Late last month my mum went through a CT scan and the result showed that she needed further test. So today I went with her to hospital for a bronchscopy.
We reached hospital in the early morning, after answered a long list of questions, she was told her procedure won’t take place till 3 hours later. Due to Covid, we did not want to be at the hospital waiting around, so we went to the park for a walk then spent sometime at a library near by. One thing I am grateful of was the two big hospitals near us both have very big parks near by. While you waiting for a test there is green space to walk about. Whenever I was walking in these parks, I wonder how many secrets these trees would have known from all those people who walked through them.
When we retuned again for the delayed test, we were told the translator isn’t available onsite. So I said I would go in to the room with my mum as a translator. The nurse kindly remind me if I felt nervous or dizzy I can go outside. My mum was also glad I could be next to her. I guess the doctors and nurses didn’t want to end up attending to a scared support person while the patient is being treated.
The procedure was straightforward, they put a pipe down mum’s chest and lungs and to look closely at the area of concern, then take out some samples for further testing. It must be really uncomfortable but my mum did really well. One thing she didn’t get use to with NZ’s health system was that the tests result won’t be ready on the same day. Comparing to the health system in China, you wait for hours for all the procedures to be done in one day, then doctors would deliver the result to you in a few minutes of time, then next patient is waiting to be seen. Unless you have very good private care or government health care, the hospital visits can be a highly stressful situations for most ordinary people. Here it may take weeks to get your appointment, but once you are seen by the doctor, there was time just for you to understand what is going on with your body and if you have any concerns or questions. Each doctor specialise in one specific area, today there were two doctors onsite, one is to carry out the procedure another is to check the samples are good enough to be further tested. However we won’t know the result until we have another appointment with the specialist, who would look at my mum’s health issues from all the tests then come to a conclusion of what might be the solution. It looks like we will know more of the full result by early Oct, unless they see something needs urgent treatment then my mum will be seen even earlier.
I am surprised by how calm I am sitting there waiting for the procedure to end. Of course, its uncomfortable to see mum lying in bed with tubes inside of her. However, I kept telling myself that we do the best we can until we know more. When we know more, we do better. I am getting better to focus on the task at hands instead of worrying too much ahead. I am not a doctor, I will leave it to the doctor and the health specialists to figure out what is going on. What I can do is support my mum as best as I can, and if need to, I will learn and research on how to do better in any set of situation we face together.
Till then.
LIYANG'S THOUGHTS 