1 PAGE REPORT OF MY CANCER JOURNEY

James Oh, Chinese, Age 56, Stomach cancer – diagnosed in with Stage 3 on 1 August 2017.

I am James Oh, happily married with 3 loving children. I work in an organisation named 'Lift you up' which aims to help people to be the master of their mind.

Since June 2017, I constantly had episodes of stomach discomforts and bloatedness. It felt like there are lots of wind in the stomach which caused me to burp. I consulted my family doctor but he assured me that it was nothing serious. He then prescribed gastric reflux medication and I took it for nearly one month. However, the symptoms worsened and I was losing my appetite and was feeling lethargic all the time. My daughter urged me to go for an endoscopy which I finally did on July 24. A week later the gastroenterologist confirmed that I have stomach cancer.

The endoscopy showed that I had a 6cm tumour located at the bottom of my stomach and covered part of the colon making it difficult for food to pass through. This explained the bloatedness that I felt for months. A CT Scan and MRI was done. It was now very urgent for me to find a surgeon to remove the tumour. I had to 'shop' for a surgeon. After consulting two surgeons, I decided to have the operation done at Gleneagles KL where the surgeon removed 60% of my stomach, part of the pancreas and 14 lymph nodes out of which 3 were cancerous.

After the surgery, I then have to 'shop" for an oncologist. After looking and asking around, I decided to have my chemotherapy done at UMSC private wing. He recommended 6 to 8 rounds of chemotherapy at 3 weeks intervals.

My first chemotherapy started on Sept 19. The drip caused numbness in my arm. I had nausea and vomiting as well as lost 3kg of weight. I felt so terrible and felt like giving up. I then seek help from Hospice. They came and gave me some steroid injections which brought immediate relief and lessen my sufferings. My next 2 treatments went smoothly. However, for my 4th treatment, my oncologist decided to increase my dosage since I was coping well. I also experienced heavy bleeding when I passed motion (black stools). This is due to a reduction in the platelet count as a result of chemotherapy. To counteract this, my surgeon put me on supplement (Fybogel).

To me, everything happened for a reason. I accepted it as God's will for me. I know that God will give me the strength and blessings to see me get through this ordeal. My faith in God has not wavered but has strengthened in this adversary. PTL

Do not fear Cancer. Overcome it with God's mercy. It also affirms that cancer cannot cripple love, cannot shatter hope, cannot corrode faith, if you decide to choose it as an inspiration as I did.