Living with a cancer afflicted patient – Part 47

The comforts and anxieties of day care

I’m seated next to my father as his hour long infusion is going on. He is seated on one of the four beds in the oncology day care room. Curtains are drawn to separate the patients and give them some private room. Quick succession of syringes sucking chemicals out of glass vials followed by disposing crashing sounds. Someone flushes the toilet while a patient groans in bed. No one plays the tv but youtube continues on mobile devices. Silent pacing of nursing staff and a machine beeps in a corner.

I am used to these visits to the hospital. Have adapted myself to the comfort of a chair and silence that snoozing patients bring in the room. Each one of them managing their own business. Their own pain and their own journeys.

Yet, one aspect that continues to amaze me every time I’m here, is the anxiety that follows while interacting with the doctors. Despite preparing my questions and concerns, the idea of requesting something from the doctor seems difficult. Why is that?

As Dad nudges me to ask multitude of questions to the visiting doctor, I sense the ears of all the other patients listening to me. I gear myself to ask the questions as the doctor pushes the curtain to dad’s bed. “Kaise hain?,” he announces. (How’re you?)…