Life is Full of Surprise - Part 2

Read the first part of the story here >>>>*click me*

Monday January 12^th, 2015

I made an appointment with Dr. Hong Ga Sze at Mount Elizabeth Hospital at 9.30 a.m. You can google his name and find his website there, he is a general surgeon specialized in breast and head & neck. So in general, the consultation itself was almost the same with what I had before in Jakarta. The doctor asked me on why I came there. I told him about the lump then he asked me to lie down on the examination bed and do the manual examination, then he asked me to do an ultrasound scan and mammogram at the building next door. Well the ultrasound scan I did before in Jakarta, so I knew what was gonna happened during the scan. As for the mammogram… hmm… mammogram is supposedly done to a 40-ish year old woman or something right? (CMIIW) so there it goes, I had my first mammogram at 27 y.o. I’m way ahead many girls then. I tell you what,, it was painful to have your breast pushed into that thing (whatever the name is haha). You can google yourself to know the details about mammogram.

Tuesday January 13^th, 2015

The doctor received my tests results and they discovered that the size of my lump is approximately 4.3 cm. (Wow it grew 0.3 cm after flying across the country haha). In order to know exactly on what type of lump it is, he gave two options, one is to do a biopsy by taking a tissue of the lump to know on whether it is cancerous or not without removing the lump, or two, we take out the lump and do a biopsy from the lump which we already taken. And the doctor suggested to might as well just take it out lar. And of course I am so well prepared to say ‘yes’ to the surgery.

We agreed to have a surgery on the next day. Before that, they needed to take some medical information from me regarding my medical condition, whether I had drug allergies or on other medication. Later on the nurse took blood pressure and this is where another problem coming (woohoo!!!). Turned out that I had a high blood pressure and it was not safe to perform an operation with that high number of blood pressure. The doctor then suggested me to see a cardiologist first.

After lunch I went to Dr. Eric Hong’s office and I took ECG and echo test before I met him. Again, since I am not a doctor, kindly refer to google for your better understanding of these tests. So based on my result, I do have a high blood pressure, and it needs to be treated. Meanwhile as for tomorrow’s surgery, I was given a medicine to lower my blood pressure and it is safe for me to continue with the surgery. The cardiologist itself gave me an explanation about how my heart works based on my test and he also suggested me to take a full blood test and get back to him for the blood test result and my high blood pressure medication after my surgery. Oh boy, I didn’t think that I would end up in a cardiologist office and hearing so much health term in one day.

In the mean time, I just needed to be focused on the surgery for the next day.

Wednesday, January 14^th, 2015

Say hello to one of the biggest day of my life! This is the first time I had a surgery and I don’t plan to have another one, trust me :D

I went to the registration desk and make sure that I completed all the administration needed and the day before they informed me not to eat or drink anything after 7 a.m.  My breast lump removal is a minor surgery and they said that it would only take around one – two hours for the team to perform the surgery and I did not need to stay overnight.  Around 11 a.m. the nurse called me in and I get to stay in my ward. I shared my ward with two other patients whom had different cases, on my right; the patient was going to have eye surgery, while the patient on my left, I didn’t know what he was going through :p

I changed my clothes into the hospital gown and waited to be called to the operation room. I was lying on my bed when the first nurse came in; she greeted me and asked how I am doing. Then she asked about my data such as name and what surgery am I going to have. Then around fifteen minutes, another nurse came in and asked the same question. The waiting was starting to make me a little nervous. Then comes the man whose about to cut me open: my surgeon! Haha. His face was very calm. He greeted me and explained that we’re about to have the surgery in a while and told me not to worry because it was only a small procedure (with big cost *cough*). Then he left me and said: see you in the theatre. Oh man, as far as I know ‘theatre’ is a place to watch a movie, now my knowledge has broadened, thanks to my lumpy lump!

Around twelve p.m. the nurse came and she said that we were ready to go to the operating room. I took of my glasses and gave it to my mom. I have high degree myopia so everything was a blur from the moment I took the nurses pushed me to the operating room until the operation finished.

