DECEMBER 17 — I spent five hours at the hospital this week for my usual immunotherapy session and it was draining.
Thanks to the cold weather we’ve been having, the already cold oncology daycare ward turned into Antarctica.
The nurse asked if I felt any pain anywhere and I quipped, “I can’t really feel my hands anymore.”
That was something we had in common apparently, it was that cold.
I thought I could forgo bringing my own blanket but next time I’m taking it with me; even with a shirt on top of my thick t-shirt, socks and long pants, I was still shivering.
By the time I got to the ward, all the clean blankets were gone.
Whichever bean counter thought it was a savings not to provide extra blankets, may you be reincarnated into lichen.
Then there was a mix-up about my IV placement so I had to spend half an hour waiting for a nurse to be free to check on my IV.
Too many patients, too few nurses, too much time waiting or what I call the Keening Death Knell of our Public Healthcare Overture I.
I now have a raised swollen bump at my IV site, which is new and I have to cross my fingers that it won’t get infected.
The good news is my oncologist reviewed my latest echocardiogram and my heart has again survived all the strain of immunotherapy.
I recently found out my kind of cancer puts me at a higher risk of it metastasising to my brain.
It’s because the drugs administered to me, Herceptin included, don’t cross the brain barrier so if a stray cancer cell somehow finds its way to my brain it would be a Very Bad Thing.
The likelihood is low, at least for me, as my previous PET scan showed the cancer was localised to my right breast and a few lymph nodes, with no evidence of any of my cells taking a voyage elsewhere.
Being a cancer patient means you think a lot more about death and dying, which makes me quite irate about MyDigitalID being again flogged on us when we did not ask for this.
Apparently we will now need it for weddings and, get this, deaths.
On the list of ever growing things we did not ask for, now death certificates will be tied to our digitalID.
Our hospital records are not properly digitalised.
Our government websites are as secure as sand castles, one heavy handed attack from a hacker and suddenly we’re in the news.
We already have, supposedly, records tied to every Malaysian MyKad and passport so why, as the kids say these days, why in the hell-y do I need another digital ID?
I joked to my friends that we would have to tell Death or the Malaikat Maut (whichever you believe in) to hang on for a second while we login to an app to confirm we were dying.
My friend is also upset that because his mother is refusing to get a MyDigitalID (I’m on her side honestly), he can no longer help her with things like keeping her driver’s licence sorted.
I am an IT graduate, I used to write about security and technology but even I find it hard to keep abreast of how fast tech moves so can you imagine the less tech-savvy?
An article I saw online said that it isn’t the kids we need to ban from social media, it might be the older, less tech-savvy individuals.
These people are easy targets for scams, playing on either their lack of understanding of tech or of their fear of authorities/harm coming to their loved ones.
Fortunately my parents know quite well that I am unlikely to be sobbing asking for ransom money in a DeepFaked video because I only cry at the movies and not for a man with a death wish (I have a strategically placed collection of knives all over the house).
A lawyer who couldn’t figure out his iPad contacted what he thought was tech support but they were scammers who logged into his bank account and withdrew a large sum of money.
While he said he wouldn’t be destitute without it, it was still a blow.
Why must everyone have smartphones now?
Why does the government think the makcik goreng pisang must surely know to only visit websites with security certificates or know not to click URLs in text messages?
Now there’s a new scam where callers will call you and say nothing, probably hoping to record your voice to impersonate you thanks to the modern Pandora’s Box we call AI.
We do not need this MyDigitalID thing — not now when there are bigger priorities.
I am so tired of politicians who cannot differentiate between AI and roti canai, wanting to AI-everything.
I do not need AI for anything, not to write, not to go to the hospital, not to drum up support for my crowdfunding.
What I do need is for the public healthcare system to get the staffing it needs because I was so tired on Monday, I briefly contemplated running away from the ward or just pulling out the IV needle myself.
Fortunately one of the senior nurses terrifies me a little so the thought of her glowering at me in disapproval kept me in my seat, sulking while my hand grew ever swollen
I want to be able to see my latest scans online and get my test results or appointment dates, or in the very unlikely scenario where I move to a state that is not the Federal Territory or Penang, some doctor will be able to bring up my records.
Right now it feels like the roof is leaking but they’re telling me I don’t need a roofer, I need a fancy gardening gnome whose main function will mostly be chirping “Cinta AI” every hour.
Health-wise my shoulder still doesn’t work, I have not gained or lost a single kilogramme, my blood pressure is still mildly alarming but at this rate I will probably die from sheer indignation before I die of cancer.
If things get even worse during my last few immunotherapy appointments, I fear Malaysians will have no choice but to show up at the Health Ministry hooked up to their Ivs, in their ward clothes, on rusty hospital beds to get our politicians to put down the AI tenders and fix our healthcare instead.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
