My Ayah - Part 3 (& ongoing)

By the time this is published, I would already be in Korea for a vacation, Insyaallah. My girlfriends and I had planned about this trip since Feb 2015 and decided to purchase flight tickets masa minggu Matta Fair, first week of Sept tu. Time tu tak tahu pun Ayah sakit lagi. I almost want to back out and burn je flight ticket and accommodation yg dah dibayar tu tapi lepas discuss dgn my girlfriends and my parents pun encourage me to proceed with my plan, and Ayah seems ok after few chemos, so I will proceed la.

Talking about chemo, Ayah was supposed to start his chemo end November. So, sebelum boleh start chemo, he has to undergo a minor operation utk masukkan chemo port dlm badan dia (letak kat atas dada belah kanan). Some patients, depending on type of cancer ada yg cucuk chemo tu kat jari, or chemo port. Ada jugak yg chemo dia adalah dgn menelan ubat je. So macam ayah, he was advised to do a chemo port. He was supposed to be admitted on 15th November and operation on 16th November. Tah macam mana boleh silap, Ayah tak tahu yg dia tak boleh makan ubat cair darah (which he consume every day together dgn ubat high blood dia). So agak lawak di situ bila aku dgn Tiyah dah bawak dia check in, tukarkan baju sepital dia. Dia tengah rilek2 baca suratkhabar and aku lak tengah kemas2 laci kat katil dia, nurse datang tanya dia pasal ubat darah tinggi and dia pun bawa keluar la ubat2an dia and nurse nampak ubat cair darah tu. Then nurse tanya ada makan ke pagi ni..and ayah aku kata yes. Tepuk dahi nurse tu, dia kata if dah makan ubat tu tak boleh la operation. Kena tunggu seminggu lagi. Tak ke kelakar..baru masuk ward 15 minit dah kena discharged, mengangkut la balik barang2.

So, a week after that baru la dia masuk ward lagi sekali. Before tinggalkan dia for the night, aku dgn mama biasalah drama queens..salam2 then keluar dari bilik dia je kitaorg bantai nangis lagi :). Besok tu operation, Tiyah yg ambik cuti and everything went well and he was discharged the same day.

First chemo starts on 11/12/15. Ayah kena buat 12 cycles of chemo and each chemo is done every 2 weeks, which means till May 2016. Everytime nak buat chemo, kitaorg kena pergi 3 kali. First, a day before chemo, kena ambik sample darah to see of he is ok for chemo treatment. Normally, my sis or me will take half day leave. Second, the chemo day itself which each cycle will be 4 hours minimum. Memang kena ambik full day leave. Third, lepas 2 hari dari hari chemo, kena pegi hospital cabut jarum chemo tu. Normally dlm half an hour. So another half day leave or time off la. So boleh bayangkan menyusutnya AL kami? Redha je la demi ayah kan. Aku dgn Tiyah memang bergilir la, kalau Tiyah pergi ambik darah then aku bawak ayah g chemo..so takde lah kitaorg cuti dua hari berturut2 tapi kerap la cuti. Cuma most of the chemos (so far dah chemo cycle yg keempat) happens on Friday, so kami kena pi cabut jarum tu Sunday which takyahlah ambik cuti. Lega sket. Actually lepas 4 hours of chemo tu, ayah kena bawa balik satu botol kecik of air chemo to continue at home. Botol tu bersambung dari chemo port kat badan dia so he has to carry(put in his shirt pocket) everywhere he go for that two days sampai air dah kering then pegi cabut jarum. Lepas cabut jarum tu yg kami kena monitor dia sket, whether dia letih or demam sebab kalau demam, tak bleh ambik panadol (due to chemo) and kena cepat2 bawa pegi hospital.

Bermacam2 cerita menakutkan aku baca dan dengar dari kawan2, lepas chemo nanti rambut gugur, letih yg teramat sampai tak boleh bangun dari katil, muntah2. Aku memang la risau sbb mama yg nak kena hadapi semua tu masa kitaorg pergi kerja. Alhamdulillah, lepas 4 chemo ni, ayah takde simptom2 tu semua. In fact, kitaorg yg geram sebab dia nak juga berkebun la, nak buat kerja sendiri la. Tak larat marah dah. Rambut gugur tu org kata after few more chemos tapi takpelah, we are mentally prepared. Kalau tengok aku 4 months ago, memang aku depressed sangat and selalu nangis. Now aku dah kuat sket, hence the motivation to write and document this journey. Memang keluar gak sket airmata bila aku cerita2 ni sbb teringat2 balik. Our last appointment with the doctor end January, doctor kata the cancer counts dlm darah Ayah dah berkurangan which is a good improvement. Syukur sangat pada Allah. Moga Allah terus memberi kesihatan pada Ayah dan kekuatan pada kami. Amin.

Hopefully next post is about my Korea trip.Till then.