Radiotheraphy week 8#

It was my last week of treatment. I was happy as everything will finish. Pleasingly, my weight increased 1 kg, not bad. But still, I lose my appetite, I lose the sense of taste and I had got some headache, I did not vomit, I felt less tired. With those reports, I had a consultation with my doctor at the following day. She even did not realize that that week was my last week. Perhaps, she hoped that I will stay longer (hahaha). She explained me that everything will become normal soon. So what I could do was being patience and trying to increase my weight. The next consultation would be on March 2014 and then it would be every 6 months. 

Finally, the last day had come. There was no late. One side, I was happy and another side I was not happy to say goodbye. The hospital and the nurses were very kind, nice and warm to me. Like a coin, there will be the end if there is the beginning. At the end of the treatment, the nurses said that I was cooperative and didn't complain too much. I said in my mind that it was because I couldn't speak French to response their questions. I didn't forget to say thank to the nurses (who kindly helped me and gave their smile during the treatment), secretariats (who always greet me with warm bonjour) and also my taxy driver Eddie (who was very kind). Last, I leave the hospital by saying au revoir!!!.....

Radiotherapy week7#

Such a long journey it was, my 5th-6th week of radiotheraphy. Loosing the sense of taste, having double jetlag, passing unpredictable new year eve in Bangkok Airport, taking my first A380 would be my own unforgettable experiences during the radiotheraphy. Since the first day of the 7th week, some questions totally filled my mind:

• why didn't finish the treatment first, and then went to my country?;
• why did I make the professional affair as my priority at the time instead of my health?;

For sure, I ever thought that I will not waste money if I didn't do such journey. I was also afraid with the bad effects that might be appear if I pause the treatment. Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining. Thanks God, now I have a position as a lecturer at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia in the field of chemistry and I don't find any health problems after the treatments.

As the previous weeks, I started the week by weighing my weight. Surprisingly, there was no change. Tuesday, I met my doctor and explain her my condition. To make sure, she asked me to do the blood test. And we will see the results next week.

There were a lot of trouble in the machine in my 7th week. We had to wait for several time and the worst was 1h30. Frankly, it was horrible. At the same time, I met many people. There were some patients who were patience and some patients were impatience (perhaps, because they were tired). Usually, I did not speak too much to other patients because my French was bad. What I did was listening to their conversation and trying to understand. I was afraid to interrupt their conversation and to join them with my bad French. But at that day (Wednesday) an old woman (who has similar schedule like mine) asked me to speak. She had a tumor near her eyes. She spoke about her disease and life. 

Until that day, I thought that I was the youngest patience. Apparently I was, until there was a 3-years-old kid who came to the tomotherapy room with wheel chair. He came with his mother and a nurse. He was bald and very thin. Believe it or not, He had got a tumor in his head, like me. In my case, I was operated and then was treated with the ray. In his case, he was treated with the ray. After the radiotheraphy, the doctor will decide whether he would be operated or not. The treatment time for him arrived. While waiting her little boy, the mom spoke to the patients. She spoke very fast and one question that I understood the meaning was "why do you have the hairs while doing the treatment?". Didn't she see me?. I was bald, no hair. Maybe, she knew that I am foreigner and she thought that I couldn't speak French (I couldn't). In my opinion, the question was normal for her as a mother. All the people at the waiting room shared their empathy to each others. Unfortunately, the machine went down when he was on the machine. How poor the little kid!. Ten minutes after, the machine re-worked and he passed the treatment at the day. He came out from the room in sleeping condition. The old woman next to me asked the nurse why he slept. The nurse said that, he was injected with local anesthetic in order to make him sleep and did not move during the treatment. What a sad!!!....Thanks to the nurses who gave us some drink and snack while waiting.

There was nothing special on Friday and there was no late on the treatment. Having finished the treatment, the nurse gave me the schedule for the next week. At the moment, I was surprised why the schedule ended at Thursday. But suddenly I figured out the answer, next week would be my last week of radiotheraphy!....

Radiotheraphy week5-6#

I asked my doctor to have her permission since I would like to go to Indonesia for a week. We have already discussed it long time ago before the treatment began. Actually, she did not totally agree if I go to Indonesia at that period. This was because the treatment has been started for 4 weeks and she was afraid that if we stopped the treatment for a while, there would be a problem in my tumor. Finally, she gave me permission to leave.