After I entered the operation room, they put me into the waiting room first; guess the traffic is quite high inside the operating room huh? Then some people started to come and introduced themselves to me, from the nurse that will be helping my procedure, until the anesthetist. The anesthetist was quite friendly and he started to make small talks with me by asking where I am come from etc. I told him that I’m from Jakarta but I previously worked here for almost two years. Not that he needed to know that, but I know he’s trying to comfort me by keep talking to me (or pretended that he’s interested with my story hehe). He also said that later I will be on general anesthesia so I will be in a deep sleep and won’t feel anything, and once I’m awake I might be having some nausea because of the anesthesia. Deep down inside I was encouraging myself by saying: “Bring it on, Doc!” But the all I can say to him was: “okay” *in slow whisper*.

The anesthetist said that we were almost ready to go to the operating theater and just needed to wait for a while. He told me to relax and watch the TV, but since everything was a blur I decided to comfort myself by thinking happy thoughts such as counting how many unread emails by the time I get back to my office (why are you so serious?)

Then the nurse came and she said that we’re ready to enter the operating theatre. She also said that it can be a little chilly there, so if I needed anything I can ask for her assistance. Is it too late to ask for a hot green tea latte?

You know the scene in movies when someone is entering the hospital and the camera started to shoot the face of the nurse and paramedics who’s helping to push the bed into the ICU? That is how awesome I felt before entering the theatre. I am a star in my own movie haha. Okay I think I get too carried away writing this surgery part. Please forgive my lack of focus.

When I got inside, my surgeon was there and he said that we are going to make a cut on my breast to take out the lump. Then using a marker, he drew a line on where the cut was gonna be. Deep down I was like, okay this is funny. He makes scribble on my body part? Haha. He said that once the lump is removed, it’s gonna go to the lab for further examination. Then he said we’re about to start the operation.

The anesthetist then came and greeted me again. He said he’s going to inject the anesthesia and he said that I was going to have a deep sleep. He counted to three, injected something and he said to me to just dream about shopping at Orchard, Gucci, Ferragamo….

Moments later, I was awake, I felt slightly dizzy and the anesthetist asked: “Did you buy the Ferragamo?” Oh my.. I should have told him that I already put all my SGD on the operating table and what is it with him and Ferragamo? I think I get cranky too since I was hungry and thirsty haha.

 My head was heavy and I felt a slight pain on my left chest. The surgeon said that the surgery went well for almost two hours. Everything was okay and I can go back to my ward. The sting on my left chest was all I can remember, so I decided to get some sleep again at my ward.

Around 4 p.m. the nurse came to my ward to check my condition. She said that if I’m feeling better, I can leave the hospital already. She also gave me some antibiotics and pain killer and told me that the follow up consultation will be at Saturday morning. At 4.30 p.m. I was discharged from the hospital.

I took the antibiotics but decide not to eat the painkiller since I didn’t feel pain after I was discharged, or the nausea from the anesthesia. It was so relieving to know that the lump has been taken out of my body.

Saturday, January 17^th, 2015

It’s follow up consultation day. First I had a follow up consultation with the cardiologist. From my full blood test and cardio tests he suggested some medication to treat my high blood pressure. I hate to admit that I had a high blood pressure, since on my last medical checkup four months ago the doctor didn’t mention anything about my blood pressure. I believe that I had a high blood pressure because of this lump-y thingy and some work thing that got into my head, but hey, medically speaking I need those medications L The cardiologist also said to maintain a healthy lifestyle such as exercise and eat less salt. Okay Doc!

Now it’s time to meet my surgeon regarding the follow up consultation. He said: good news! The lab report came out and the lump is not cancerous. The lump is what they called infarcted fibroadenoma.  I don’t know on how to put this term into a simpler word, in my understanding, the blood supply to the lump was cut off and makes the lump bigger than its original size. (Oh please correct me if I’m wrong).  The doctor said he didn’t know on how I got the lump on the first place and on how it could’ve gotten that big. Maybe not all questions need to be answered. He said that I will need to have a check up in the next six months just to make sure that everything will be okay. When I asked him whether there’s any food to avoid, he said: “We don’t believe in those kinds of things. If you wanted to eat anything, just eat, but not in front of your mom.” He knows my mom too well! Haha. He also said that I will need to do an ultrasound scan in another six months to monitor my health. Will do Doc!

So that was the end of my exciting and surprising two weeks. I am so grateful that even though I have to face a difficult situation, God opens many door for me. I am also grateful that I am surrounded by lots of people who genuinely care about me.

