Let's Be Optimistic!

Each cycle of my mom's chemo took 4 hours, it varied depending on the drugs used and types of cancer, some only needed slightly over 1 hour to complete a cycle. I had to find ways to kill my time, one of them being chatting my time away with the patients, mostly elderly but quite a fair bit of them are about my age. Most of them looked somber and grumpy but I was lucky to stumbled upon few very optimistic ones.

Let me quote two cases I had come across during those days when I accompanied my mom for her cycle after cycle of chemotherapy at UMMC.

1. 
   
   This uncle in his 80's but still very active, healthy looking and had a good sense of humour, would come and  chat with me everytime he saw me.  When I told him he looked strong physcially and did not look like a patient at all, he would joke, "Ya, uncle looks good from the outside but not the inside" and he ended with a big hearty laugh.  He was diagnosed with colon cancer Stage III and his post-op biopsy report revealed his lymph nodes (can't recall now how many but quite a few) to be malignant (cancerous). He is a retired government servant so the expensive bills were claimable.  Ironically, prior to being diagnosed with cancer, he went for yearly colonoscopy religiously as he had a family history of cancer. The recent one that he did was one year before the diagnosis.  The doctor discovered polyps in his colon but without doing a biopsy report he vaguely concluded the polyps to be benign (non-cancerous)! See, how negligent a doctor can be!!  Only the next year when he went for another colonoscopy that they found the once polyps had now turned into a malignant.. tumour and he was in advanced stage!  The uncle took all these positively and as fate.  I regret not getting his contact numbers before parting ways as later on he had missed quite a number of regular cycles due to him getting poor result on his WBC (white blood count) and that refrained him from getting his chemo until his WBC went up.  Uncle, may you stay strong as always!
2. 
   
   This auntie, a retired teacher in her 70's came all the way from Malacca to seek treatment.  She had a relapse and the primary cancer was on her breasts (breast cancer), after 10 years, yes, 10 YEARS!! it came back knocking on her door (in her own words.. yes, another positive minded patient here) and the metastatic site this time was in her liver..  She needed another course of chemo and surprisingly she was very optimistic about her condition.  I think I really need to learn from her, seriously..  I almost brokedown during the whole course of ordeal in my mom's case.  The auntie even gave me and other patients her recipes to build up mom's stamina and strenghten her immune system as patients undergoing chemotherapy tend be immunocompomised (the chemo drugs actually kills both good and bad cells in our body, how scary can that be!) and get tired easily. She too, looked very healthy with rosy cheeks somemore and I thought she was the patient's family member when she first approached me..

People like Uncle (1) and Auntie (2) still fight on and appreciate life despite the stubborn and deadly disease that wouldn't go away and linger around them.   Everytime, when I come across commit suicidal cases that make headlines, I would ponder.. what makes them come to such extreme decisions that they have to take their own lives?  Hmmmm...   The end..

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY WESAK DAY!