Getting by on faith
By Cheah Ui-Hoon
FORWARD planning and faith are what Gerard Ee reckons helped him to cope with his colon cancer. 'Life is a continuum and involves a lot of forward planning - that enabled me to decide on my operation with absolute calm,' he shares. 'And then there's my faith in God which gives me an unusual advantage over others, I guess.'
Mr Ee, a former accountant and affectionately known as Mr Charity, was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer, with a tumour almost as big as a tennis ball, last year. He recently shared about his cancer because he wanted people to plan for, and talk more openly, about death.
In fact, if he'd heeded his own advice, he would have gone for a colonoscopy when he turned 50, the 59-year-old shares. 'Colon cancer starts off with polyps and tests are recommended for those after 50, as that's when you begin to run the risk of developing polyps.' On top of that, his family has a history of cancer - his father died of liver cancer.
He first realised something wasn't right due to his habit of checking his stools. 'It's funny, but this is what I remember from the movie The Last Emperor. In the opening scene, the physician was examining the emperor's stools, and this is one way to tell a person's health.'
He noticed that his stools were pudding-like, and that lasted for over a week, which prompted for him to go for a check-up. 'Before that, I'd occasionally have stomach cramps but I would just use minyak kayu (medicated oil) and the cramps would go away so I didn't think twice about it,' he recalls.
When his test came back positive, Mr Ee didn't lose sleep over his scheduled operation. 'There are only two outcomes . . . if I didn't wake up from it, then I had to make sure I had my will, and my wife knew where all the important documents like the insurance policies were.'
His operation took over four hours, and he was in hospital for seven days. 'I have a high threshold for pain, so by the third day, I asked to be taken off morphine. The day after, the drip.' By the fifth day, he was forcing himself to walk around the ward, as advised by his therapist.
'When I first started walking, it was as if my whole stomach was moving around!' he describes. Mr Ee had had two feet of his large intestine removed and part of his small intestine.
Recovery was swift. After a week, two friends brought him his favourite wantan mee from Tembeling Road. 'Yes, I was pushing the boundaries a bit!' he confesses. By the third week, he started attending meetings, but because he got tired easily he only worked half days. Two months after his operation, he started chemotherapy, once every two weeks which lasted for three days each time.
After 12 sessions, Mr Ee has been given the all-clear. 'I'll have another colonoscopy and a CT scan in December.'
Mr Ee's decision after learning about his cancer was to live life as normally as possible, which is why he continued his duties as chairman of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and Public Transport Council, and chairman for Council for Third Age, an active ageing advocate group.
'If I'm recovered, then I'm recovered. Life should go back to normal.'
He has however become more prudent with his diet. 'I restrict myself to wantan mee to Saturdays only. And chilli crab no more than once a month.'
One side effect of the chemotherapy has been numbness in his fingers and toes, but he consulted a Chinese physician at Eu Yan Sang clinic who prescribed herbs to get rid of toxins. 'It's helped as my toes are back to normal, just my fingers are still a bit numb.'
Hives is another, but for that, he just pops an antihistamine.
He feels that the tai chi exercises that he started 20 years ago have helped. 'It's really boosted my resistance. Any kind of 'qi' exercises will help,' he says.
He has also started juicing. I use the Vita-Mix machine and my juice mixtures includes beetroot, brussel sprouts, carrot, tomato, celery,' he says.
Mr Ee used to be a coffee drinker but his one week stay in hospital weaned him off it. Now he stocks up on Japanese green tea, and he plants his own lemongrass to boil as tea. 'Lemongrass has chemicals to kill cancer cells, I understand.' He also has homegrown aloe vera, which he cuts into cubes to add to boiled dried longan and red dates as a dessert.
Death should be just another event in life, he recaps. 'If you plan for it, and talk about it, it becomes more meaningful. It also helps your loved ones to know what to do after you pass on. My own father had told us that we were to mourn for him for only seven days, and that relieved the burden on us,' he says.
'Don't wait till you fall sick before you plan, because how do you make decisions when you're in pain? Why wait until that moment?' he points out.
