After being hospitalized for about 2 weeks and given several blood transfusions and albumin shots, dad finally passed away at 2am local time. It was close to 24 months since the first diagnosis. I'm gonna miss you so much dad... Please wait for my last hugs and kisses. I'm still 9 hour away...

Dad's electrolyte started to climb up. They're still below normal but started getting closer (122 Sodium, 2.6 Potasium, 84 Chloride). On the other hand, his Albumin was as low as 2.4 (normal range is 3.5 - 5.0). He was given the first of three Albumin IV today. He's still receiving food via the tube in his nose. Dad was finally sent home on 23 Oct with the tube still attached on his nose to receive food.

Dad got weaker and weaker. He was hospitalized on 9 Oct. His blood test on the next day showed low electrolyte (109.0 Sodium, 3.0 Potasium, 68.0 Chloride). Another blood test was done on 14 Oct and it didn't show any improvement (107.0 Sodium, 3.0 Potasium). He started receiving food via tubes going through his nose that made him feel a little better. He somewhat lost some part of his memory but still recognized people surrounding sometimes. Doctor finally said that there is no point trying to cure the cancer anymore. We were advised to keep dad's quality of life as much as we can.

Dad was taken back to the Hospital due to low on electrolyte. He stopped using the Catheter when he was at the hospital. Dad was later sent home on 28 Sep. Dad mentioned that his bone pain had been reduced significantly since the last week's shots. We're hoping that it's real.

Dad got some injections from a Neurologist to help his bone pain. It helped since he hasn't mentioned anything related to bone pain in the past day. However, he got the same problem like before that he wasn't able to pass urine. After 20 hours or so, his body was a sweaty and cold. He was back to the Emergency Room, got the Catheter installed and went home with it.

Dad's bone pain got even worse and we finally got him a very strong pain killer from a friend, who is a dentist. The pain killer helped only a bit but that caused dad couldn't pass urine for more than a day. He was later taken to the Emergency Room again to have a Catheter installed. Dad stayed in the hospital for several days and on 15 Aug got another chemotherapy treatment with Avastin, Gemzar and Cisplatin.

Dad's pain on the back bone got worse. He took another Bondronate shots.

Dad went through another chemotherapy. This time with Avastin, Gemzar, Cisplatin, Navoban and Bondronate. On 26 Jun, dad was brought in to the Emergency Room again due to a low electrolyte. Dad stayed in the hospital until 1 Jul.

Dad has been experiencing some pains on his back. The doctor used to say that it was due to the remaining cancer in his body that put some pressure to his nerves, so the pain goes all the way to his feet. He tried to take some pain killers in the past few days but it didn't help. He finally asked to see the nerve specialist that he saw several months ago. The specialist suggested dad take a bone scan. Dad did the test on 11 Jun 2008. His next chemotherapy should have been this week but it's now postponed to next week due to other reason.

Dad went through the chemotherapy with Gemzar and Cisplatin. On 24 May, dad mentioned that this chemotherapy seemed to be stronger than the one last year. That contradicted with what the doctor told us about Gemzar.

Dad's chemotherapy was postponed from 10 May to 11 May due to his EKG result didn't show good result. The doctor also worried that dad took two kinds of hypertensy medicines in the past, but decided to give him a green light for the chemotherapy anyway. The chemotherapy cycle is monthly, a day each, 6 times.

Dad stopped taking tarceva after 10 days. He started getting the side effects, such as redness/dryness on his face and diarrhea. Doctor finally agreed to stop tarceva and suggested Cisplatin + Gemzar, scheduled for 6 May 2008 in order to wait for the tarceva's side effects to go away. The doctor refused to give CPT11 or Taxol since they had much stronger side effect.

Dad started getting some breathing problem due to the relapsed cancer. Doctor gave him oral chemotherapy for 10 days and see how it goes. It's interesting since Tarceva is proven effective only to Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). According to the other doctor, Tarceva's effect on SCLC is not that impressive.

The xray was taken a week after the second thoracentesis.

The xray were taken before the thoracentesis #2. Another 600cc of fluid was drained off of his lung.

Before fluid draining #1

Draining fluid in the lung, 1.1 liter with 100-200cc remaining in the lung. They had to stop because dad had already started coughing. The fluid is somewhat red, mixed with blood and the doctor was convinced that it's caused by an active cancer.

8 months after chemotherapy #5

CT scan

7 months after chemotherapy #5

Hospitalized due to pneumonia (lung infection)

After radiation #17

Before chemotherapy #2

CT-brain

Needle biopsy

PET Scan

Transthoracic Needle Biopsy (TTB) result stated inconclusive atypic cell suspected malignancy. After 10 days, the doctor finally confirmed that it was a Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC).

Post bronchoscopy, dad became significantly weaker. Each time he tried to eat, he threw it up right away. After 2 days, he went to the Emergency Room and was hospitalized for 3 days to get some infusion.

Dad took bronchoscopy test. The result didn't show anything useful. Prior to the test, dad was asked to fast for about 12 hours. In the next few days, dad became weaker and weaker. Each time he tried to eat, he threw it up right away.

CT-scan result shows thickness on the left lung.

Dad went to see a Heart Specialist as recommended by the family doctor at his last visit. The EHO test result was good. Dad was also asked to run on a treadmill for 2 minutes but failed half way. His xray result showed significant thickness on his left lung. The doctor stated that this must be a lung cancer stage 3B at the least.

Dad went to see a senior Nerve Specialist. He confirmed the narrowed nerves around dad's vertebrae, but against surgery as the solution to this. He gave dad a prescription and stated that 9 out of his 10 patients were cured with this medicine. Dad started taking this.

MRI result showed some nerves around the vertebrae that got narrowed. The Nerve Specialist mentioned that surgery could be the only option.

Electrocardiogram (EKG/ECG) test result showed that everything seemed normal.

In the past 2 months, dad has been experiencing occasional pain on his vertebrae. He visited his regular family doctor and was recommended to see an internist.