Cancer Journey Part 3
What made the stay in ward 62 especially excruciating was because of the nurses. They wanted a sample of my watery stools for a test, but before I could give it, I had a change of ward. Upon moving to ward 62, I asked a nurse for the stool container. It was made up of paper pulp, placed over the sitting toilet, and you poop right into it. However, the nurse returned with only the small plastic container used to collect the required sample itself. Enlighten me on how you can aim your watery stool into a circular opening with about 5cm in diameter or on how you can scoop your watery stool from a sitting toilet when the discharge plops right into the water. After I raised my concerns to her, she told me to call for her again when I needed to poop. So, question is, why not just bring it the first time?
My chemo had to be paused to treat the chicken pox first. Chicken pox in AML patients could be life threatening since they are immunocompromised. Over the course of the next few days, the rashes did not develop into blisters - what you would expect to see in a normal chicken pox case, and the virus was not found in my blood. Hence, there were some uncertainty revolving around this condition. But an infectious diseases doctor strongly believed it was chicken pox and I was treated like a chicken pox patient. Should I find anything to be contented about amidst this mess, was that they detected the shingles patient in 8C and gave treatment (immunoglobulin) early.
A CCTV was installed in the room to better monitor the patient since the room was the furthest away from the nurses. However, I was extremely disturbed that a camera was pointing directly at me round the clock. I was told that it could be switched off but it was still uncomfortable having a digital eye staring at me. Hence, I would draw the curtain over it to conceal it. Nurses who spotted that would habitually uncover the camera before I could ask them not to. On one of those occasions when one of them uncovered the camera, it fell off from the pod and was dangling by the wire. It probably got loose, that was why a small force could knock it off. Bottomline was, the camera was not damaged, although some paranoid and ignorant nurses made it out to be. The vendor came to fix the camera, and while he was right outside my room donning a mask, I heard him ask the nurse, "Who spoilt it?" I could not hear the nurse's reply but from her mouthing, I made out "The patient". After the vendor was done with his work, I asked if the nurse told him I was the culprit. He replied yes. How atrociously accusing!
There was another nurse who would always feign oblivion to certain matters. Filled urinals laying right beside her feet and she would choose to ignore them. She answered questions with irrelevant replies, handled things in a hurried and rough manner, and she would sigh or go "tsk" right in front of me which I feel is not professional. In all, I think proactiveness and preparedness were lacking in many of them.
After having moved to the Main Building, the doctors who came to see me in Kent Ridge Wing no longer did. Instead, it was some new faces who did, presumably because I was momentarily handled over to the doctors at Main Building who would follow up on my case. However, Dr Lee paid a visit on one of those days and passed me the broadband stick he promised. We seriously need more of this kind of doctors, rather than some who are too task-oriented and doesn't give a hoot about other aspects of a patient, or those who studied medicine only because it paves the way for a glitzy career. An infectious diseases doctor told me that I had to stay in ward 62 for the entire incubation period of the varicella zoster virus. After the rashes worsened the second day, they started to heal, but the doctor thought they might just worsen suddenly, and he was expecting blisters to form at some point of time. Hearing that I needed to stay in that hellhole for close to 3 weeks, my mood reached its nadir.
My chemo had to be paused to treat the chicken pox first. Chicken pox in AML patients could be life threatening since they are immunocompromised. Over the course of the next few days, the rashes did not develop into blisters - what you would expect to see in a normal chicken pox case, and the virus was not found in my blood. Hence, there were some uncertainty revolving around this condition. But an infectious diseases doctor strongly believed it was chicken pox and I was treated like a chicken pox patient. Should I find anything to be contented about amidst this mess, was that they detected the shingles patient in 8C and gave treatment (immunoglobulin) early.
A CCTV was installed in the room to better monitor the patient since the room was the furthest away from the nurses. However, I was extremely disturbed that a camera was pointing directly at me round the clock. I was told that it could be switched off but it was still uncomfortable having a digital eye staring at me. Hence, I would draw the curtain over it to conceal it. Nurses who spotted that would habitually uncover the camera before I could ask them not to. On one of those occasions when one of them uncovered the camera, it fell off from the pod and was dangling by the wire. It probably got loose, that was why a small force could knock it off. Bottomline was, the camera was not damaged, although some paranoid and ignorant nurses made it out to be. The vendor came to fix the camera, and while he was right outside my room donning a mask, I heard him ask the nurse, "Who spoilt it?" I could not hear the nurse's reply but from her mouthing, I made out "The patient". After the vendor was done with his work, I asked if the nurse told him I was the culprit. He replied yes. How atrociously accusing!
There was another nurse who would always feign oblivion to certain matters. Filled urinals laying right beside her feet and she would choose to ignore them. She answered questions with irrelevant replies, handled things in a hurried and rough manner, and she would sigh or go "tsk" right in front of me which I feel is not professional. In all, I think proactiveness and preparedness were lacking in many of them.
After having moved to the Main Building, the doctors who came to see me in Kent Ridge Wing no longer did. Instead, it was some new faces who did, presumably because I was momentarily handled over to the doctors at Main Building who would follow up on my case. However, Dr Lee paid a visit on one of those days and passed me the broadband stick he promised. We seriously need more of this kind of doctors, rather than some who are too task-oriented and doesn't give a hoot about other aspects of a patient, or those who studied medicine only because it paves the way for a glitzy career. An infectious diseases doctor told me that I had to stay in ward 62 for the entire incubation period of the varicella zoster virus. After the rashes worsened the second day, they started to heal, but the doctor thought they might just worsen suddenly, and he was expecting blisters to form at some point of time. Hearing that I needed to stay in that hellhole for close to 3 weeks, my mood reached its nadir.
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