The Life Before Death campaign launched by the Lien Foundation has seen more than 80 people responding to the call to break the taboo surrounding death. Some have been interviewed for a series of stories on the website www. lifebeforedeath.sg
By Cheah Ui-Hoon
FORWARD planning and faith are what Gerard Ee reckons helped him to cope with his colon cancer. 'Life is a continuum and involves a lot of forward planning - that enabled me to decide on my operation with absolute calm,' he shares. 'And then there's my faith in God which gives me an unusual advantage over others, I guess.'
Mr Ee, a former accountant and affectionately known as Mr Charity, was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer, with a tumour almost as big as a tennis ball, last year. He recently shared about his cancer because he wanted people to plan for, and talk more openly, about death.
In fact, if he'd heeded his own advice, he would have gone for a colonoscopy when he turned 50, the 59-year-old shares. 'Colon cancer starts off with polyps and tests are recommended for those after 50, as that's when you begin to run the risk of developing polyps.' On top of that, his family has a history of cancer - his father died of liver cancer.
He first realised something wasn't right due to his habit of checking his stools. 'It's funny, but this is what I remember from the movie The Last Emperor. In the opening scene, the physician was examining the emperor's stools, and this is one way to tell a person's health.'
He noticed that his stools were pudding-like, and that lasted for over a week, which prompted for him to go for a check-up. 'Before that, I'd occasionally have stomach cramps but I would just use minyak kayu (medicated oil) and the cramps would go away so I didn't think twice about it,' he recalls.
When his test came back positive, Mr Ee didn't lose sleep over his scheduled operation. 'There are only two outcomes . . . if I didn't wake up from it, then I had to make sure I had my will, and my wife knew where all the important documents like the insurance policies were.'
His operation took over four hours, and he was in hospital for seven days. 'I have a high threshold for pain, so by the third day, I asked to be taken off morphine. The day after, the drip.' By the fifth day, he was forcing himself to walk around the ward, as advised by his therapist.
'When I first started walking, it was as if my whole stomach was moving around!' he describes. Mr Ee had had two feet of his large intestine removed and part of his small intestine.
Recovery was swift. After a week, two friends brought him his favourite wantan mee from Tembeling Road. 'Yes, I was pushing the boundaries a bit!' he confesses. By the third week, he started attending meetings, but because he got tired easily he only worked half days. Two months after his operation, he started chemotherapy, once every two weeks which lasted for three days each time.
After 12 sessions, Mr Ee has been given the all-clear. 'I'll have another colonoscopy and a CT scan in December.'
Mr Ee's decision after learning about his cancer was to live life as normally as possible, which is why he continued his duties as chairman of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and Public Transport Council, and chairman for Council for Third Age, an active ageing advocate group.
'If I'm recovered, then I'm recovered. Life should go back to normal.'
He has however become more prudent with his diet. 'I restrict myself to wantan mee to Saturdays only. And chilli crab no more than once a month.'
One side effect of the chemotherapy has been numbness in his fingers and toes, but he consulted a Chinese physician at Eu Yan Sang clinic who prescribed herbs to get rid of toxins. 'It's helped as my toes are back to normal, just my fingers are still a bit numb.'
Hives is another, but for that, he just pops an antihistamine.
He feels that the tai chi exercises that he started 20 years ago have helped. 'It's really boosted my resistance. Any kind of 'qi' exercises will help,' he says.
He has also started juicing. I use the Vita-Mix machine and my juice mixtures includes beetroot, brussel sprouts, carrot, tomato, celery,' he says.
Mr Ee used to be a coffee drinker but his one week stay in hospital weaned him off it. Now he stocks up on Japanese green tea, and he plants his own lemongrass to boil as tea. 'Lemongrass has chemicals to kill cancer cells, I understand.' He also has homegrown aloe vera, which he cuts into cubes to add to boiled dried longan and red dates as a dessert.
Death should be just another event in life, he recaps. 'If you plan for it, and talk about it, it becomes more meaningful. It also helps your loved ones to know what to do after you pass on. My own father had told us that we were to mourn for him for only seven days, and that relieved the burden on us,' he says.
'Don't wait till you fall sick before you plan, because how do you make decisions when you're in pain? Why wait until that moment?' he points out.
The Life Before Death campaign launched by the Lien Foundation has seen more than 80 people responding to the call to break the taboo surrounding death. Some have been interviewed for a series of stories on the website www. lifebeforedeath.sg
