't go anywhere.
5th news: it was a lady...she just walked onto the rails and sat down...waiting for the train to end her life.

One of the most unfortunate thing: our train driver got a shocked, it was his first time driving the train...with an experience driver sitting beside him to guide him...he couldn't drive the train after that...

How sad and inconsiderate the lady was...infact I may even say selfish!
Sad because she thinks that ending her life would end the misery...wait till she gets over the other side...
Inconsiderate and selfish because she didn't think about everyone else in the train and all the other people in the train station...everyone got delayed just because she felt like dying...not only delayed...but imagine if someone was delayed for a funeral of a loved one...or rushing back to see their dying parents...or a dad hurrying back to see his son's graduation...what about all these people? Who would sympathize for them? I am not heartless but SOME people think that the world revolves around them...that it's all about them...and when things don't go their way, life is not worth living anymore...

it is really time to grow up...

Sad because they didn't know any better...They didn't know that there are people who cares...

A fact: in this whole world, everyone of you....there's always somebody thinking about you...and there is at least one person who cares about you...