Living in pain but living a beautiful and awesome life!

I often have sudden nerve pain on my head; but I still feel so blessed because before I can even react and say “ouch”, it’s already gone. That happens every 20 minutes and lasts for an hour or even the whole day, but each prick/pain is only a second or less.

Headaches are becoming frequent these days, as in almost everyday; but I still feel so blessed because all the pain I’m feeling are always tolerable.

image from google

Wagyu Wonderful Lunch at Melo's!

Just because I’m sick (and currently has 3 aggressive bad tumors) doesn’t mean I can’t go out and eat good food. I’m a lakwatserang naka-wheelchair once again…

Thanks to Ma’am Caron Santiago Macasaet (owner, together with her husband, Sir Paul) for inviting us, Talitha and I had a really wonderful Wagyu Steak Lunch at Melo’s last week (Wednesday)!

How caring are you?

A couple of my concerned friends told me about GoFundME, YouSharing and other Crowdfunding sites. When they told me about it, I refused and said there’s really no need for it coz it’s not like I’m raising funds for a much needed medical procedure like surgery or something. I’m continuously doing a fundraising campaign to sustain my recurring medical needs; NF is a continuing battle. Besides, there are a lot of people who needs more help compared to me. I didn’t want to put up a fundraising page then, but I considered and told myself that if I really need to raise a big amount for my surgery, I’ll make one.

Please don’t feel obliged to give. Share only if you can and I’ll sincerely appreciate it. You can buy a shirt from me. May tshirt ka na, nakatulong ka pa at may chance ka pang maka-inspire ng kung sino mang babasa ng nakasulat sa shirt mo! Haha. Praying for me is helping too. I really feel comforted and more at ease whenever someone tells me that they’re praying for me.

http://www.youcaring.com/kcatumors

Anyway, here’s my youcaring page, I tried creating a gofundme page but they  don’t accept Paypal. We have a dollar account but my mom’s not sure if it’s still active. Time is moving and we still have a lot of things to do, so I'll use my Paypal at youcaring site instead.

Please read:
3 bad tumors: Please help me shoo them away!

3 bad tumors: Please help me shoo them away!

  

MRI scan results are out and it’s 3 pages long! Meningioma. Schwannomas. Lesions. Mass. Soft tissue. Irregular. Abnormal enhancement. Definite progression. Tumors, tumors and more tumors all over my cranial MRI. Aside from the 4cm big bad brain tumor, there are also tumors on my optical wall (on each side) that needs to be treated. That’s 3 bad tumors! Hopefully the other tumors will remain small and behave forever!

It’s Hypofractionated Stereotactic Radiation Therapy (SRT) times two that costs Php 593,450.00  and we need to raise it within this month.

Here’s the copy of the estimated price quotation we got from Medical City (the only hospital in the country that has this kind of treatment) – the red marks are the discount.

Here’s the plan according to Dr. Vega (radiation oncologist):

Stiffed neck ...gone!

A miracle causes great happiness among people. From a biblical perspective, it is an event in the external world brought about by the immediate and simple volition of God. I do believe in miracles. They happen every single minute. There are no explanations necessary, they just happen, and we know that they do happen because we can feel them when they happen.

This is too good not to share, though I know some people won't believe me. But still, I want to share this amazing miracle that happened to me yesterday and how amazing God is!

I'm a bosconian. Proud Bosconian!

Here it is. My speech during last Sunday's DBS Grand Homecoming. My mom read this coz I can write (and I have A LOT to share), but I can't deliver it. But still, I CAN! It's 3-pages-long, size 14 Calibri font, narrow margin, single space and it's focused on just one topic. Haha. Ako na ang madaldal! :P

Very short intro

I copied a couple sentences from of my previous articles & writings, should I sue myself of plagiarism? LOL.

Read on.

I am Maria Kathrina Lopez Yarza. I am known as Kcat to everyone, but most of my DBS friends call me Tack. I belong to the pioneer batch, DBS Batch 2000. It is really a great honor to be sharing my story with you, my fellow Past Pupils. Thank you so much for making me a part of this.

Our home is our first venue of learning; the second is our school. After studying nursery school at a learning center near our home, I was ready to study in a bigger school for my preparatory schooling.  My parents learned that there was a newly opened Don Bosco School in Manila for girls, and since my dad and my mom’s brothers were Bosconians, they were eager to enroll me here. I was accepted and I was lucky to become one of the first batch of students in DBS way back in 1989 and proud to be one of the first graduates in year 2000.

In those eleven years, I thought I was only here to study, study, and study. I have learned a lot, but not only lessons from textbooks, but DBS also taught me about life: what life is, how to value life and how to live it well, not by myself, but together with everyone. And all these form a big part of who I am today.

Please help me shoo this big bad tumor away

Hello! I’m Kcat Yarza. As you all know, I was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis (NF–tumor of the nerves) and I have so many tumors all over my body (inside and out), including the brain. I got lots of small, benign and harmless tumors in my brain except for one aggressive big bad tumor that measures 3.8 x 4.7 x 4.3 cm and causes further compression of the brainstem. Although no too severe (yet?) this causes my frequent dizziness, nerve pain and headaches. If I am able to walk by myself, I would have fall down often and lose my balance. Maybe that is why I kept on falling from my chair countless times.

This tumor needs to be treated with 5 sessions of hypofractionated stereotactic radiation therapy that will cost Php 400,000 or it could be more. It’s not really an emergency but we need to prioritize it because it’s already big and we don’t know how aggressive it is. If it gets bigger, it could cause more harm. How soon is soon? Hopefully before Christmas. Maybe. With your help, this CAN be possible! God will provide.

Every cent counts.

Big bad brain tumor

In May or June (this year), I noticed that I frequently have headache, nerve pain (inside my head) and I often feel disoriented. Good thing, I already know how to manage it. That’s what life is with Neurofibromatosis (NF) and I’m used to it. Then a few weeks ago, I’ve been feeling disoriented and I almost had a seizure. I know the feeling every time I’m about to have seizures. I just know. Amazing, right? I just have to stop what I’m doing, be calm, drink water, drink my anti-seizure, drink water again, and deep breathing. Inhale. Exhale. It works all the time! I never had seizures ever since I started doing this. Almost seizure but it never succeeds! I always win! Haha.

After that, I told my mom that I almost had a seizure and told her about that ‘disoriented feeling’. Then we remembered that it’s been a while since my last cranial CT scan to monitor my tumors. After that, my mom told my neurosurgeon, Dr. Lopez about it and a few days after we got the letter of request and I was scheduled to have the CT scan at PGH-FMAB.