 

Since it was a high season, so I took the cheapest flight. It was Marseille-Barcelone-Berlin-Abu Dhabi-Jakarta-Jogjakarta with the duration of more than 30h. It seemed crazy by taking such itinerary. But, yeah it was, I was crazy. I have a different-or maybe strange- "behavior" in this case. I love aviation, I like travelling, I enjoy to stay in the airport and in the airplane for a long time, I prefer to take several transits to visit new places-although only transit). By taking this itinerary, I could visit Barcelone (my favorite city), I would transit in the two new places, Berlin and Abu Dhabi and I would use three new airlines that I've never taken before, Vueling, Air Berlin and Etihad. That's me.

 

The journey was started. I went to Barcelone and met my best friend Nuzuly Tara (she used to be a student in Marseille and she did her internship in Barcelone). Then, I continued my flight to Berlin. I had 5 hours of transit and I decided to go out of the airport and had city sight seeing. For sure, that was one of a good points travelling in Europe. I could say that I also have a "vacation" in Berlin and Barcelone. Then, it was the time to say goodbye to Berlin and say Hi to Abu Dhabi. I liked Abu Dhabi airport, it was big and there were a lot of facilities for the passengers. I love travelling by airplane and enjoy to have long haul flight. In this flight, I felt different. I did not totally enjoy the flight and it was really tiring (it was because of the treatment, for sure).

 

The journey continued to the final country. Finally, I arrived in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, it was 23.00. My next flight would be at 6.40 at the following day. At the time, I flied Garuda Indonesia from Jakarta to Jogjakarta with the main reason that the terminal for Garuda is in the international terminal and I could take a rest comfortably inside the terminal. But, when I went to the Garuda terminal, the officer say that it is closed during the night and will be opened two hours before the first flight in the early morning. I said, it was disaster and I have to stay outside during the night???. In my normal condition, maybe I could accept that. But at the time, I would say again that it was disaster with my condition. I had no choice and I had to wait outside. The other bad things were waiting for me outside. First, the different weather. In December, it is winter in Europe and it was hot and sunny all the time in my country. The different weather made me feel more tired. Second, there were a lot of people outside (they would go to Saudi Arabia to have Umra). So, there was no much place to take a rest. Such a disaster!!!!.

 

Finally, I arrived in my city, Jogjakarta. Having finished my work there, I asked my friends to hang out together and tried different kind of Indonesian foods. Although, I tried many kind of food, I couldn't enjoy their taste because they were tasteless for me. There was nothing I can do and i had to accept it.

 

The time passed very fast and the time to go back to Marseille had arrived. In this journey, my itinerary was Jogjakarta-Jakarta-Abu Dhabi-Dusseldorf-Marseille. The flight was nice and I arrived to Dusseldorf. I went to the passport control and there was a problem. The police said that I could not enter Europe with my documents. At the time I had "Recipisse pour Demander Titre De Sejour". This is a temporary document before obtaining the French identity card. This document is given as the preparation of the card is time consuming. Principally, the recipisse is equal with the identity card.  I had explained everything to the police. But, the police did not accept that. I was REALLY panic at the time and i had no idea what should i do. At the end, the police said that I had to go back to my country and prepare the visa. I had no choice and believe it or not, my next flight was heading to Indonesia instead of Barcelone.

 

I said hi again to Abu Dhabi airport. Fortunately, the flight to Jakarta was delayed for most than 7 hours. It means that i did not need to spend the whole night outside the airport  like the last journey. I spent the 7 hours to take a rest and search the information about the legality of my document and i found that my document is legal and i could enter Europe. Having arrived in Jakarta, I directly searched another DIRECT flight heading to France. I chose Thai Airways. Two things that made me smile were I would visit Thailand at the new year eve and I would use Airbus A380. Thanks God, the first time i could fly A380 was at the 1st of January 2014. EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING.

 

Welcome to Paris Charles de Gaulle. Honestly, I was a little bit afraid to pass the passport control. Afraid that the same incident would be happened as in Dusseldorf. Pleasingly, I had the stamp on the airport which mean that i could enter Europe. I clarified whether i could enter the Europe with the recipisse or not. And, the police said, "yes and the Germany police is strange". I took the TGV (fast train) from Paris Airport to Marseille. From Marseille train station, i directly go to Romain's house. We spoke about everything that happened to me. Ten minutes later, I had a deep sleep due to the "double jet lag"............