Yuyu's Cancer Diary
December 27, 2009
| Hello From Tokyo | Views: 301 |
Just wanted to drop a line and say hello. I continue to think many of you. Especially, my thoughts and prayers go to Josi`s family.
I am here in my hometown (Tokyo, Japan) for the winter break. This is my first time coming home to Japan since my diagnosis/treatment. It is great to be back home with my family after what I went through for last 1.5 years. I will be staying here till first week of January, then, back to my normal life in California.
Please keep yourself warm, everyone. Have a great new year!
Love,
Yuyu
Have a wonderful time a tell us all about your Trip.
God Bless you and your family
Posted on How cool is that! Have a great time. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Mac
Posted on You do look great, It’s great that you have been able to be back with family, as you said, after all you have been through, I’m sure they are all a great comfort. You will have to place a “group post” to tell us all about your great trip”. Enjoy every minute, Love & Prayers, Patty
Posted on Yuyu—
I am so excited for you after hearing you are in Japan visiting your family! I hope you’re having a wonderful time and I’m sure everyone is so happy to see you looking so healthy! I know you are making many special memories with them. Please have a safe journey back home and let us know how your trip was when you return! Take care.
Hugs—
Martha
Posted on Dear YuYu; I just opened your email to find you in Japan! Isn’t it wonderful how life turns out. I would never have guessed that you would be with your family over Xmas. I am so happy you had this chance to surround yourself with family love. I don’t know what I would do without it. I saw the amazing firework display on New Year
s Eve in Japan and it was totally mind blowing. It put every other country to shame. I love the largeness of their thoughts. Ok, well when you return, I hope you will give us a peak at your ventures. Photos please! Safe journey back too. Happy New Year and throughout.
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December 4, 2009
| Hello! | Views: 367 |
Hi, everyone.
Just wanted to blog what I have been doing lately. Well, there are not much I am doing. I am working full-time, finished my Herceptin treatment, and taking Lupron and Tamoxifen. my life is returning to normal. I sometimes even forget that I went through a hell with chemo, surgery, radiation this year. Or, maybe subconsciously I don’t want to remember. The year is almost ending and I would say I am happy to finish this year and start fresh next year.
Suprisingly, I still have a port in my arm even though I am done with chemo and herceptin. When I ask my doctor why I need a port still, she said “just in case”. I guess because my type of cancer is aggresive and can recur quaickly, my doctor wants to wait and see. Same with breast reconstruction, reconstruction surgery is not going to be done anytime soon.
Other than that, I am starting to look forward to my future. I am a psychotherapist, and I am considering starting private practice. Life is short, and private practice is something I always wanted to do. So, I am preparing for this project. I am especially interested in providing psychotherapy to clients who are dealing and have dealt with cancer. I think being a cancer survivor, I can offer empathy and understanding to others who are going through it. I had my personal pscyhotherapist during my treatment and it helped me a lot. I want to help those who maybe feeling alone and scared as I was feeling during treatment.
Anyway, I continue to think many of you here even though I don’t post often. I can honestly say this place is my family.
Love,
Yuyu
Yuyu,
I am so happy to read your post. It sounds like you are doing wonderful and I’m so happy for you.
I think it’s a great idea to go into private practice and maybe specialize in cancer patients. I know I wouldn’t have made it through treatment without my therapist!
You go girl !
Loves,
Wendy
Posted on Yuyu—
How wonderful to hear from you and know that you are doing well. I’m glad that you are getting back to normal living and are only looking forward. I think you would be a great help to many people going through cancer. There’s nothing like firsthand experience to make one understand what it’s like. I think you should go for it! I wish you continued good health and success in your career. I hope you will come back here from time to time and let us know how you’re doing. Take care and God bless.
Martha
Hi YuYu, so nice to hear from you again and even nicer to hear that you are doing fantastic! My friends mom was ill for many years and she is now a social worker who works with families of patients with cancer. She has a special bond with her clients due to her life experiences, who better to understand what cancer does to a family than someone who has “been there, done that?” Best wishes with your future plans YuYu :) Lily
Posted on 
Posted on Glad to hear that you are doing well. Sounds like you have a good outlook for the future and I think you would be a great resource for cancer patients. Go get-um girl.
Yuyu:
Great to hear from you and that you are doing so well. I think that what you are considering, specializing in cancer patients, is fantastic! I meet every few weeks with a therapist that specializes in the same and though he has never had cancer, he does seem to understand where I’m coming from. I, however, do think that it would be easier with someone who had “been there, done that”.
My clinical trial nurse had breast cancer and was someone that I felt really understood my situation.
Anyway, glad you are moving forward and have a plan.
Please keep us updated on your progress.
Teresa
Posted on Hi Yuyu,
It is so good to hear from you and to see that things are moving in a positive, exciting direction for you.
Like you, I consider this site my family and it’s nice to hear from a “niece” lol.
Enjoy!
