When I first arrived in the morning, there were no kids at the hospital yet, so I decided to go upstairs to visit the admitted patient and spend some time with her. It was her second day in the room with little to do. I brought some toys and activities for us to pass the time together. Her father was in the room as well, and it was really tough to see and hear how much his daughter’s diagnosis was affecting him too. The lack of sleep and the stress of not knowing how to help his child and relieve her pain were evident.
After spending the entire morning doing crafts with her, I went back downstairs for lunch. Ate Shao, the head of Kythe here in Cebu, had brought us some traditional Filipino food. We had fried pork with vinegar and soy sauce, lumpia—a type of spring roll—with bamboo shoots in one and bean sprouts in another, served with a spicy sauce. And of course, no Filipino meal is complete without rice. This time, it was a Cebuano speciality called puso, or "hanging rice," boiled inside woven palm leaves.
After that delicious meal, another patient arrived at the Cebu Cancer Institute (CCI). She had a procedure where they had to inject chemotherapy and other medications deep into her back. It was the first procedure I had witnessed in the two weeks I've been here, and it was fascinating to see how it was done, including the before and aftercare. After the procedure, she needed to rest and sleep, so I went back upstairs to spend more time with the other patient before returning downstairs to make bracelets and play Jenga with the patient once she woke up.
Overall, it was a really nice day, getting to spend more one-on-one time with the patients.
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