Skip to main content

Delivering The News

To receive the bad news myself was bad enough, I thought to deliver the news to my immediate family and people at office will be easier.

Boy, I was wrong.

I hate to explain my condition, which to me, was personal. But I could not get through this alone. The first person I told about biopsy result was my mom. She took it harder than I did. Well, because she's a mother.

To think that I made my mom worry upset me even more. At the end of our conversation, I told mom not to tell everyone just yet.

Then I told some people from office: people I work with, because I will be absent for some time; and HR people because I might need their help with the insurance.

This was an emotional rollercoaster. Telling someone about this felt like I took the ride again. And again.

I needed some time, and some space.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thyroid Scan

I had thyroid scan scheduled for 18/Jul at Rumah Sakit Kanker Dharmais (RSKD). But, since RSKD required me, patient who uses general insurance, to at least had 1 consultation before getting my scan, so I made an appointment with dr. Yustia for 17/Jul. I made appointment directly through dr. Yustia's personal number since I really couldn't rely on RSKD staff to make one for me. So, I came to RSKD on 17/Jul basically to fulfill the hospital requirements. Nothing much to discussed as I have enough knowledge on the procedure. On 18/Jul, I left home around 6:00 AM because I had to arrive  before 7:30 AM. Hubby was ill, so I asked my mother to accompany me. Patient registration for insurance holder was quite troublesome, but it was still better than using BPJS. I wonder how long the BPJS patient must wait before getting their examination. After registration done, at first I headed to the lab to get my blood drawn, and then to the nuclear facility. It was almost lunch time and...

Things People Say When They Heard I Had Cancer

Like I wrote on the other post, I only told some people about my diagnosis. However, everyone (at least it felt like everyone) heard about the cancer after my surgery. And of course, people started flooding me with questions and advice. Before you say anything to cancer patient, please bear in mind, we, cancer patient, has had emotional and physical challenge. There are things we don’t expect to hear from people, and here are the list of what people said to me in real life: 1. "I know someone with cancer and they died"  Yeah, I know,  finding something in common is a way to relate in a conversation, but that is so rude and insensitive. 2. "You should try alternative therapy” Someone told me about his family member who lost the battle to cancer. He also told me that after being treated and series of chemotherapy, the patient's condition got worse and finally passed away. He said he didn’t believe in medical treatment and suggested me to have alternative ...

The Biopsy Reading (2)

Well, the oncologist did not exactly said I have cancer, yet. According to biopsy result, I was on stage V of Bethesda Diagnostic category with 60% - 75%  risk of malignancy. At this point, surgery is necessary. Whether partial or full thyroidectomy, that depends on several things: 1. Partial thyroidectomy The oncologist will take out my left thyroid gland. During surgery, a frozen pathology report will be conducted. If the sample appears benign, the oncologist will not take out the rest of my thyroid gland. Unfortunately, frozen pathology report conducted during surgery was not 100% accurate. Some samples will be also sent for full pathology test in which takes about a week for the result. If final pathology report showed malignancy, I must go to my second surgery for a full thyroidectomy. 2. Full thyroidectomy First plan was to remove the left thyroid. However, if the oncologist saw any sign of malignancy, or the frozen pathology test during the surgery showed mali...