Here's My Story

Despite having done so just after Cycle 2, the next oncologist (when we turn up for Cycle 4 Day 1 session) ordered another CA19.9 tumour marker test after merely one cycle i.e. Cycle 3. Kidney function test stabilised. At least it didn't decline further. Few sessions ago, my dad's weight was 1.1kg lighter than previous session and so the oncologist was concerned. I had witnessed a patient turned away and asked to take a week's rest because the weight loss was significant. Fortunately, in my dad's case, the weight was still above his pre-leg pain weight. Pain -> less exercise -> higher weight at start of chemotherapy. Moreover, this time, he managed to increase the amount of exercise too. These assured the oncologist, at that time, that it wasn't an issue. Weight on Cycle 4 Day 1 was higher than previous session and yet this other oncologist raised concern that it was still lower than the pre-chemo weight. We gave the same reasons (and also that my dad ma...

Ever since the last heart-thumping ranked game , I usually avoid playing ranked game. Unfortunately, the last chapter of Season 3 required, as one of the missions, players to earn certain amount of ranked points. I was tempted to forgo it but in the end I did it because I had finished all missions so far. The trick was that I needed to win to shorten the number of matches needed because much more points were awarded for wins. Fortunately, I lost only 2 matches. Here are a couple of matches that I won: This was such a refreshing game, even if compared to normal PVP matches. We made mistakes and yet there was no finger-pointing and/or thrash-talking. We continued to communicate and focused on the game, despite falling behind. Good job team! This is the first time I used Brynn in a ranked game. If I'm not mistaken, team needed a tank and I picked Brynn because it was her turn in my personal rotation. Thanks team for my first win playing Brynn :) Brynn was a freelancer ...

If I plan to attack, I make a habit to check on the enemy liege, chiefly to see whether he's already in an existing war or not. Naturally I would prefer to not fight the entire armies of the enemy. During such check, I discovered that HRE had declared war on Byzantine. This was huge because they were in the top 3 largest empires, in terms of size and armies (my empire, Alba, was there hehe). This itself presented a good opportunity for me to attack HRE for a claim on a county (for a vassal). However, this became urgent when, on closer look, the war was to press a claim on the entire empire for a Byzantine princess who was married to the HRE heir. If they succeed, they would be marriage tie between the 2 empires (it would be the second time it happened during this campaign) and upon death of both rulers, the two empires could be united under a single ruler (only hope was that there would be at least 2 male children since Byzantine was on Gavelkind but then again this law could b...

I started a new campaign recently (maybe 2 weeks ago?) and about to finish it. As with all campaigns (except for a period of madness when I did an ironman campaign ), I do reload games when something I tried didn't work out. However, I reload when I know I could have prevented the results if not because of my carelessness or my lack of knowledge. Here are two instances: HRE pressed a claim on France for the Kaiser's heir and won @@. They did it when an underage King of France ascended the throne. By the time I noticed the war, the warscore was already significantly in favour of HRE. I was busy with something else (can't remember what) and was hoping to finish that before helping France, either by offering to help him defend or declaring war on HRE for a claim on a county (I can't remember which one haha). However, I was too late. So I reloaded and kept an eye on them and was ready to pounce it if it happens again, but it didn't. Since then, I've been ...

Since the last repair by Dell engineer, I've waited for Dell sales team to e-mail me quotation of the battery. And waited. And waited  @@ There was simply no response from the sales team, in spite of numerous queries sent to their customer service officers via e-mail, phone and Facebook. I pointed out to them that this is making a mockery of the motto automatically inserted at the end of their e-mail: "At Dell we strive to exceed expectations and provide the highest levels of service to customers." This nonsense went on for about 2 months before I finally receive a quotation from the sales team. No apologies whatsoever though, unlike their customer service officers. Humph. It's been about a week now using the new battery. I have tried a few times unplugging and plugging back the adapter. Seems like the issue "plugged in, not charging" is gone. Phew, finally!

It's been 4 months since the general health screening . There was about a month delay in retesting due to various reasons, especially during two 11-day periods of illness after coming back from Butterworth. As advised by doctor, I retested cholesterol level and the other red flags. MCV (slightly high), MCH (slightly high) and WBC (low) remained more or less unchanged while total bilirubin reduced significantly, although still elevated. Doctor wasn't concerned about these and was fine that I retest these during my planned yearly general health screening. As for the cholesterol test,                                 Jun 2017          Ref. range          Oct 2017          Ref. range      Total cholesterol           6.4                 < 5.2...

This was at Penang GH: I think this is quite clever.

Things pretty much settled after the second session (i.e. Cycle 1 Day 8). With medicine, my dad could pass motion and managed the pain in his leg. In fact, he could increase the amount of exercise via stationary cycling and slow walks without an increase in painkiller dosage. His abdominal gas is pretty much gone...except when he ate spicy food on the sly. His appetite was normal. There were usually no side effects from chemo except for the occasional tiredness The blood test done just before Cycle 3 Day 1 treatment, however, showed an unexpected decline in kidney function. The oncologist wasn't too worried but incidentally ordered tumour marker CA 19.9 test. I was a little surprised because I expected it to be done after Cycle 3. Blood test done just before commencing Cycle Day 8 treatment showed the kidney function improved (borderline). Oncologist was a little concerned that my dad lost weight (63kg to 61.9kg) but was assuaged once I mentioned that his normal weight was 60k...

Some distance away from the mass of Japanese rose plants at sister's house, there sit a pot of them with a variety of colours: Noticed that there are two colours here that are not present in the larger location: yellow and orange-red. So pretty. I do wish, however, there is also the simpler version of this flower i.e. the one with a single layer of petals. Also, noticed the difference in quality of photo? This one was taken with my new Samsung Galaxy J1 Ace (J111F) . It does look significantly better.