Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Hubby came rushing home at 5.00 p.m. last Wednesday, after a distress call from me. This happened right after I got back from the salon (see previous post). He found me tossing and rolling on the bed. My both hands were pressing hard on my stomach, tolerating an excrutiating pain. I looked rather pale and there’s no light in my eyes. I could not even sit upright, let alone stand up! The pain was killing me and I was in an absolute mess. Hubby had no choice but to pull me up slowly and walk me to the car, one hand supporting my body. Shoulder to shoulder, we walked toward the car and he drove me to Mahatma Ghandi Mission Hospital, a semi-private hospital and the only nearest hospital we could think of at that time.

I am not ashamed to tell, I wept like a baby that day! Sakitnya ya amat-amat, Allah saja yang tahu! I could not think straight. Bad thoughts kept crossing my mind. 

What is this thing in my stomach?

Am I having a cancer or some deadly disease or something?

Surgery? Knives? Needles?

Oh nooooo…

Am I gonna die?

As soon as we arrived at the hospital, I was wheeled into the Emergency Room by an Emergency Room attendant and he made me lie down on one of the empty beds in there. A male doctor cum surgeon on duty came to check on me a few minutes later. His accent was so thick I could barely understand the hell he was saying. He gave a couple of soft punches at my stomach, at my backside and down at my pelvic area. As he was giving me those tender-loving punches, he wanted me to indicate the painful areas. I wanted to scream “Ishhh, sakit la!” at first, because everywhere he punched seemed to be hurting me so bad, but I managed to muffle my cries of pain and respond to his punches calmly throughout the examination. 

Later then he said in thick Hindi accent, “I yem afraid dad you might yhave stones yin your left kidney yand yabdomen. Yit could also be cysts. Vat I am suggesting you yis, you get yourself yadmitted yand ve vill send you for sonography test yand yex-ray to see vat the thing yactually yis.” Then, like a wind, he was gone. I just continued lying there unmoved, a blank look on face, eyes blinking rapidly, trying to:

1 - Figure out what the hell did he just say?

2 - Understand what he meant by stone, cysts - in my kidney?!

A nurse came in and asked me to turn around and loose my pants. She was smiling while rubbing my left butt cheek with a wet cotton and suddenly I felt a cooling sensation right down there. She asked me a few friendly questions like “Where are you from, ma’am?”, “Where do you live?”, “You look like my friend. She’s from Manipur”. I thought she was giving me another kind of examination or something. But to my horror, she took a syringe filled with liquid pain-killer out of her pocket and before I could stop her, she already buried the needle into my butt! Yay-yeah… I got a shot on my left butt cheek, okay! I didn’t see that coming! That was bloody painful! Jarum dia jangan tanya la, panjang sejengkal! However, the pain-killer worked like magic. In no time, the pain in my stomach subsided and I was a happy person once again.

But the happiness was short-lived when another smiling nurse came to me with yet another syringe! This time to suck the blood out of me! I had to brave the needle again and let her extract some blood from my vein for the purpose of blood test.

I thought it was over. No more needles. No more injections. No more smiling nurses. But I was so wrong! The same nurse who gave me that powerful pain-killer shot came again. I looked down at her hand and saw a different kind of syringe. But this one was attached to a tube meant for the sterile water to flow into my body through the vein. Oh my God, not again! Would this ever stop?!! Zappp… kena sedas lagi! Padan muka.

To cut the long story short, I was admitted into a Special Ward yang tak special langsung for 3 days and 2 nights and of course, I had the room all for myself! Unfortunetely, air-conditioned rooms were fully occupied so I had to make do with the one with a ceiling fan. The springless bed mattress and the pillow were keras kedengking and the television was too small for anyone to even read the subtitles! There’s an attached bathroom at one side and makcik cleaner datang cuci bilik dan tandas tu setiap half an hour! Oh, by the way, just for the record, don’t expect them to serve food here. You want food? Go ask someone to buy it for you! They don’t have that special service like all the hospitals in Malaysia do.

For three days, I was given jab after jab of antibiotics and the pain was undescribable! Twice a day, 3 shots at one time! They also sent me for sonography test and X-ray. On the last day here, as I was about to be discharged, the doctor showed me the result of the sonography test. From his explanation, it seemed that I have cysts at both ovaries but they’re small and can be dissolved by taking medications. There’s unlikely to be any surgery but he needed me to come for a follow-up check up in three days. He made me understand that cysts are not cancerous and will not cause infertility, much to my relief. Eventhough it’s harmless and just normal for women to have cysts, it can cause severe pain especially during the menstrual cycle and menyakitkan jiwa raga. Eventually, it will grow larger and make your body system go haywire if no precautious measures taken. Click here and here, if you wanna know what cyst is all about.

The X-ray result is yet to be obtained though so it’s still unconfirmed whether there’s any stone in my kidney or not. I just pray that it’ll never happen.

It’s kind of embarassing to reveal my sickness but I feel it’s necessary to share and create awareness to you, people. After all - SHARING IS CARING, don’t you agree? Don’t take any sickness for granted. Go have yourself checked! Trust me, you don’t want to go through what I had gone through. It’s unbearably painful!

To tell you the truth, I had been suffering this sickness for almost 4 years, but I kept it quiet. I didn’t tell anyone except hubby. I didn’t go for any medical check up whatsover. I never told my mom and dad about it either. I dare to write about it here cause I know they don’t read my blog! In fact, they have no idea I have a blogsite! Hubby knew about it even before we got married, and he tried his best in persuading me to go for medical check up but I always talked my way out of it. However, I am forever grateful for being blessed with such a great husband who stayed by my side most of the time and even slept with me, on that stone-hard bed, during my stay at the hospital.

I am doing okay now but, deep inside, I feel a pang of regret for having decided not to go for medical check up sooner. Up til now, I am still wondering how the cysts developed at ovaries. I thought it was serious at first and there’s no hope for recovery. Nasib baik, the cysts are still small and can be removed by just taking medicines. Now, I must make sure I am healthy, eat good food, do a lot of exercise, pray harder, spend more time with family and friends, and appreciate life even more. That’s the only way to avoid from going to hospitals. Cukup la… tak mau masuk sepital lagi! Those needles scared the hell out of me! 

Alhamdulillah, for there is still light at the end of the tunnel.