Vegetarian for a month.

I am vegetarian for a month of Purattasi (tamil calendar month) which started on 18 September 2007 and will end on mid of October 2007. This month is considered a very auspicious month by the Tamilians and special prayers are offered to Lord Venketeswara.

All of us in the family are vegetarians and stick to strict vegetarian diets. We not even consumer any food that has traces of egg.

Special prayers are held on Saturdays at home and after the prayer we all have a authentic
meal served on banana leave.

Although on vegetarian diet, I have never lost weight during this month…because I am hungry often and end up munching a lot.

That is why I went on Sunday to the Pasar Ramadan in my neighbourhood and indulged on variety of traditional malay delicious. This included my all time favourite chicken satay and popiah basah among other things. The food looked oily but what the heck it has been some time I had all these items.

I don’t know about other survivors but I think I am loosing control of my so called planned diet of less sugar, fat and oil. I admire those who have cut down on these and have the discipline to follow their strict diet. I have not been taking my fruit + vegetarians juices.

Sometime I reminder myself about the diet sometimes I tell myself what the heck!

Breast Health Trainer’s Workshop

I attended the Breast Health Trainer’s Workshop at Johnson and Johnson Medical Malaysia, Wisma Zuellig last Saturday. Supporting partners for this workshop were, Johnson and Johnson Medical, College of Radiology and BCWA.

The workshop was conducted by Dr Evelyn Ho, President of the College of Radiology, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia. About 30-40 women attended this workshop. She gave a comprehensive presentation on various topics. The session started of by everyone introducing themselves. Then I found out there were ladies (who are volunteers) from the Breast Cancer Support Society Kluang, Breast Cancer Support group from Segamat and the rest of us survivors from BCWA. When it came to my turn for introduction, I said I had my own blog. And was I surprised when a lady from Segamat said she had read my blog and left a comment. Wow! Then I discovered it was Maria who left a comment on my previous blog. What a small world it is!

The workshop started as 2.30 pm and ended at 6 pm. The workshop covered a spectrum of topics of breast anatomy, breast self examination, support and counseling. The topics also touched on symptom, diagnosis, screening and testing. I came across mammography tomosynthesis which is being tested in some centres in Malaysia.
Towards the end of the session, we were all divided into groups to test our skill if we were to present a breast self examination talk in front of a group of women.

Breast models with other brochures and postures were handed over to the support groups from Segamat and Kluang. I must take my hats off for these ladies who came all the way from Johor in their learning new skill to be better volunteers and support providers.

Well I look some pictures, which as usual will post later!

I got a call from my friend over the weekend wanting to know whether I was alright as she has not seen a new posting for almost 2 weeks. Oops!looks like a lot people are there to monitor whether I am actively blogging!

My mother celebrated her 63th birthday early this month. Suddenly birthdays have become a must celebrate event for us and not to let it pass without being noticed.

I had time to catch of with another friend of mine who is also a survivor. She has not joined any support group but in her own way she is giving back to society. She give support to others who are diagnosis with cancer referred by family, friends, colleagues or people her neighbourhood. Giving back to society is important and it can be done it so many ways.