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Sunday, March 08, 2009

Little Charmaine after her 1st chemotherapy treatment

The day before visiting cyn and the kids, I dropped by a fellow dame’s house to collect a Nickelodeon Dora fun pack.

My family members were greatly attracted to the gifts even though we have a combined age of more than 200 years. Haha… My er jie immediately took the liberty to lay the items out and snap a pic of them.





Thank you sweetp aka Pearlyn for your generous gift. Even though we do not have many/ any exchanges on the forum, you have been so kind in offering to meet up with me to pass the gifts. They have certainly put a smile on little Charmaine’s face and Jase’s too. =)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Over at cyn’s place on Wednesday, 4th March.

We shall do a little switch in sequence for this entry.

Pictures first, words later!

Lil Char and godma Jolene posing with the Dora stuff


Jase and his lion dance “costume”


Jase wanna take with Godma Jolene too!






All these shots were taken by Jase… Such a little photographer he is.


Lil char came to find me finally and showed me what she had done to the book.


There were quite a number of people at cyn’s house. Seated in the living room were cyn’s friends who were discussing serious issues with cyn. In the bedroom were the kids, Sonia (cyn’s maid) and cyn’s bro’s friends.

As much as I wanted to play with char, I had to make sure Jase didn’t feel left out.


On Jase’s psychological health…

Just 1 week of not seeing him, Jase has certainly changed. He is no longer the sweet little darling boy I’ve always known. He craved for mummy’s attention. He craved for my attention. He craved for everyone to focus just once on him, and not on Charmaine.

He craved for attention so much that he has become a changed boy.

He talked rudely to people. He got offended easily. He ordered people around. He got put off when Charmaine got a lion’s share of the attention. He is always shouting for all to look at his toys, to look at what he had done, to look at him and not at Charmaine. Jase did not want to take photos with Charmaine but wants us to take photos of him only. He used to like taking photos with Charmaine.

When we finished fixing a jigsaw puzzle which was done by mei mei before that. Sonia and I praised Jase for being so clever and so thoughtful that he has helped mei mei to complete the puzzle. My intention was actually to make him feel that his efforts were recognized and also to make him feel helpful and kind. When I told him to show mei mei the completed puzzle, he ran out to show Cynthia instead. It’s so evident that he wants mummy to recognise his efforts.

His tone and behaviour were exactly similar to those naughty brats I always abhor and yet, I don’t blame him a single bit. I feel very upset and I am really afraid that jealousy might get the better of him and that’s no good for Charmaine at all.

Children at this age is egocentric. The whole world revolves around them. When it’s no longer a me world, they get upset and they may hold a grudge against the person who caused the change in status quo.

Cyn is well aware of this and she really does try to spend some time with Jase doing little things to make him feel that he is still special in mummy’s heart and reassuring her love for him. However, sometimes it’s really very difficult to share her attention between both kids.

The surrounding matters a great deal too. As highlighted in this article .

Jase may have been a good kor kor but despite feeling concern for his sickly mei mei, he would feel jealous too. Presents and toys flood in for the mei mei. Mummy stay at the hospital with mei mei. Everybody focus on mei mei. Everybody’s conversations revolve around mei mei.

Is it any wonder that Jase would feel jealous of mei mei?

I remember the story which the social worker at KK told us about sibling jealousy. There was a 2-year-old child fighting for his life while undergoing chemo. Finally, he passed away. Do you know what his 5-year-old brother told his mummy?

“I’m very happy di di die. Then you don’t have to go to the hospital anymore.”

We really felt very angry at the boy’s words. Then the social worker continued saying that this was coming from a 5-year-old child who isn’t mature enough to understand the severity of his words. He isn’t mature enough to control his egocentric thoughts. We should not even blame him for feeling this way.

We’ve got to do more reading up on dealing with siblings of cancer patients. I’ve already printed out some information from the internet.


On Charmaine being such a little darling…

Charmaine really loves kor kor a lot. When Cynthia asked her to share her gifts with kor kor since she had so many, she said with a smile, “Ok….”

