After going through hoops and hurdles (and heaven knows the kind of roller-coaster ride I had), we finally transferred to PGH this afternoon. There were days when we thought we were dealing with malignancy fevers because they were not abating. Finally, we had a breakthrough yesterday and my daughter responded to the antibiotics. The gap between fevers has become wider.

Covid really dragged us down and no hospital with pediatric hemato-oncology dept wanted to take us in. There was a mad dash to search for other hospitals where we can transfer. The problem is many hospitals have collapsed their Covid wards/isolation rooms and it’s too much for some of them to pull out several staff from regular operations for just one or two Covid patients.

Philippine hospitals are understaffed because everyone is going abroad. Another challenge is that we only have a handful of pediatric hemato-oncologists or pediatric oncologists for that matter since many quit the field due to the emotional toll of seeing and attending to kids with cancer, I was told.

As for the other hospitals under the Metro Pacific network, only one responded as they still keep isolation wards but they demanded the price of my soul. It’s not sustainable. If we finally confirm that it’s cancer we’re really fighting, we need to be practical and be judicious with our resources because this is a long battle.

With a little help from my mom’s network, we secured a room in PGH even if my patient is Covid+. (I’m seriously reconsidering teaching again in UP because of this).

A new battle begins.

I’m exhausted but I can’t be. But God knows how tired I am already. Physically and emotionally. I haven’t slept soundly in over two weeks.

I’m tired. But I need to soldier on.