2. Tougher life in 2011

My benign brain tumor, diagnosed as a very rare benign tumor called epidermoid, has been very slow growing since it was first dagnosed in 1997.. By pressing against nerves emerging from the bottom of my my brain, this tumor gives me damaging symptoms that have also been worsening slowly... BUT by 2009, the pace of tumor symptom damages has worsen faster than in previous years.. Until then, the worse of the symptom damages is the inability of my right eyeball to rotate in coordination with the left eyeball to focus on the object in front that I wanted to see.. But by 2010, my right eyeball had stopped rotating left and right.. This means I cannot judge distance as I have lost my bifocal ability.. This is more than a daily inconvenience.. It can be dangerous, say when I walk outdoor on uneven grounds.. If I cannot see a step or any low obstruction in front of me, I can trip and fall. .....

 By 2011, a new damaging symptom appeared.. .While sleeping at night, if I expose my left leg leaving it uncovered, it gets painful especially by the next morning.. So of course I make sure I keep it covered....  But gradually my blanket cover has to be thicker.... My leg and knee get painful even if I cover them with a thick blanket.  So I had to wear in addition woolen leg warmers and woolen socks.. It is not easy to find these warm items in shops in tropical Singapore unless these shops cater specially to shoppers who go for winter travel....  For the thick blanket, I finally find them under the name 'quilt' in the large international chain store Ikea. ...

 One unfortunate accident happened to me while I was looking for woolen leg warmers and socks.. In a very large shopping mall called IMM, I was slowly walking along the aisle and looking up for the unit number of a winter clothing shop.. I didn't notice right in front of me was a siting bench.. I tripped and fell over the bench breaking my right collar bone.. The orthopedic surgeon that I consulted looked first at the X-ray film of my collar-bone break or fracture, then said to me, as this was a clean fracture, the two sides of the break will grow back and link up as one in about six weeks.. In the mean time, he said I only need to avoid carrying heavy bags with my right arm.. And to strengthen my bones, I also need to continue taking one calcium pill a day. ... .

To relieve the pain at my left leg, I tried to massage my left leg and knee.. Years ago, I used to self-teach myself this technique when I tried to relieve the shoulder pains of my late wife D.. The difference this time is that I now apply it on myself. This give me bio-feedback effect making the massage application more effective.. Then when I continued, I notice at certain body locations, relieving the pain is more effective using my finger tips. ... Then I remember sometime ago I have read about the TCM (Traditional Chinese Medical) technique call acupuncture...This technique is related to another technique called acupressure which does not require needles puncturing into the skin and is thus more suitable for self-treatment...  Both techniques are based on the same system of body Chi circuit points, also called trigger points.  So I read up more about these trigger points and continue to get more practice on myself... From these efforts I make more pain-relief improvements on my leg. ..