Access to general anaesthesia for oncology procedures (eg. bone marrow aspiration/trephine biopsy or intrathecal chemotherapy) is limited in developing/undeveloped countries. Most paediatric oncologists resort to giving their patients a combination of sedatives (some up to 3 different sedatives at one time) prior to these procedures. A small number of these patients experience ”nightmares” when these sedatives were administered and became aggressive; some remembers while others don’t. This is a true recall by a 6-year-old boy with ALL who had “nightmare” during the sequential administration of sedatives prior to intrathecal chemotherapy.
Drifting
I am drifting
Further and further away
***
Drowning
I am drowning
Tossed up and down
Lost in a big stormy sea
***
I saw my daddy
A lighthouse, a beacon of hope
I reached out for him
Yet he is too far
I shouted
Help me, Daddy!
Alas, he did not hear me
***
And then the darkness comes
Till I wake again…