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Saturday, April 16, 2011

Saturday 16 April 2011 - Treatment Day 470



Mum worked today. Aunty Lina called around noon, saying that Omar had suspected chickenpox. He had one spot on his face, and they went to see Dr Jack, a GP at Plaza Damansara. He said it looked like chickenpox.

Mum called Dr Lin and asked him what to do. He said chickenpox was very dangerous for leukaemic patients. This is because their immune systems are low. He said I needed an injection to prevent me from getting chickenpox. He told mum that we must not play around when it comes to chickenpox and that it could seriously affect the lungs. He had to check with the hospital pharmacy if the injection was in stock because there are not many available and it is very expensive at RM1,300.

After a few minutes, he called mum back and said that they had it, so we could come now. Luckily they had it, as it is a weekend, and he wasn't sure what we should do if the hospital didn't have it. He said to mum that "Things always happen on a weekend!" Mum agreed.

He said the effects of the injection would last about two to three months. So if I get exposed to chickenpox again after that, I'll have to have it again. But the injection would help to prevent chickenpox or I would at least get a not so serious form of chickenpox.


I didn't really understand what it all meant and cried when mum said it was very important that I get this injection today. I wasn't sure if it would hurt or not. Some injections really hurt, like the Aspa chemo injection that must be injected into the leg muscle. And I'd wanted to go to the Curve with dad to enter a lucky draw for meet & greet passes for Justin Bieber. We already have tickets for the concert. But we had to go to SDMC instead.

Dr Lin had gone home by the time we got there but he had told mum to go to the Emergency Room and get the injection done there.

I had my temperature and blood pressure checked by a nice nurse. Dad had to go and buy the injection from the pharmacy. It is called Varicella Zoster Immune Globulin. There are further details on it here from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

I got hungry after we waited for an hour. I ate a bar of Cadbury's dairy chocolate while waiting and did some Maths and Jawi, the Arabic alphabet, work on the iPad.

Finally the nice nurse called me and got me to lie on a bed and she gave me the injection. She did it really slowly so as not to hurt me too much but I just told her to hurry up because she was doing it too slowly.



After that was done, I got hungry again so dad took me for a late lunch at 3pm at Sushi King. I had salmon teriyaki, udon noodles, two plates of kani mayo (crabstick and mayonnaise sushi), chawanmushi and iced lemon tea.

Mum went out in the evening to get a copy of The Edge weekly for work. It wasn't in any of the newsagents near our house. In the end, she found it at the MPH bookshop at Great Eastern Mall. She hadn't planned on going to a bookshop. She ended up buying lots of books, including a new cupcake book for me that came with a cupcake stand, and lots of workbooks on Maths and Jawi.

I decided to try a McDonald's cheeseburger for dinner. I've never eaten one before. I used to hate beef. But I'm starting to not mind eating beef now. Dad bought me the cheeseburger without any pickles, vegetables or sauce. I can't eat raw vegetables because of the chemo and I don't like pickles or sauce. Then I was still hungry so I had a Nestum donut after that. I'm on steroids again this week so I have been extra-hungry.

QOTD: "So what if I get chickenpox. I don't want the injection. I've never tried it."

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