Last week, we saw a neurosurgeon to get fitted with a brace to help stabilize my spine.  It’s not the most comfortable, and quite hot to wear while walking around outside.  But the doc said it’s a good idea to wear it for 2 months after radiation, since the radiation therapy, while it helped shrink the size of the tumors, also weakened the bone structure.  The radiation therapy definitely helped reduce the back pain level quite a bit.  But it is only treating the symptoms, the risk of spinal cord compression still exists if the tumor grows back.  You can see what the brace looked like here. (That was me trying to sing the star wars music that was played every time the storm troopers march out, but I failed)…

I’m scheduled for a bone biopsy on Aug 25 (this Thurs).  The radiologist is considering taking tissues out from either somewhere in the hip bone or the lower T-spine area that is not yet impacted by radiation.  The tissue from the biopsy will be tested and results will be ready in about 1 week.  We’ll see the oncologist on Sept 1 to decide on the treatment plan.

Last week, Koh-Peng, Siang’s good friend (best man at our wedding) stopped by to see us.  He was in China for a business trip and took a side trip to Seoul to visit us.  It was nice to see him and particularly good for Siang I think.   In many ways, being the patient is easier than being the care-giver.  Siang was feeling a little under the weather.  He probably is more stressed than me.  Siang’s sister and brother in law are this coming weekend.  We also have another friend (who’s based out of HK), who will be here for a job interview at my company later this week.  I hope I’ll feel good after biopsy to see him as well.

I went back to the office this week, just to work briefly in the morning.  At first, I was hesitant about going back to the office, but it actually felt really good to have “normal” social interactions and to work on something unrelated to my disease.

I am quite nervous about the biopsy.  The last two times, biopsy were taken from the breasts, which were just globs of fat.  Bone biopsy sounds so much more intrusive and scary. Please pray for more courage and peace, for a smooth procedure, for the test results to be accurate and for good prognostic factors.

Thank you!