Day +17

My Blood Count Today:
Red Blood Count (RBC) 95(Normal 130-180)
Platelet 13(Normal 150-50)
White Blood Count (WBC) =0.8 (Normal 4 - 11)

I am well today. The white blood count increased by 0.1 only, less than what I have expected. However, this small increase of 0.1 is still considered to be very precious to me and I hope that the count would reach 1.0 or more by tomorrow. The Platelet count remains 13, even with the transfusion of a single donor platelet yesterday.

I am given transfusion of another single donor platelet this afternoon.

The body is losing magnesium and potassium almost everday. These two minerals are added into the normal saline to be administered to the body. Apart from this, my blood pressure is also high, it can reach 160/100. This is one of the side effect of taking anti-GVHD drug Cyclosporin. Today I start to take medicine to control the blood pressure and also taking oral potassium supplement.

The patient in this VIP Room 1 is very precious to the doctors. Sometimes, I will be examined 3 times by 3 different doctors at different times of the day. Whenever the doctor comes in to the room, she or he will do the following:
1. Ask the question "How are you today?".
2. Look at the mouth and throat to see the level of mucositis. The doctor will always shoot the torch light to my mouth and ask me to say "Ah!".
3. Listen to the breadth sounds using a stethoscope - chest region and back. The doctor will ask me to breath in and out while they are listening. Then most of the time they would say: "The lung is clear."
4. Listen to the heart sounds by placing the stethoscope on the left chest. The result is most likely "clear" also.
5. Press the abdominal area to see if there is pain caused by applying pressure to the area. I will be asked to breath in and out also.
6. Examine the eye.
7. Examine the skin on the body.

I believe the above examination is very useful and meaningful to be performed not only on patient in hospital but on my family members also . Since I have plenty of torch lights at home, the only equipment that I lack of now is the stethoscope.

So, instead of shaking, begging, advising and finally commanding the two elders boy to wake up at 9:00am in the morning, I should take a more professional approach - just imagine myself a "family doctor". I shall no longer raise my voice and issue the command: "Boys, listen carefully, this is a command, now I start to count down from 10, those who wake up, brush the teeth, wash the face, change the pyjamas and then be in the dining room to take breakfast before I count to 0 will get 2 points of reward! 10, 9, 8, ..." This command will almost immediately responded by complain: "Why you don't issue advice first before giving command?","Why you count so fast?" and "Why...?"

Now with the "family doctor" examination check lists. The first question I should ask is "How are you today?" One of the possible response from my eldest son Daniel would be as follow.

"Let me stretch my body first." then he will stretch his body on the bed for one minute before start to talk.

"Baba, can you buy me two large Domino Pizzas, ALOHA CHICKEN flavor for breakfast?" He likes to eat Pizzas so much that I have to sign up as a Domino Millennium Gold Card member, so that whenever I buy a large Pizza, I also get a second large Pizza free of charge. If you need to buy Pizza from Domino, I can lend the card to you - it is transferrable.

"Daniel, you just eat Pizza two days ago. You know Pizza is not a healthy food" I responded.

"Why all the delicious foods are not healthy and all the healthy foods are not delicious?" He will ask.

"..." This is a tough question. I am also finding answer to this question. Could it be because the delicious foods are too delicious that make people over-eaten them which then cause diet imbalance - unhealthy? If we give the Pizzas, KFCs, Big Mac Burgers to the hunger strike mulnutrition Africa's children, would the foods still be considered unhealthy?

Then it comes to talking to my second boy Joseph who is studying in primary one: "How are you today, Joseph?"

"Baba, what day is today?" He will ask

"Wednesday."

"Oo... I don't want to go to school, I don't want to go to school." He will start to cry.

"Joseph, tell me, why you don't want to go to school?"

"Oo... I don't want to go to school, I don't want to go to school." He just have the conclusion, but not the reason.

Then I should ask Adriel, my 2 years old girl. "How are you today, Adriel?"

"Go, go Baba go, go to garden!" She will force me to bring her to play in the garden.

Lastly, I should never forget to ask my cute beautiful wife Angela. "How are you today, Honey?"

"Tell me, why you look at the beautiful young lady yesterday?" She will start to question.

"Honey, it is completely necessary to look at her."

"You see, you admit it yourself, colour wolf..."

"Honey, if I didn't look at her crossing the road and adjusted our car speed accordingly, we would simply knocked her down." Of course she will not be satisfied with this simple answer and start to argue with me. In order to prevent this type of unnecessary misunderstanding and argument, I will definately has to put "auto-pilot" as one of the top most feature when purchasing our next car. With this feature, when I see a lady crossing the road, I can quickly put the car on "auto-pilot" then close my eye immediately and tell my wife "You see, I see nothing now." If the "auto-pilot" feature is too expensive, the "auto-brake" feature will also serve the purpose.

The youngest 3 months old boy Aaron should be easiest to handle. I just hold him in my arm and ask :"How are you today, Aaron?" Amost everytime he will respond with smiles to show that he is happy - no complain, no dissastifaction, no request.

I believe the life of a "family doctor" is more challenging than the medical doctor in the hospital. This is because it is impossible for the "family doctor" to limit the scope of the answer for the question "How are you today?", while in the hospital the patient would normally answer the question within the scope of their sickness only.

I think I should continue this tomorrow for other form of examination.

See you next post!