Chapter 5

“Last month, I looked for Doctor Ang when I started to have a fever that cannot be cured by panadol. I also felt breathless and slept more than fourteen hours a day. And, I had many bruises on my leg that never recovered. Sometimes, rashes appear all over my body and it’s really disgusting, like chicken pox! You remember who is Doctor Ang? I often call him Lao Ang. The doctor who treated your chicken pox.”

I nodded.

“And, after I took some pills, I did not recover. I drank a lot of soups, but it did not help. So, Doctor Ang gave me a blood test. Then, he said something was wrong, and gave me many papers. Then, he asked me to go to the ‘cancer clinic’ here. I took bus 198 here. The doctor here is an idiot. He saw my tests, said I might have blood or bone mother cancer, or whatever. Then, he took more tests. And asked me to stay here. Waste of time. Then, some idiot gave me some injection in the hip, saying that it was some test. And, then, they confirmed I got blood cancer. My bone mother is not working well. Just like that. And, yeah, that doctor who treats me; Doctor… O, P, Q, R, S, T… Doctor “T”, he’s an idiot.”

“Why?” I whispered.

“Well, he kept on saying that he would not keep anything from me; that he would be transparent with me… and, then, he bombed me with medical terms that I know nothing of. Idiot, right? He kept on saying that blood cancer is… liu kee ma. Sounds like some Chinese wine. That my mother bone is creating blood things that is not immature. He’s the immature idiot!”

I turned to Terry. He was nodding at my mother’s words.

“Are you receiving treatment?”

“Yeah. Something that will kill cancer things, according to the T doctor. Well, I think, if something can kill cancer, then there will also be something that can make pigs fly and cats speak Chinese.”

I tried to force out a smile. “How can I speak to Doctor Tee?”

“You know, sometimes, when you speak of the idiot, the idiot will come. It’s kind of cursed.”

I turned my head. A tall balding man was standing at the end of my mother’s bed. He wore a blue shirt and a yellow tie. I estimated him to be at least fifty years old. He was holding on to a file.

“Doctor Tee?” I stood up. Doctor Tee smiled and extended his hand for a handshake. We introduced each other, shook our hands and exchanged name cards.

“Now, T-ko idiot, don’t you dare try to ask my daughter out! That’s her husband here!” my mother pointed at Terry repeatedly. “You hear me?”

Doctor Tee just nodded as he walked towards my mother. After a series of questions targeted at my mother, he turned and was about to go when I stopped him.

“Doctor Tee, can I speak to you personally?” I asked.

Doctor Tee stared at me and, then, turned his attention to my mother. He seemed to be thinking hard. “Personally, Mrs. Tan?”

I nodded.

“Let’s go to the waiting area, then.” he said, hunching his chin down to his collar.

“Hey, T-idiot, don’t you dare do anything funny to my daughter, you idiot!”

“Mama!” I yelled.

“Madam Lee, your daughter asked to speak to me, not the other way round.”

As we walked off the ward, my mother was bombing curses at Doctor Tee for the next two minutes. I did not make an effort to stop her cursing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“You can go back first, dear.” I told Terry, as we followed Doctor Tee. He greeted almost all the nurses who passed him.

“I’m-”

“They need you.” I said.

Terry owns a design firm, TeVector Studio. When I first met Terry, he had just started out with only one full-time employee. Now, six years later, the company has ten full-time staff, including me, and over ten freelancers.

I joined his company full-time two years ago, after failing to get into a University. With my interest in drawing, Terry offered me a position of Graphic Artist. I stayed in the job. I was happy working with my passion.

“Not after I’ve known what happened to her.” he said. “She’s your mother. She’s my mother-in-law.”
The waiting area was just metres away from my mother’s ward. There were about ten small seats positioned in L-shape with a coffee table at the centre. There was even a television in front of the seats. The entire room looked like a petite HDB apartment living room. A young nurse was sitting on one of the seats, her eyes glued to the television that was not switched on.

Doctor Tee motioned us to the seats and offered water. We politely rejected and, then, he settled down on one of the seats. “I just wanna tell you that I’m married to a wonderful woman called Grace and we’ve got two daughters. I think my elder daughter is about your age.” he nodded at me. “So, well, that’s to clear the foggy air that your mother had created.”

I tried to force out a laugh. “I’m sorry about that, Doctor Tee. My mother does not get along well with people.”

“I can tell.” Upon that, Doctor Tee dropped his pen and added, “I’m sorry.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Alright, Mrs Tan, I’d like to tell you that the information I’m going to tell you now is level: This is what I know, this is what your mother knows and, now, this is what you know. I’ll be totally transparent.

“Your mother is suffering from an acute form of blood cancer. We call it the Acute Myelogenous Leukaemia. Before she was sent here, a GP referred her to the Cancer Clinic. When we got her test, we saw an abnormal amount of white blood cells in her blood count. We did another complete blood count test. After a few more tests, we did a bone marrow aspiration. There was presence of leukaemia cells in her bone marrow. Our tests and her symptoms point to Acute Myelogenous Leukaemia which, in short, is called AML.”

I clutched my hand, feeling the coldness. I remembered people dying from leukaemia. Those television dramas always showed people dying from leukaemia. So far, none of the characters in the dramas that I had watched survived leukaemia.

“Upon seeing her condition and her high white blood cells count, I admitted her here immediately. Her platelets levels are low, as well. In short, she’s pretty weak. We’ve transfused blood and platelets for her. She has to stay in the isolation ward so that she will not be infected with other illnesses due to her weakened immune system. Given her condition now, her ability to fight off infections is very low.”

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