Our First Night in Artemis Hospital - Day 7

Today Mom and I went to Artemis Hospital around 1 PM to be admitted. We were put on the 6th floor, I'm not sure if we will be moved to the 5th floor which is newly renovated. Either way, we are just happy to be here.

Ms. Meenu had plug converters brought to our room so that we could plug in our devices. There's a TV in the room with cable, although 90% of the channels are only in hindi. That's okay though, we managed to find a few channels with english movies. 

The room is pretty big. We have a washroom with a shower in it and a closet to keep our luggage in. There's a HEPA filter to keep the air clean, and cleaners come in a few times a day to mop the floor and clean the bathroom. Our bed sheets are changed everyday, and there's a futon couch with a pull-out bed in it for me to sleep on. Mom is staying in a standard hospital bed. 

The food here is very good. Our first night here Mom was given veggie soup, chicken with gravy, and some arabiatta pasta, with her choice of either tea or coffee (or what ever other beverage she'd prefer). 1 Litre water bottles are placed in our room every day for us to drink. If we'd like anything else we just have to dial the extension for the F&B Supervisor (food and beverage). 

They sent an IT person to come set up our devices on the WiFi. The internet isn't too bad in the evenings, although it is a bit slow during the day and not great for streaming. However if you download what you would like to watch during the evening, you can play it during the day without depending on the internet, so it works just fine that way. I should also mention that the TV has an HDMI port, so you can connect your laptop to the TV.

The dietician came to meet with Mom and assess her diet. So far she says there are no restrictions on her diet, but that may change once treatment starts, for example during neutropenia (the presence of abnormally few neutrophils in the blood, leading to increased susceptibility to infection). 

Our first night here many people visited us to make sure we were okay with our room and to see if we needed anything. They were adamant that if we needed anything to just give them a call and they'd fix it right away, and pointed out our phone beside the bed with a list of all the extensions of the various services we'd need (food and beverage 24/7, dietician, house keeping, etc.)

There is a fresh fruit bowl put in our room every day, with bananas, apples, oranges, and grapes, and all of the meals are brought to your room. A person comes to visit us each day to ask what we'd like for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They have instant coffee here with powder creamer, so Mom's pretty excited about that.

Our hospital door is lockable with a deadbolt, although there is a security guard right outside of our door watching the elevator, so we don't feel too worried. There are also security guards at the elevators on the ground level, so that only permitted guests have access to the upper hospital floors.

The nurses are very sweet. They come check Mom's vitals every morning and ask if there's anything we need.

Please pardon my boring tone during this blog post, I'm still having a tough time sleeping at night and it's beginning to affect my ability to write clearly. I'll post some pictures a bit later.

All in all, Mom is glad to be here and everything is going well, other than a few minor mishaps (they always bring steamed milk for our cereal instead of cold, which we find very odd, but they are happy to fix it when we point it out). 

In the next few days she will start treatment with some cyclophosphamide.