Today was a bit quiet as there were only 2 patients with which Kythe works. This is because there are two different pediatric oncologists of which one has more patients. One of the patients was a 10-year-old boy who has been battling cancer since he was 10 months old being one of the patients Kythe has worked with for the longest. At first, he was a bit shy and kept to himself playing some games on his phone but with time he started opening up and ended up talking about all kinds of things from history to some funny videos he saw online. He told us all about his video games and even showed us how to play them. He played a bit with some of the playdough that was there but he mostly just enjoyed talking, so that is what we did. Once he had finished his treatment we were informed that most days he is home alone as both his parents work and there have been recent difficulties at home making him more irritable and less accepting of the treatment when he comes to the hospital. Seeing him today, we would not have been able to tell as he was so outgoing and happy, it was heartwarming to see that spending time with him today made him just as happy as it made us. We also spent a large part talking with the other patient that Kythe works with. She is 21 years old, but despite not being a child anymore, Kythe still offers their services as she first came for their help when she was below 18. It is a hard week for her as she has to come in every day to get chemo treatments making her suffer from lots of side effects like nausea, and overall not making her very comfortable. It was very interesting to talk to her because she is a bit older so she knows more about what is going on around her in the hospital. Just like many of Kythes other patients, she does not come from Cebu but from other provinces. Coming to the hospital is quite a long trip so for this week of chemo, she is staying in a lodging specifically allocated for people who come to the city for medical treatments, most of which are cancer patients. Knowing all the hardships she has to go through at the moment and all the discomfort she is feeling, it's hard to think that at the end of the day, she can’t even go back to her own home.
It's sad to see how long some of them have had to live with cancer and how it has completely changed their life, not always being able to attend school and having to sometimes miss out on major opportunities like going to university.
While the patients were resting a bit, we went to a separate room and started thinking of activities and things to do for the next week. Often, activities that include medical supplies are done to try and make the children feel more comfortable around the supplies and not only see them as what causes them pain. We came up with some activities that can be done with the medical supplies available and we will continue to make more preparations most probably on Friday as that is usually a less busy day.
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