Auntie Chow, a patient in General Surgical Ward, is going to be discharged soon because she chooses to take rest at home rather than suffering in the ward. She was diagnosed with NHL since 7 years ago and for the last 2 years the lymphoma has spread to her stomach. All these while she had underwent chemotherapy and thought that she was well.
Unfortunately, diagnostic laparoscopy was done recently which showed infiltration of the liver by the gastric lymphoma. Operation couldn’t be carried out due to high risk situation. However, she seems optimistic in accepting her end stage illness. I’m the medical student who started clerking her on last Wed. The 15 min-talk with her was just solely chit-chat with no relation to learning purposes.
She never blamed the doctors who couldn’t save her life. On the other hand, she blamed herself of not taking care of her lifestyle seriously which lead to the cancer. She appreciated the help of the surgical teams so much. Besides that, she gave lots of advice and encouragement for me to further my study to become a good Doctor. This is because her second son is also an Endocrinologist in Putrajaya Specialist Center. She never regret for her whole life because of having 3 good children who love and care for her. She is the only patient who emphasize to me that the importance of family during these 3 years of clinical pratice. And lots of her story which I couldn’t summarize here in short.
Although she seems ok, but the teary eyes couldn’t mask her sorrow. I knew that I was able to stop my tear from dropping as well. And I had made it but not 100% perfect…
I believe that I did learn from her not just about the lymphoma but more importantly is the inspiration she instilled in my heart. I promised her that I will visit her until the day she is discharge from UH. I hold her skinny and cold clammy hands…and this might be the last time to do so. Hope Auntie Chow is happy wherever she is in the future.
Thank you. Auntie.