I believe that life will take you to unexpected places, meet unpredictable people which will change our lives forever. No matter how hard your situation it is right now, just be grateful and believe that you have a bigger God than all of your problems. He always has the perfect timing for all of us and He makes everything beautiful in its time J

Life is Full of Surprise - Part 1

We always know that time flies, especially when unexpected thing happened in our lives.

In January, I think I had my life in fast forward. Life is fragile, yet it is beautiful with its ups and downs. In two weeks time, I discovered that I had a lump on my left breast, had my first mammography, and went to a cardiologist and being cut open to remove the lump.

This post might be a bit blunt, but sharing about my personal experience hopefully will help some people who are in the same situation.

Friday, January 2^nd, 2015

I was really tired after work on New Year. So that evening I decided to pamper myself at a spa nearby. I had a scrub and massage service then. During the scrubbing process, the masseuse (a.k.a mbak lulur) said to me that she found something irregular on the top of my left breast.  She said that there are a lump on my breast (you know how the masseuse worked, trying to remove every dirt from your skin). Then I touched the lump by myself. ‘Holy crap’, I told myself.  I never checked myself thoroughly like this before. The masseuse said that I should go and check it to the doctor, because we, as women, we never know on what could’ve changed in our body with the hormones and all that stuff.  It could’ve been because I was going to have my period, but I know this is different and my head started to think about all the possibilities on what could’ve gone wrong. I couldn’t even bath or sleep properly since I realized that there’s a lump on my left breast. That’s the thing about your brain. Once it started to get into your head, you need to hypnotize yourself that everything will be fine.

When I went home, I told my mum about the lump and we decided not to discuss about it further more that time, because it was already late - which we all know that it means that we will not have a good night sleep until we surely know on what that lump is.

Saturday, January 3^rd, 2015

At this time my mum and I was also on our second out of three cervical cancer vaccine shots from a doctor. So that morning my dad drove us to get the shots. My dad was curiously asked whether there’s a chance of side effect from the vaccine shots to my body. The doctor said that the vaccine is completely safe. Then when we asked about the doctor’s opinion regarding the lump on breast. He said that we need to test it to make sure if the lump is cancerous or not. And he said in a very casual way. As if it was not a big deal – errr... Then he added about a story on his younger year about a young nurse who was still single and had a breast cancer and she had to remove some parts of her breast. Doc, errr…  You didn’t give me any enlightenment either.

Then I remembered one of my friends had similar case few years ago. She had a lump on her breast and had it removed. Then I started to ask about things to her - the symptoms and the doctors she went to, plus the procedure that she been through.  At that time I was almost sure that what I had isn’t cancerous, but then, I am not a doctor. Even google said: you should go and see the doctor. Do not let Google decide it for you.

Monday, January 5^th, 2015

That morning I decided to go to a General Practitioner whom my friend went to for her first examination. This is the first time I met this doctor. The doctor is quite famous if you are lived in Kelapa Gading (hoho). Then when I met her, she asked about my concern. I told her about the lump and how I (oh, I mean mbak2 tukang lulur) just realized it was there. Then she asked me to lie down on the examination bed, took of my shirts and bra, and she started to examine both of my breast manually (using hands). When it comes to my left breast, she examined it more thoroughly and tried to ‘move’ the lump and to make sure that moves around easily. The Doctor said that my lump is quite big, it is around 4cm and she suggested me to take and ultrasound test at the hospital. She said not to be worry because most probably the lump is not serious, and she also recommended a doctor in Singapore.

So I had my first USG test at Gading Pluit Hospital. During the test, the doctor explains regarding the ultra sound procedure. I always thought that USG is always related to pregnancy, never thought that I had it first for my breast examination. Life is full of surprise!  So from the USG screening we can see that the lump was there on my upper left breast, and yeah, my feeling is a hundred and eight degrees the opposite of a mom seeing her baby on the USG test for the first time. It was tears of sadness instead of joy, and the horror becomes real, seeing that lump, there, staring back at me. *horror music plays*  Same as manual examination from the General Practitioner, the doctor who did my test said that I need to see a specialist or surgeon to make sure about my lump.

We asked some people regarding the best doctor and specialist for this matter, and with certain considerations, we (me and my parents) decided to have a consultation and perform the surgery (if needed) in Singapore.

To be continue in part 2 *click here* :)