Jennifer Marie J. Yang, MD

September 26, 2022

Update. Done with radiation therapy, 100 percent! 20 of 20 sessions.

On Sunday afternoon, I was a bit worried about whether Monday morning’s radiation therapy session would push through. Tropical storm Noru (Philippine name: Karding) rapidly became a super typhoon Sunday morning with “explosive intensification” – quotable, almost poetic words from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA, the official weather people). The super typhoon – equivalent of a category 4 hurricane, for those in North America – made landfall past 8 PM Sunday, lost some steam, crossed Luzon island and finally went out to the West Philippine Sea early this morning. You can zoom in on the photo of the newspaper to see its track. Metro Manila had lots of wind and rain overnight; some of our neighbors briefly lost electricity, which may or may not be due to the storm. Thankfully we just experienced a voltage dip, losing power for a few seconds only.

I got to the radiation oncology unit earlier than usual. There was hardly any rush hour traffic today going to the hospital, because the Metro Manila city mayors suspended classes in all levels in anticipation of the storm’s aftereffects. That was huge, since three large schools were in the immediate vicinity of the hospital and contribute to high volume traffic in the area. Government offices and at least one bank did the same for their employees, telling them to stay home today. But Monday morning brought partly cloudy skies and no rain. Here’s Doreen patiently waiting with the food I brought for the staff: in gratitude, and in celebration of my graduation from radiation therapy.

The attendance card tracking my progress, along with a radiation therapy summary (not in photo) were my graduation papers – transcript and diploma (testamur).

Finally, thank you to my cousin Cherry for the graduation breakfast treat. She got to meet Doreen too who has been a wonderful emotional support pig. Doreen poses with my shakshouka and coffee, and is probably happy that today’s food does not involve someone she might know (recall that about 3 weeks ago Doreen “met” the crispy pata/fried pig leg). Shakshouka: North African dish of baked tomatoes, herbs, labneh (yogurt), eggs.