Shocking Sunday

 Animals in the zoo are quiet

By 10am, the gynae ward was almost like a zoo.  Although visiting hours was at 12 pm, families started to arrive and talk loudly. Children ran around, some even jumped up and down on empty beds, yelling.  Adults carried handphones and talked loudly to the phones besides chit-chatting loudly even though there is a sign, “Be quiet”.  

I got out of my bed and pulled the curtain surrounding my bed because the families visiting the patients on my right and left were so loud.  It was disturbing, young men peeked into the curtain even when I was tying my sarong.  And when I wanted to go to the toilet, every one stared at me. Since the toilet door can’t really be locked, I had to be careful no one budged in. The visiting families also competed to use the toilet even though there is a sign in BM – for Patients only.

The worst is the toilet seat. Someone stood on the toilet seat, I can see shoe prints on the seat. With my ascites bag and collapsed vein, I found it extremely difficult trying to use the toilet. The murky and moldy smell made me want to throw up. Since I had to go to toilet many times in a day – peeing and doing the big business to get rid of water, it makes life at the ward equivalent to ‘suffering’.

This is how the toilet seat looks like every day, with footprints

Worst, the family members didn’t even wash their hands after toilet. The toilet door handle was oily from people who washed plastic containers after eating the ‘ta pau’ food. The toilet paper I put inside the toilet was free for all! Strewn all over the floor as if it were cost free.

I couldn’t rest with all the noises around me.

By night time, I finally fell very tired. But sleep eluded me. The ward was full of chemo patients who cried, moaned all night.

God, where are you?

By Ching Ching