List out all the testings I went through
Tuesday: Blood test, X-ray, Electrocardiography
Wednesday: Bone marrow test (which I HATED IT!!)
Thursday: CT scan
Friday: Blood test, Echocardiography, lung test
Bone marrow test was the worst...it felt like the doctor was deforming my bone ;(
All these test were necessary to determine whether my disease has spread anywhere else in my body, and whether my body would be a good fit with the drugs I will be taking.
It may look like I did a lot each day but I was bored all the other time. Next tells the condition of the hospital.
A day in a life of a patient at TUH
Nurses wake you up at 6am. They take your temperature, weight, blood pressure, and oxygen content (in a body?) three times a day. Breakfast at 7:30 am. Lunch at 11:30 am. Dinner at 5:30 pm. Lights out at 9pm.
I shared a big room on the 10th floor of TUH with 4 other ladies, where each bed was separated by a curtain. One talkative lady had leukemia. One girl across from me seemed to be going through chemo that I heard her vomiting and murmuring often. The girl on right of my bed was treating something through radiation therapy. She was playing game (probably Nintendo DS) all night, all day long. I ate almost every meal with the lady on the left of my bed, at a cafeteria. It seemed like we were the only two from the room that could walk around freely.
Each patient could rent a TV for 240 yen per day. We weren't supposed to watch TV after lights out, but people did anyway. There were no internet available for patients. I could use my cellphone, but people were encouraged to only use the cellphone at a lounge, and turn off the cellphone otherwise, which nobody really did. It seemed like there were a lot of rules that were just there but nobody really followed. (In the bathroom, there was a sign saying "If you want to brush your teeth or shave, please find the appropriate time so that the bathroom would not be crowded at certain time. Please be considerate to others and do not use the sink for a long period of time.")
I realized yet again that Japanese people are very passive, even in hospital. When nurses ask me to measure blood pressure, they would always say "Could you please let me measure your blood pressure? (血圧を測らせていただけますか？）" In the States, it'll just be "Let's take your blood pressure." Even the doctors, when the treatment plan was finalized, my doctor said, "I was wondering if you could let us treat you this way.（このような治療法でやらせていただきたいのですが。）" I mean, I could only say "yes." They're all so polite that I felt like I don't know what I'm doing here anymore.
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