A New Beginning

We've been deliberating over doing this for way way way tooooo long, and today we've decided to stop procrastinating and begin journaling about our journey together over the last 6 years. We've always thought that Blogging was for the young and restless...but not so. Blogging is certainly a good outlet not only for ourselves, but in this respect for our friends and the community at large. So much can be learnt from other's experiences.

Journey of Faith is aptly titled because Joanne was initially diagnosed with Stage 2 Nasopharyngeal Cancer (aka NPC, find out more about this here http://www.nccs.com.sg/cedu/pt_04_5j.htm) shortly after our marriage in Nov 2000.

In Jan 2004, after our trip to KL to visit my eldest aunt who passed away, she began to complain of strange pains on her right abdomen and shoulder area. We thought this was just another muscle ache, sprain etc...after all how could Jo get any aches since she hardly exercised? Ok forgive me dear, I just had to. :)

However, the pain was relentless and was severe enough to prevent her from sleeping properly. She couldn't lie on her back but only on her left side. Taking a deep breath, coughing, sneezing and even laughing was painful...this was horrifying. What could this be? Then on Feb 5 we went to Mount Alvernia hospital for an ultrasound and X-ray on the advice of our doc friend (CS). The nurses on receiving the results and scans had a strange look on their faces that I'll never forget till this day. I immediately opened the envelope to try to make sense of what was going on. When I saw the word "metastasis" and further confirmed it with CS in the car - I did all I could to hold back my tears.

Jo knew and realised what that meant too...obviously.