Day +35 - History

I am fine today, managed to jog for about 10 minutes follow 30 minutes walk. Feel more energetic. Like to share how I was detected for Lymphoma.

Beginning of March, I have fever failed to subside, and blood test show it was likely due to Dengi ( Low platelet), I admitted 3 days in Columbia Hospital ( from 13 March to 15 March), Bandar Puteri Puchong. However the Dengi test is negative. Physician refer me SJMC and suspect it may be Lymphoma or TB. As I still have fever, again, I admitted to SJMC from 18 March to 28 March 2008. The bone marrow test results was out on 24 March 2008.The doctor told me that I had Lymphoma, Non Hogkin's, Stage 4. The doctor also said that my type of Lymphoma is curable. He then explained to me how they were going to treat me and the risk involved in the treatment.When I got this results, I know my family and I were going to face another crisis. I had been through number of crises in life, mostly related to my family members, but this time it directly involved me and the bone marrow test result again confirmed this.The first reaction came to everyone mind was, “Why I get this disease?” The doctor said the exact cause of lymphoma remain unknown. we know very little about the cause of Lymphoma apart from exposure to certain chemical in insecticides and wood preserving materials. Lymphoma are not contagious and can not passed down through families.

No one was satisfied with this answer, so everyone started to speculate how this disease developed.
“It must be your diet…” to them all diseases are due to food.
“It must be the computer…” because I worked in front of computer many hours a day.
“It must be the hand pone…” they suspected electromagnetic field is the culprit.
“It must be you work stress …” because I worked to meet sales target
“It must be you lack of exercise…” those who believed the body would secrete toxin through sweating.
“It must be due to accumulation of toxin in your body” those who believed some form of detoxification can prevent or cure all diseases.

Suddenly I was surrounded by a group of experts who know the causes of the Lymphoma than anyone else. I started to wonder how they could be more expert than the doctors and specialist. The first reason is the establishment of a lot of Multilevel Marketing (MLM) companies that sell magic products that claimed to kill all birds with one stone. The best strategy to sell the products is to tell you that your body accumulated too much toxins, it is too dangerous if you don't detoxify your body with their products. Driven by the dream of becoming financial independence within a short period of time and the promise of enjoying continuous effortless income for the generations to come, the MLM agents will penetrate every level of societies with the concept of body toxification and the necessity of detoxification. The 2nd reason is due to some very good public speakers who advocate natural therapy or alternative medicine, who always find their way into mass media to propagate their ideas.
I believe many of the concepts are very helpful to maintain a healthy living. But we also cannot take everything that they advocate as absolutely true as most of them claimed. As a patient who is just diagnosed with illness and struggling to accept the reality, expert ideas like these do not in any mean help. It only brings more confusion. I believe I am not the only one who encountered this. Others also experience this.