I promised Nik Aiza, a former colleague of mine, to blog her son's ailment a few weeks ago. I must apologise to her for not doing it earlier. I was travelling and doing some NGO work that made me forget what I had set out to do. I now want to rectify that. Hence, this piece.
Aiza's son, Rayyan, went through an extremely difficult period recently, As the doting mother, Aiza focussed all her energy into her son, The following is her e mail to me, which she had also sent to other friends.
It shows that one is never alone when faced adversity. There'll always be families, friends, acquaintances and complete strangers who, out of the kindness of their heart, will come out with deeds or kind words to help us see through the tough times. Aiza certainly had her share of such goodwill.
Let's hear her story:
"I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you for the well wishes, kind thoughts, encouragement, contribution & prayers during this difficult period. Rayyan was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in early March & was hospitalized in Pantai Medical Centre & then the Pediatric Cancer Ward in University Hospital.
"The total count of his white blood cells were extremely high & his platelets were really low, causing him to bruise easily. He is now undergoing chemo treatment which has several phases, depending on how well he responds to each phase & each phase lasts from about 2-5 weeks. He will finish his 2nd Phase by end of this week, followed by the next round of chemo.
"As the pictures show, he’s generally in high spirits when he’s not being jabbed or treated by the doctors. He especially enjoyed the visitors & gifts (especially Shakirah who is always excited to go to the hospital – never before in her whole life!) – and thank goodness for the portable DVD player! The hospital has volunteers who come over every week with small gifts & balloons.
"And sometimes there are organizations or companies that have small parties – it’s certainly an eye-opener to see that small efforts like these have a huge up-lifting effect not only for the patients, but the affected families & hospital staff as well.
"Rayyan is now at home & needs to visit the hospital every 3 days for his treatment. His blood count is still sometimes low & they’d give him a blood transfusion. There are several types of chemo drugs & ways to administer them. He has oral pills to be taken daily, medication to fight against pneumonia to be taken every 3 days, his hospital treatment is a jab on the butt & also another one thru IV.
"Every 15 days they also take a sample of his bone marrow to test & also to administer another drug thru there. The side effects differ from one person to another & this round of chemo drugs have increased his appetite & made him extra hyper as it works like steroids.
"As we go along, the chemo drugs will intensify & might cause him to get weaker, lose appetite & hair. He’ll need to go for surgery next week to insert something like a chemo-port, which is a tube that’s inserted thru the neck and comes out from his chest.
"The drugs will be administered thru the tube as it is more central & his tiny veins might not be able to “carry” the strong drugs. The doctors have assured us that this is a better choice as it reduces the frequency of his jabs, but we’d have to take extra care of the tube so that it’s not exposed to bacteria.
"When we go for his check-ups, he’d be extremely distressed when we’re in the treatment room, but he’s immediately cheerful again once we leave. I’m relieved that he doesn’t really act like someone who is ill. Insyaallah he’ll be alright as long as things go as planned & we don’t face any set-backs such as fever or falling down.
"With his low blood count & weak immune system due to the chemo, these would be his biggest challenges.
'It’s certainly a difficult journey, but one that must be done for him to return to health. On behalf of my whole family, I’d like to say thanks again to everyone. There are no words to express how thankful we are to have the support of so many. We can only hope that all the blessings will be returned to you & your respective families as well.
"With warm regards,
-Aiza, Izlan, Shakirah & Rayyan."
8 comments:
Tq for sharing that Datuk. Seeing through a member of the family dealing with cancer is never easy on anyone-both patient and family. Our prayers for Nik Aiza and her son Rayyan and wishing all of them a safe journey in these difficult times.
I read your blog on Nik Aiza's son today and I must say I am touched by your gesture and saddened by the ordeal she and her immediate family must be going through.
I guess in our hurried lives which is full of petty little needs like a beautiful house, a fast car, some nice and beautiful ornaments to decorate ourselves, we forget that life is so fragile and valuable. We are almost brought to a halt, not to mention brought to our knees when we hear of such news - when lives of peole suddenly change course.
I must say that you have, if at all brought home an important point in sharing this in your blog - that we must cherish time with family and friends and thank the Almighty everyday for the blessings we have and our life in general.
Thank you Datuk.
I also offer my prayers to the Almighty for his grace and compassion on healing Rayyan quickly.
Datuk,
Saya mendoakan agar usaha Datuk untuk membantu Rayyan akan diberkati Allah SWT sepanjang masa.
Sejak di NSTP lagi, saya melihat bantuan seumpama ini bukanlah asing bagi Datuk. Malah kenduri bersama anak yatim hampir setiap tahun yang dianjurkan Datuk dan rakan-rakan akan menjadi ingatan sepanjang hayat.
Sdr,
It's the little thing like this that we enjoyed doing so tremendously when we were at Jalan Riong.
It might seem to be small to us but it meant a lot to those we and our readers touched.
I hope you have a good trip back to Nias to visit Mahathir muda, and your efforts to help the Iraqi girl.
Little power judiciously applied brings a lot of good.
A lot of power wrongly applied causes a lot of harm.
I wish our powerful Brothers Syed Nazri and Manja understand this.
Teruskan usaha-usha murni datuk, terutama untuk mereka yang kerdil dan selalu terlepas pandang.
Datuk yang sentiasa prihatin,
Disaat begini, saya doakan semoga ikatan hubungan antara Aiza & suami juga ahli keluarga yang lain bertambah kukuh, dapat bersandar pada kekuatan semangat satu sama lain untuk bersama melalui dugaan ini. Syukur Alhamdulillah saya telah dirahmati Allah SWT sebegitu.
Tentunya juga doa saya untuk Rayyan agar Allah pulihkan kesihatannya dan dia membesar menjadi anak yang Soleh. Saya yakin Aiza & suami tidak terlupa bahawa Shakirah juga perlukan perhatian.
Teladan yang Datuk tunjukkan ini wajar dicontohi oleh kita semua.
Salam Datuk
My cousin's son was diagnosed with the same kind of ailment when he was four years old.
Treatment was tough on the little kid. He lost his lovely locks and weight too.
We didn't think he would make it but he proved us wrong. He is today a healthy 20 year old.
Allah SWT is great.
I pray for Rayyan's well-being and that of his family.
datuk, I was so surprised reading this. knowing aiza personally when I was an intern there, I felt so bad for not keeping in touch with her. remembered those days she used to show me pictures of her baby girl syakirah and little baby rayyan. heck, when I entered maxis, she just finished her maternity leave.
thanks a lot datuk for updating us on this. sometimes, we get too consumed with our lives, the hot issues of the nation, this and this got married la, this and this got sued la, this and this got elected la, lets bury this and this politician alive la, but we didn't focused on the real life, real people who suffers. and for that, I thanked you!
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