Solitary Confinement

Last October 9 to 13, I underwent a therapy (Radio Active Iodine) at St. Luke’s Medical Center. It was a ‘doctor imposed’ solitary confinement cum therapy to correct the misbehaving cells inside my body. The result of the therapy was positive because the medicine and the misbehaving cells met and are now in the process of challenging each other. The battle will take 3 to 5 months and I pray that the medicine wins the battle.

Let me tell you about the therapy process. A patient has to drink a specific amount of radio active stuff then you have to flush it out of your system as fast as you can. Sounds weird, huh? You drink a medicine that aims to cure you but you have to flush it out of your system asap! You are confined in a room where nobody can visit you until the radiation level is safe for other human beings. Sabi nga nung intern “Sir, how does it feel to glow in the dark?”

How did I keep myself busy for 5 grueling days? I watched TV, prayed the rosary, watched TV, read magazines, watched TV, slept and watched TV. By the way, did I say I watched TV? I watched so much TV that I think I used up the remote control battery. Of course that’s exaggeration raised to the Nth power. I prepared myself to watch TV that I printed out the program schedules of HBO, Cinemax, StarTV, ESPN, Discovery Channel, NAT GEO, et al.

During my last day, the doctor said that I had to stay 1 more day because the test result was flawed and they had to do another test. I said 1 more day in this hospital will drive me nuts so I told him that I’ll just come back the following day and do the re-test. Sheesh! He wants me to watch more TV! I wasn’t prepared for this, I printed out TV skeds until Oct 13 only. Besides I miss my family already so I just had to get out of that joint, pronto!