Daddy's latest menu

I haven't had time to take much photos of daddy these days.

Our family Dr's sister-in-law introduced an Acupuncturist to us. My mum brought my dad there yesterday. According to the Acupuncturist my dad has a lot of wind in his belly. Also agreed that he is lack of energy & nutrition. So she performed acupuncture on daddy and gave him some chinese herbal medicine & supplement. Her herbal medicine and supplement can be taken together with the western medicine.

Today is daddy's second day taking the herbal remedy. My dad started talking more yesterday. He could also talk to us about life, which is an improvement because he could hardly finish a sentence before he started this herbal remedy.

Daddy's daily food: Herbal Life ShapeWorks & Enercal.

Herbal Life provides the protein and Enercal provides the calories that he needs to rebuild his energy level.

Chinese Herbal Supplement.

My dad didn't find it difficult to swallow this. It's interesting because he finds it very hard to swallow anything even water.

Chinese Herbal Medicine
To be taken 3 times daily, every 4 hours.

He will never walk alone!
Spot that Liverpool logo? :) Daddy look a lot better today.

He is improving day by day even though he doesn't notice it himself. As care takers, we notice his improvement. So we only ask for you to pray for him to continue to be blessed with the strength to overcome this stage.

What will help him?

My dad has been home since last Thursday. Is he better?
If you ask him, he'll say "Nope. It's still there."
If you ask me, "Yes, his abdominal area is smaller."

I'm not saying things just to please/comfort him or anyone that is reading my blog. My family & I and the Dr do think that his abdominal area is getting smaller.

However, as the patient himself, he would probably tell you that he is good only when his stomach is flat. I don't blame him cause he is the one with the pain, not us.

We haven't lost hope in searching for something that might just help him. My mum has been looking out for herbal remedies. My sister & I researching online to see what are the things that my dad can do to make his pain go away. The Drs are helping him. One by motivating him, the other going all out to look for alternative remedies.

One of the things that I find that my dad not doing is doing something to occupy his mind. I asked him "Would you like to do something?"
Then he said "I don't feel like doing what I want to do."
It saddens me that the pain got to him faster that we can save him. So we could only tell him to keep talking to God. That is the only thing that he is doing every day and every time that he feels uncomfortable.

I'm now looking for previous Ascites patients. If there is anyone you know that has had Ascites, could you kindly ask them to share their success story? So that we may be able to convey the message to my dad. To tell him that patience is all he need. And perhaps the success story comes with a remedy that we could use it on my dad.

What else can help him keep his mind off the pain?
We are asking him to read books. Go online. Do what he likes to do at home. (However, his concentration level is not that high at the moment.)

Any suggestions on how we can help my dad?

Heal Me O Lord

My dad is currently having trouble with Ascites. Dr did a CT Scan, X-ray, Blood test for cancer markers & normal blood test- all the results were good.

My dad finds battling ascites tougher than cancer. My only encouragement for him is to pray. Keep praying and lay all his burden on God. I played him a song titled "Heal Me O Lord" yesterday. He fell in love with it. Even asked my sister to sing it when I'm not around. 

Today I heard my dad sing along as the song was played on my Ipod, it truly touched me. I could feel how much he's asking God to heal him, to save him and how much he praise God. He kept singing it til the song ended. 

We are looking for external remedies that could help him remove fluid from his lower abdominal area without having to consume anything. If anyone following my blog knows a solution that we could try, do not hesitate to drop me a comment.

It is painful to see him in such a situation but we have been very strong. At this situation, my dad is still being himself, protective of us. He kept asking whether we are tired, whether we are suffering. I guess his natural instinct is to protect us, so he can't help but think that we are in "pain". So we'll have to reassure him that we are doing good. We have faith in God and him. We know that our hard work will some how be fruitful soon. :)

I believe strongly in the power of prayer. Therefore, I would like to use my blog to ask everyone to pray for my dad.

To everyone reading this, let's pray together tomorrow (14th April 2009) at 3pm, for my dad to be healed, to be blessed with the strength to fight ascites and for him to be blessed with an open heart.