Then she went through all the Dora items to pick a gift for Jase. She picked a knitted beanie hat—the exact same one Jase was marveling about when we first opened the pack, only to put it down when he realised it’s not for him.

I was truly truly impressed with Charmaine’s kindness!

Then Aunty Sonia tried to pick more stuff for Jase.There were 2 scarfs in the bag. One pink and the other blue. Sonia told Charmaine to give kor kor the blue one since she had 2. The little darling went, “Ok” and with slow motion as she was obviously in pain, she handed Jase the scarf.

She is sooooooo sweet and I’m really glad that Charmaine is so kind and forgiving. She really loves Jase a lot.


Have you felt so unwanted before?

Cynthia asked me the above question when I plonked down on the sofa next to her.

Hahaha…

There were certainly more than enough people entertaining the kids and yes I felt a tad unwanted but my main motive was to catch up with Cynthia for both sides of updates so it was good that the kids were preoccupied.

We were both such scatter brain that day, trying to remember which information and messages have already been conveyed.

Just when I thought little Charmaine had forgotten all about me, she came walking slowly towards me and sat next to me, flipping her Dora book and asking me to take a look. I spent some quality time with her then.

There was once she put her lanyard over my head and with help, hooked both our lanyards together. Then she said, “We all married.”

So CUTE!!!!!!


As I’m typing this, Little Charmaine is warded in KK due to her persistent fever. Read more here.

I won’t be able to visit Charmaine for quite some time coz I’m sick. It started from the bad throat on Thursday, then the cough and now the cold. Feling feverish too so it was fortunate that my tutee’s mum cancelled the tuition session today. I managed to catch up on some sleep.

Cyn always tells me to not let her issues affect my life so much and I had to continue living my life as per normal, do my stuff as per normal, plan my wedding as per normal. To which I always laugh and tell her,

“Ya la ya la… I got 分寸 wan. You think I wanna help you forever meh?”

=)

Feisty Char needs bullets to fight!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I'm not superwoman

I have this sudden thought that I'm very lousy.

People always tell me how capable I am to be handling so many things at one go, how I could juggle work, tuition and private life so well 24/7 and how they have always known me to be strong and determined etc. However, I don't feel that I'm like what they've described at all. I'm not that zai3 you know?

I get more and more emails and sms from friends and strangers telling me how they really appreciate me doing so much for Cynthia and Charmaine and how they think that it's really admirable. Truth is... I don't really think I'm that competent and there's really nothing admirable about it. I'm just doing what I wanna do.

I'm running a temperature with a headache. I was on my way to work when I had to step outta the mrt and take the opposite direction coz my mum was screaming and shouting that she could not find her keys at home. I then decided that I was too exhausted and I needed to go home to have a good rest.

I'm so lethargic whenever I'm working and I suffer from headache and nausea every single day. I cannot finish my food every meal. I sleep 2-3 hours every night and I just cannot get myself to sleep more. There is simply too many things to do than to sleep.

I pushed back my wedding preparation, pushed back photoshoot date and basically pushed back everything. The only consolation was that we managed to squeeze in ring fitting and meeting of PG and VG.

I have many understanding people around me, especially at work. I've got nice colleagues to help me ease the workload a lot and a compassionate superior who totally understands my situation. In fact, I feel so bad that I can't really give my 100% at work. I kept taking half days and time offs. I still owe my superior a very important doc and I've been pushing back the deadline.

Now that exhaustion have taken a toll on me, I feel like I'm really very lousy. Truly capable people whould be juggling everything all with ease whereas I'm struggling to handle everything. I just wanna do things which I want but I obviously cannot do them well.

Kh said, "You think you superwoman ah?"

The doc said, "You think you superwoman ah?"

I guess I was dreaming that I could be superwoman.

Ignore me please... I'm rattling off and I hope to feel better after the ramblings.

On a happier note, Cyn's friend has contacted me and we would be working together to spruce up charmaine's weblog. We are looking into making the site more user-friendly and adding more details of the treatment costs. Everything would be more transparent so please rest assured that your donations would be put into good use.

A little goes a long way. We would be more than thankful with any amount you donate so please spread the word around.

Feisty Char needs bullets to fight!