Posted on Hey YuYu, I wondered where you were hiding! In all your posts I never knew that you were a Psychotherapist? No wonder you handled your self so well throughout your treatment. I know this may sound strange, but with so many breast cancer survivors you would think that there would be a lot of people in your field, but perhaps there are few and far between. I can see your practice doing exceedingly well, particularly if you were aligned with a couple of hospitals that deal with cancer treatments. It is always hard at first to get a client base up and going and you know that once a person with cancer is more or less back to normal life patterns, you will be needing to find new clients. That’s with any business though. I’m sure you have researched it extensively and I for one wish I had someone with me durng my first year. It was scary and I never felt safe or even to this day, I find it hard to sleep. So YuYu, it is with happiness I am hearing you meet your calling, and one which would provide many a cancer patient, not just breast cancer, a chance to let their feelings flow, and having a person such as yourself be counselled. I just wish I was down in your area, because I know I could trust you to be candid and thoughtful.
Please try to keep us in the loop. It is always a surprise when someone reappears, a friend who means a lot. I hope your family is well and that you have come to a gentler place in life. All great blessings over the Xmas holidays. Weezie
Fantastic News! Way to go Yuyu. I love that you are giving back. ;-) You deserve the best sweetie.
Posted on Hey YuYu
I am so glad that things are getting back to normal. I am hitting my 5 yr ca free Dec 16 2004…date…it all seems like a dream and I go months now without thinking about the fact that I used to have cancer. I think you should go into private practice…since cancer, I have started my own billing business, and I play guitar in a reggae band with my 19 and 20 year old kids…a dream of mine that would have NEVER been realized if I didn’t have cancer….so go live a great life YuYu YOU deserve it girl! Stay RAsta Sharon
Hello Yuyu,
What great news. I am so happy that everything is stable for you and you can concentrate on your career. Personally, on top of everything you have to offer with your own experiences it seems that you have certainly found your calling and others will greatly benefit from your treatments that you have had to encounter. Best of luck, Patty
November 2, 2009
| Is it Tamoxifen or menopausal Symptom? | Views: 716 |
Hi, Everyone!
I have not blogged for a little while, but I do come here often to see how everyone is doing. I continue to think of and pray for a lot of my friends here. By the way, have anyone heard from Brad? I hope he is doing okay.
I have been somewhat deeply depressed for last few months. I don’t know why. I think it is biological, maybe due to Tamoxifen. My oncologist increased my Tamoxifen to 40 mg a few months back, and ever since then, I am feeling depressed and tired (not to mention my terrible constipation). The tricky thing about Tamoxifen is that you cannot be on most of antidepressants when you are on Tamoxifen due to metabolism issues.
My oncologist thinks that Tamoxifen isn’t doing much for me anyway. I started receiving Lupron this month to shut down my ovaries (thus to decrease production of Estrogen). So, hopefully, I can say bye-bye to Tamoxifen, and depression, and get on another type of drugs that is more tolerable.
Just wanted to say hi to all my friends here, I am doing okay!
Love,
Yuyu
Is it Tamoxifen or menopausal Symptom?, 
8 comments)
Yuyu—
It’s so good to hear from you! I hope the new drug will treat you better than the Tamoxifen and that your depression will lift. Unfortunately, depression seems to be a common side-effect of cancer, whether it’s medication induced or not. Just hang in there and you are going to be okay!
Take care and keep us posted on how things are going. You remain in my thoughts and prayers.
Hugs—
Martha
Hi YuYu
I am so glad to see that you are doing well. Although I don’t comment much, I started coming to this blog right around when you were first dx. So it is nice to see that you made it thru…I knew you would for some reason! I was wondering about Brad as well….and been praying extra hard for Cheryl and Sonia…as we all are….take good care YuYu
God Bless and Stay Rasta
Dear Yuyu,
I am so glad to hear that you are doing well! Yeah, the tamoxifen can make some people depressed and tired. It gives you the symptoms of menopause without the actual menopause (how nice…). But if you are also on a med to shut down your ovaries, it could be real menopause causing your symptoms. I don’t know if there’s any way to really know.
Either way, I hope going off Tamoxifen helps and that you feel better and better every day. Take care, dear one.
Peace,
Kathy
Posted on Dear YuYu what a pleasant surprise to hear from you at last. I was wondering what happened to you? Now I know. I haven’t seen any posts from Brad for a while. Just click on his blog to see his last post. I don’t have any history with Tamoxifen but I do with Arimidex. I heard a rumour that they were going to dump the Tamoxifen because of its’ side effects being quite unruly. Everyone who was getting hormorne shutdown was supposed to received arimidex but I see they have chosen another drug of their choice. I hope it works more actively without those depression bouts. I kind of agree with Martha. Having cancer is damned depressing in and of itself. How does one stop thinking about it, especially at nighttime? I really haven’t mastered that one. I am always tired, mentally and that makes my body sluggish. Perhaps I need an exercise class?/// hmmmm. Keep on fighting YuYu, I know you can lick this. You have been through so much, my thoughts and prayers are always with you.
Take care friend.
So gald things are going okay for you…i pray for you often and myself think about brad all the time…i think he posted something about a month ago
Posted on Luvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
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Thanks for your support -