OCTOBER 8 — Being put into early menopause feels like a high-speed train to Geriatric City.
Cutting off my hormone supply so my cancer doesn’t get a chance to return is necessary but the premature ageing bit is not fun.
My eyes are dry, my joints creak and I struggle to stand upright and walk in more than an awkward shuffle.
Speaking of my eyes, I have postponed switching to multifocals for years, instead pushing up my glasses into my hairline so I can stare at my phone screen.
This is where I apologise to my father for always finding it amusing when he did the same when I was much younger.
I woke up Wednesday morning to find one stem of my spectacles’ nose guards had snapped cleanly off.
It happened the day after pay day so at least I could say my glasses had great timing in choosing when to break on me after three years.
What a bother it was at work; I could feel the other nose guard dig into the side of my nose distractingly, and so I set an appointment with an optometrist as soon as I was done for the day.
The reviews for the place (that I will not name) said prices were “reasonable”.
No one told me they were reasonable prices for a Fortune 500 CEO.
They’d advised me to get multifocals and I said sure, but when I saw the lens prices that started from nearly RM2,000 all the way up to nearly RM5,000 I decided to politely go somewhere less ruinous to my credit score.
Instead I went to my previous optical provider, the Japanese chain Owndays where I found out they had raised prices on the thinnest high-index lens.
It would be an additional RM300 for the skinniest lens but the upside was I would have a new (non-multifocal) pair in 20 minutes.
Inflation comes for us all, it seems, as just three years ago I paid less than RM450 to Owndays for my current prescription and lens thinness, frames included, even getting them the same day.
Still, if you’re not as horrifically near-sighted/inflicted with astigmatism as I am, Owndays is a good deal.
Someone had recommended a place in Setapak, Ideal Vision Optique Optical & Optometrist (look them up on Google Maps) and I asked them for a quote.
Though the prices were decent, alas, it was Setapak and I live in Kelana Jaya but I can say their prices even for so-called branded lenses were far better than what the other store was charging.
At least I wouldn’t be paying my entire take-home salary.
Perhaps one day when my Owndays lenses give out, I might take a trip down to Setapak.
People tell me that glasses can be had for cheap (RM100 even) at Sungai Wang but with my prescription (nearly legally blind) I would probably still have to pay more.
No one is paying me for these mentions of places to buy glasses just in case you’re wondering.
It is worth going to a proper optometrist, such as the ones at Tun Hussein Onn hospital, because as optometrists themselves have told me, some places (chain stores are notorious for this) give you overly high prescriptions.
Now if only there was some magic device that would make my joints less stiff but I don’t think I will be truly free of this maddening Tin Man body until I’m done with immunotherapy in February next year.
Every day I am humbled by my physical weakness.
Oh, what hubris and folly I had to think to myself when I saw an old person hunched over, that I could and would avoid that.
My phone does remind me however that I’ve come a long way in the last nine months.
From my first chemotherapy session on New Year’s Eve to a successful surgery in May, there is more to celebrate than bemoan.
I got to see my family, found out who my friends are and gained a bigger appreciation for the work I do and the people working with me.
Memories (and good food) sustain me even though my creaky joints and aching shoulder vex me on the daily.
I am just glad that all I have left is immunotherapy and the odd heart check-up to make sure it’s surviving treatment.
Like a snake, I’ve started shedding skin at my radiotherapy site.
Slowly but surely new skin is emerging though it still feels rather strange to see the darkened top layer of skin give way.
I am mindful that my experience is by most standards a lot smoother sailing than it is for others.
Seeing some doctors call for fees to be raised to fund doctors’ on-call rates raises my hackles.
Do something about the tax system instead.
Malaysia does not have capital gains taxes, even that proposed luxury tax was cancelled and there are far too many people earning too much to excuse their tax evasion.
The funny thing is that teachers giving extra tuition classes part-time are more likely to be audited than people whose books need a lot more scrutiny.
We can fund building some hypothetical new city, which I predict will be deader than Cyberjaya (remember the lofty aspirations for that place?) and all sorts of questionable projects but not pay doctors more?
At the same time insurance companies keep hiking their premiums and the response is just “well we’ll make them spread the hikes over a few years and if you can’t afford them, perhaps consider dying.”
Everyone, whether it’s the makcik selling nasi lemak on weekday mornings to the average salary person, deserves to have the time and ease to live, instead of being human hamsters running on a wheel they can’t get off.
Anyhow we need doctors to stop hating on their poorer patients and instead start questioning just how they got that poor in the first place.
Poverty alleviation is healthcare and until we take both seriously, prosperity for all will forever be a pipe dream or perhaps a lie we tell ourselves as the next Ice Age commences, because some of us will not stop making AI memes.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