I would like to thank you all in advance for your prayers and love. May God Bless you. 

"Heal daddy O Lord and he will be healed. Save him and he will be saved. Heal daddy O lord and he will be healed. You are the one that he praise."

Happy Easter!

Our priests told us to rise from Good Friday and welcome Easter Sunday.

May everyone rise from your sufferings & past. :)

Have a Happy Easter! :)

When the going gets tough..

The tough gets going. (If only it's as easy done as said.)

My dad started taking walks last night. It's a progress! :)

My dad is still having discomfort from the surgery. When he tells us about it, I could sense the discomfort that he is feeling. I may not understand how it feels but looking at him this way, makes me wish that I have magic hands that I could just remove those fluid immediately.

A thought came to my mind today as I was massaging my dad's feet.

My thought "my appendicitis surgery is no big deal." I went through an amount of pain for 2 weeks after the surgery but the length of the scar that was left on my body is 10 times smaller than what my dad has. So he will have to be patient with himself as it will probably take 10 times longer to heal from the surgery.

All I could do is to motivate him to fight this one last battle as he fought the other battles with a brave heart. He is progressing day by day as my sister reads his charts. Everyday he has more output than input and that's very good news! Daddy is a strong man! :)

You must be wondering.. 

"Output more than input=losing more weight? How can it be good news?"

Yes it is good news. As my dad loses weight, he's losing the fluid. That would mean he is progressing. He has to take a huge amount of protein to be able to stop those fluid from coming back and the injection & pills will do the work for removing the fluid.

Complicated huh? Bottom line is that he must lose weight and boost up his protein level.

Today is Good Friday and it always rains on Good Friday. I like to call it the shower of blessings from Heaven. :)

My sister would be baptized tomorrow during the Easter Vigil at Kristus Aman Chapel. I can see that she is very excited. I am very happy for her as she will begin her journey as a Catholic. 

As we celebrate Easter, my dad would always be on my mind. I'll keep him in my prayers and may God use his healing ways to help daddy take away all the discomfort. 

Quick update

I'm sure many of my blog followers have been disappointed not to see any new post every time they view my blog.

Firstly, I would like to apologize for the lack of updates. I have been busy lately. By the time I got home, all I want to do is snooze. :)

My dad was hospitalized on Saturday because his discomfort at the lower abdominal area was just too much for him. My mum insisted him to admit himself to the hospital. My dad obliged because he felt that it would be less tiring for everyone. My mum is currently staying with my dad to keep him company.

In case you guys are panicking, my dad is in good health! :)

Dr gave him injection to remove his fluid through urination. So far it's working. Dr also did a CT scan & x-ray on daddy. The results came out good. Daddy is in good health and in good hands. :)

The fluid in his lower abdominal area is expected as the Dr says because usually after a major surgery like this, it will happen. This is just part of the recovery from surgery. We'll have to wait and see when he will be discharged. The dietician also gave him a new set of diet and suggested the timing for him to eat. My dad will have to "take control" of his intestine and train it to eat at specific times.

My mum is also better emotionally. She has been very strong and I don't blame her for breaking down once in a while. My mum is indeed a strong wife. :)

I thank God for answering our prayers. Thank you all for keeping him in your daily prayer. May God bless you and your loved ones.

Let's continue to pray for my dad. :) 

A spoonful of ice cream helps the medicine go down..

My dad have to take this awful tasting medicine every day. (Well, I've never tasted it but from his expression, I know that the taste must be very awful.)

Well, in order to recover from the surgery, he has to take it. He was eyeing the ice creams in the fridge. He came up with a new idea! One spoonful of medicine, one teaspoonful of ice cream! YUMMM! :)

Daddy making a sad face when he's about to eat the medicine.

With the big smile, you know what he's going to have next! 

My mum warned him that he is only allowed to have one teaspoonful!

Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

The medicine go down-wown

The medicine go down

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

In a most delightful way...

:)