A sudden conviction... Is that a sign?

If Cynthia had clearly made up her mind and stuck to what she last informed me a few hours ago, Charmaine would be starting on her chemotherapy tomorrow or rather, later today.

Yes, yes people who talked to me would know that I'm not a great supporter of putting Charmaine through chemotherapy with only 10% chance. Cynthia used to have the same thoughts too. Even her pragmatic brother who used to always go by treatments backed by doctors and hospital (in cyn's words) was also having 2nd thoughts about putting Charmaine through chemo. On Monday, we just kept thinking of alternative treatments.

I really hate all the side effects of chemo which would cause Charmaine to be a totally changed person. We really could not bear the thoughts of putting her through all the pain, changing her lifestyle and subsequently, her character.

I cannot bear the thoughts that the strongest chemo would be used on Charmaine who is just a little girl. I cannot imagine all her healthy cells being killed and her organs affected. I cannot imagine confining her at home. (She is not allowed to go out as her immunity system would be low and she is forbidden to play with other children as well.) What kind of life would that be for our active little girl?

There were certain incidents which threw up new light and made Cynthia decide that putting Charmaine through chemo is the best option. I would think that Cynthia's decision would be prudent as she knows what's best for her daughter and I totally support her decision.

This is quite random but being the 10%-is-akin-to-0% chance Jolene that I am, I suddenly had a very strong conviction while having warm water running over my head. A conviction which tells me that miracles can happen. This conviction rang so clearly in my mind that I truly believe it's a sign.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Updates after the family conference at KK

In a nutshell, Charmaine would have:

- 10% chance of recovery after undergoing the strongest chemotherapy available
- 30% to 40% chance of recovery if surgery to remove the tumours and bone marrow transplant are performed after the chemotherapy

It does sound grim but on the bright side, Little Charmaine was so cheerful today. She didn’t throw any tantrum and she had her cute cheeky smile plastered on her face most of the time. She was clearly very happy and her mood had certainly changed ever since she was brought home.

I seriously think that the mind is a very powerful tool to control how one’s body would respond.

Guess what our princess said today with great determination?

"I want to fight the monster in my tummy!"

That's our feisty little girl!


Click here to read more.

I found a cute banner button specially made for little charmaine!

Feisty Char needs bullets to fight!

I dunno if I can reveal where I got this from. Anyway, I realise that the person who made it is a friend of my good friend. The relation to charmaine is so distant and I really appreciate this little act of creating a button for her. Thank you!

Edited to add:
Got the code!!!! Thanx Alvin! It's really uncanny to know that our degree of contact is actually not so distant! =)

Copy the HTML in your blog/website to show the badge:

<a href="http://ourfeistyprincess.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://shootingpixie.com/wp-content/themes/nishita/i/charbanner.jpg" alt="Feisty Char needs bullets to fight!" /></a>



Ok this is dumb coz I've disabled the right click function on my blog. Please get the code from Char's blog.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Waiting yet not willing for this day to come

Doctors have confirmed that char is at the 4th stage of neuroblastoma. =(

I'll be taking leave to accompany cyn and her bro for the family conference tomorrow. I wish to be well-informed about char's condition yet I dun wish to know all the negative aspects of it at the same time.

We really have to brace ourselves for tomorrow.

Please help us to pray for hope.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've just created a weblog for Charmaine @ http://ourfeistyprincess.blogspot.com

I can't believe I took half the day to do such an incomplete work. I'm a noob at IT stuff.

It's pretty raw and I've still got lots to add. Will do in time to come.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to raise funds for Charmaine's treatments. Do drop me an email or sms me if you are interested in donating. Please also click on the nuffnang ads on my blog and on char's weblog. All proceeds would go to char's funds.

Edited to add:
- Please help me to spread her blog link to people you know.
- The nuffnang ads on char's weblog is still not working as nuffnang requires some time to monitor the blog traffic before inputting clickable ads. Pls help to click the ads here instead. They're linked. Thank u very much.
- I really din expect the good response. An account would be set up soon. In the meantime, pls continue to inform me of your interest in helping cyn and char in any way. =)

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