Treatment Day Two

The siren constantly hummed, a low and annoying echo. The radiologists went in and out of the room in a hurry, numerous times, as if something seems to be going wrong.

From a distance, I watched her lie in that room, mere metres away from me. Motionless, under a green hospital-issue blanket, I somehow cannot shake away the image of corpse lying in the morgue.

Mum was in the "operation room" for over an hour and a half. The technician explained later because of the metallic artificial spinal column installed after the surgery, the computer automatically shut down many times for fear of hitting the artificial spine. The gamma ray will deflect if it hits metallic objects, and the computer, with help of X-rays and infra-red scanners, is smart enough to detect if there are obstructions in the way of the targeted area. So the technician had to go in various times to adjust mum's position and the operation table to ensure as accurate a procedure as possible.

Mum looked visibly weak after she came out. She had to lie there in a mould that was made of her body earlier and keep perfectly still while the machine twists and turns above her head, while red beams scan the length of her body to continually calibrate the target coordinates.

But the day at the hospital was not over yet, for had another appointment with a new doctor to see if is anything wrong with her bowels. And immediately after that and X-Ray was taken.

By the time we got home it was already past three in the afternoon...