Got to talk to our primary physician and she said the reason for the biopsy, aside from the lymphoma and whatever cancer suspect, it is also to see if MTB would manifest in other parts since it is absent in the respiratory system. She said since the GI TB hasn’t shown itself in any specific organ, they can’t just open up my daughter to get tissue from some random organ in the abdomen. If the bone marrow biopsy shows some kind of lesion, then TB is present.

The question remains now is if PGH has an available isolation ward/room so we can spend the required isolation period of 7 days while the hemato-onco/infectious diseases specialist assess her case. We cannot waste time. The thought of my relatives dying because their conditions were not diagnosed well in time still haunts me.

But then this would depend on their Covid protocols, which are constantly changing. The alternative is that we could also stay in Manila Doctors but the specialist to read our biopsy should be still from PGH. Our attending has that faith in the doctors there even though she didn’t graduate from there.

Urgh. Covid.

It’s easier said than done. The transfer from one hospital to PGH is like asking an audience with the king of England. The whole country is trying to have their patients transferred there everyday and so the waiting list is long and waiting is hard. In the past, we could transfer within a few days, but still with great difficulty, because my parents were UP faculty members and it’s a UP to UP transfer. Plus my mom had students who were doctors in PGH so it’s easy to get an attending physician to take a case.

*Maybe I should really consider that offer to be an adjunct in my undergrad college*

But since now we’re a private patient in a private hospital, we’re not the priority, which is fair since PGH is for the masses.

I’m trying to use my corporate connections since one of the big companies is a major donor of the pediatric hemato-oncology dept. Hoping the dept head would consider…

Our pediatrician in our hometown also came from UP-PGH so she’s using her network as well. Hopefully, we can have a breakthrough.

I am dying inside now. Good thing my daughter’s covid is mild and doesn’t need oxygen. But she’s in so much pain now and very, very thin. It’s twisting my insides just seeing her like this.