Been there, done that! (Chemo Day 1)

That’s exactly what I felt on Monday morning (Apr 21) as my cousin’s car was about to find a parking spot at Gleneagles Hospital. It took us extra long to get to the hospital that morning as there was a little accident in the highway plus the hard rain surely slowed people down. The appointment was 8.30AM and we made it just in time. Having experienced the process for several times before had somehow made me very calm. In fact I was so eager to get it all done ASAP.

I went in straight to their procedure room (it’s actually a big hall separated with partitions so they can accommodate 10 patients at the same time). After picking my favorite spot, took off my shirt, lying down on a cold leather mattress, I began to try to get a short nap while waiting for the doctor to install the catheter. My brother Jacob was about to get some pictures of me, but as soon as he got the camera out, the nurse said,” no picture please. There’s going to be a procedure on him, so please wait outside haa…”.

The doctor came in with a big smile and asked me,” have you had a catheter installed on you before?” I pulled down my blanket to reveal the scars I had from previous catheter while saying,” too many times doctor….too many times already. Let’s hope this is the last time.”

Before long, he finished the job perfectly. I couldn’t help but to compare his work with my previous procedures, and this guy by far has beaten the work of more senior Indonesian doctors, in terms of speed, smoothness, tidiness, and practically pain-free.

I thought I’d get the chemo right away, but since I was coughing a little when I came in, doctors wanted me to have an X-ray and some blood test first. So it was a delay of about 1 hour which we used to get brunch.

As soon as I finished my food, we went back to the centre only to find that they were ready to start the chemo on me. Thank God X-ray and blood test results were very good. As the chemo drugs (yes…there are 4 items) were administered to me, they went thru the detail of everything, and I mean literally everything. Which of course made me bored and sleepy as I’ve known most of them, but since it is the procedure, I let them continue and tried to stay focus on what they’re saying.

It took about 1,5 hours to get the chemo process done. Good thing the sofa is nice (kind of a Lazy-Boy type) and I get to enjoy personal TV. But this time, because not so many patients and nurses were around, we’re able to get pictures from my cell-phone.

Time to pack-up and go home.

And all the nurses said,” bye Doodoh…..see you tomorrow morning at 9.”