A Tanone dot Net

I was checking my emails, hoping to see how much did they collect for Rina yesterday. I called them last evening when I arrived home from Birmingham, but they were busy selling bottle water etc. at July 4th celebration there as part of the fundraising efforts. I only had a very short talk with Rina’s Mom and Mrs. Titien.

It turned out that in the email, I was told that Rina was in pain due to her chemo. Mrs Titien received a call from Rina’s Mom around 7AM and she was on her way to see them after preparing the breakfast for her family and shooting out her email for me. It seems like getting a high dosage chemo for 5 out of 7 days a week is a very heavy burden for Rina’s body.

Let’s hope and pray that Rina would be able to handle this for 6 more days until the BMT surgery. Indeed,  we also hope for a ‘Miracle’ to resolve the financial problem Rina’s family have with the hospital in order to proceed with the surgery.

Lord have mercy!

Note: I was thinking about the difference between outpatient and inpatient treatments after posting this, and was saddened by the fact that for an inpatient, when anything happens you could call the nurse and they may come to give you a shot to alleviate the pain, etc,….but for the outpatient, you then have to either wait in pain at home or going to the ER. Then I went to Rina’s blog, and found that actually she has already updated with her latest battle with NHL. Please check it out. You’re a fighter, Rina!

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When I first posted Kitaguni Video Parade, I don’t know how many of my old friends from those days would get back to me. It has been 6 months since that post and I already got in touch with two of these friends. First, of course it was Liliana from Costa Rica that has lived in Algiers since twenty some years ago. Then, together with Liliana, we got in touch with Sandra in Vancouver. This evening, I got an alert for new comment from WP. It turned out that it was another voice from the past, who was posting a comment to that old post because someone saw his name on that page. Yes, he was my friend, Henry.

Thirty years ago, both Henry and I were graduate students at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. Henry was a dentist from Philippine and I was a young physicist from Indonesia.  We lived at Kita-juni-jo Ryugakusei Kaikan, which was the dormitory for International students at that time. When my family joined me later in September that year, I then moved out from the dorm, busy with my study and my family, and it seems like we all then proceeded with our own journey until those kitaguni videos connected us tonight. I don’t know how many more friends from the past would show up next on this site.

Henry proposed to have a reunion in Hokkaido. It’s not a bad idea. However, I told Henry that currently my friends are organizing a reunion at my old hometown for all the members of the mailing list that I manage. All these members are scattered around the globe. Too bad I could not join them this time. However, since it takes 6 months to get in touch with Henry via this blog, I’m not so sure when would the next one show up. That’s why I would keep this idea floating around here, and see how many more people from old Kita juni-jo Kaikan will show up and would like to join for the reunion.

A reunion in Sapporo either during the Snow Festival or the summer would definitely be fun. But of course it would not be next year so we can get more people to join. My wife and I have also talked about visiting Hokkaido for quite some time and 2, 3 years down the road should be good timing for us.

Finally, for the shake of the old days, I’ve just added the video link below. I hope you all the oldies from the Kaikan at least would still remember Wada Akiko-san, before joining me to sing the last part of the song:

……
Yo ake no uta you,
atashi no kokoro ni,
omo-i dasha se ru,
hok ka-i do no sora.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Tags: eng ka, Hokkaido

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These are the latest update about Rina’s conditions:

1. The total amount of donation as posted on IOSA site is $31,890. That includes the results from Comedy Jam, the Garage Sale that Rina has reported this weekend, and of course the latest contribution from Chip-In widget.
2. The update to the IOSA site was a bit late since Rina is the only one that has access to her online bank account, but she was so tired after the chemotherapy on Monday.
3. Rina is getting an outpatient chemotherapy. Instead of the usual 4 x 24 hours treatment, doctor has increased the dosage as well as the total hour into 5 x 24 hours due to the aggressiveness of the cancer.
4. Outpatient means Rina has to go back every 24 hours to get her new pack of chemicals and she doesn’t have all the sterile environment as if she is an inpatient. The lack of insurance has prevented Rina for such a luxury.

It took me a while to update due to various privacy considerations. After a series of phone calls and email exchanges with Dr. Haerani Ismandar (Mrs. Titien), one of the Indonesian elders in Stillwater, OK area, we finally get a verbal agreement from Rina to share her story with friends that are doing fundraising.

According to Mrs. Titien, Rina was really down when doctor told her that the cancer was back just a week after the previous treatment. Rina has finally took some time to update her blog tonight and you can read her own account there. I agree with one of the comments in Rina’s blog that she is really an awesome and excellent writer.

It’s nine more days from the BMT operations. The hospital was asking for at least half of the $180,000 needed. Could we reach that number?  Sadly, I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you.

The other day I posted Rina’s story in Oprah’s Message Board but the story was removed few hours later. I went back and put a message, Please Pray For Rina Fitria and it was ok. You still can see the message there. I was thinking if we have enough visitors that also post a comment there, may be it would keep the message to be on top on the list. Who knows it may catch Oprah’s Assistant’s attention, and if O could pick up the story, Rina may probably get the help she needs for her BMT operation.

I’ve run out of ideas and that was what I could think of. If you have any better suggestion, please post it here. Thanks.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Tags: BMT, Outpatient Chemotheraphy, Rina Fitria

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The following is a thank you video from Rina. If you’ve a chance to visit Rina’s blog you will know that it’s a big effort in Rina’s part to get this video done as Rina is still undergoing her daily therapeuthic routines.

Just for a clarification of the note on IOSA website saying that there are only two ways to contribute, either through PAYPAL or directly to Rina’s bank account, the President of IOSA (PERMIAS) Oklahoma State University, Ms. Befrika (Ika) Murdianti has created a bilingual page at ChipIn site to explain. Hopefully you wouldn’t hesitate to contribute via Chip-In widget or through the Paypal Donation Button at IOSA site. Beside being displayed in my blogs, Chip-In widget has also being displayed at one of the leading blogger community in Indonesia.

It’s only two more weeks to go and the amount collected so far is only US$25,660, around one seventh of the amount needed or one-fourth of the amount that has to be collected before the hospital would even consider to do the paper work for Rina. That’s why let’s come to join the Stillwater and OK State University Community to chip in for Rina.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Tags: BMT Fundraising, Chip-In widget, Rina Fitria

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