Ah Ying's "Anti-Cancer" Convenience Store (Health Story Collection)
Our reporter Xiong Jian "People's Daily Overseas Edition" (Page 09, April 22, 2022)
When the sky was bright, Liu Changying's "Ah Ying Convenience Store" opened.
Sitting in the store, she tied her loose hair beautifully, while waiting for the Jiatong Street in front of the door to become noisy again.
"Have you eaten yet (have you eaten)?"
At eight or nine in the morning, there were more and more people on the street, and many customers passing by the convenience store greeted Liu Changying familiarly.
Most of them speak Hengyang, Yueyang, Loudi and other Hunan dialects, and there are also people from other provinces who speak Mandarin. Various accents converge here to form a name - "Aying", which is what everyone calls her.
Jiatong Street is located in the northwest corner of Changsha City, Hunan Province, and is only separated by a wall from Hunan Cancer Hospital. It is also known as "Tumor Street".
Many foreign cancer patients gather here for a short period of time.
Stories of "despair" and "hope" are played out here every day.
Aying's experience has become a "gate to life" for many cancer patients.
Two cancers come one after the other
Jiatong Street is very lively, with countless people coming and going every day.
As long as she sees a customer who comes to the convenience store wearing a medical wristband, Liu Changying knows that there is a high probability of being a cancer patient, so she takes the initiative to say "I am also a patient".
In the chat, more and more people know the story of the shopkeeper.
In 2013, Liu Changying worked in a fried chicken restaurant in Changsha.
One day, a colleague mentioned in a chat that if there is a painless lump in the breast, it may be a tumor.
Liu Changying was stunned and said, "I have it." Colleagues told her to hurry up and check.
When the hospital concluded that it was breast cancer, Liu Changying was stunned for a long time.
"I didn't believe I had cancer," she recalls.
Later, she went to another hospital for re-examination, and the result was still the same.
Facing the sudden bad news, Liu Changying felt that the sky was falling.
For ordinary people, it is unfortunate to have cancer, but it is relatively lucky to have breast cancer, because the cure rate of breast cancer is relatively high. At present, the 5-year survival rate of Chinese breast cancer patients has exceeded 80%.
But such a high probability of luck did not come directly to Liu Changying.
Because he didn't have much savings, Liu Changying struggled over and over whether to have surgery.
At that time, she already had two children. The youngest son was 5 years old and was still in kindergarten, so life was very stressful.
In order to survive, Liu Changying took out most of her savings and went to Hunan Cancer Hospital for breast cancer surgery, removing the entire breast on one side.
I thought everything would get better after the surgery.
However, 10 days after the operation, she had a cancer screening, and fate gave her another big test - she was found to have cervical cancer!
The doctor asked Liu Changying whether to do cervical cancer surgery or chemotherapy first.
At that time, she didn't have much savings.
After thinking twice, Liu Changying chose chemotherapy.
Inspirational convenience store
In the "Ah Ying Convenience Store", as long as patients come to buy things, Liu Changying tries to sell them at the lowest price.
When she was sick, she bought a pot for boiling traditional Chinese medicine, which cost 200 yuan; when she opened her own convenience store, she only sold such a pot for 70 yuan.
"Help them save a little bit," she said.
The convenience store has been open for two or three years and has not made much money, just enough to live on for her and her two children.
Liu Changying said that the store is not only to make money, but to set an example for patients.
For other patients, Liu Changying can become a "beacon-type patient" because of her resistance to the past.
During the fourth round of chemotherapy, Liu Changying rolled on the bed in pain, was too weak to go downstairs, and did not eat for half a month.
"I vomited that green water, and it was all over the ward." Liu Changying said, "It feels more painful than death." Even so, she persevered.
"After the fifth chemotherapy, I can't take it any longer. My savings have been spent, and all my relatives and friends have borrowed money." Liu Changying is afraid that if this continues, not only will he be empty of money and money, but it will also increase the pressure on his son to repay his debts. .
Thinking of the eldest son who chose to drop out of school to work to raise his own treatment expenses, Liu Changying was full of debts and wanted to give up treatment for a time.
At a critical moment, many strangers pulled her.
When she vomited and stained the sheets due to chemotherapy, the family members of the patient in the next bed took the initiative to help her clean it up; some terminal cancer patients encouraged her that she could live seven or eight years even in the terminal stage, why can't she?
Another patient secretly left her money.
"A patient saw me rolling on the bed in pain, and he kept comforting me. Before leaving, he quietly put 500 yuan under my pillow. She was also having a hard time." At the same time, the medical staff of Hunan Cancer Hospital kept on Enlightenment and comfort Liu Changying, but also managed to help her raise funds.
The care, encouragement and support from patients and medical staff turned into a strong belief in Liu Changying's heart: "Let's live well!" She was no longer depressed and began to actively treat.
After the cervical resection, because he is relatively familiar with the medical treatment process of the cancer hospital, Liu Changying will help some new patients go to the hospital to make an appointment and inquire about the available beds.
After waiting in the hospital for a long time, she sometimes met patients or their family members secretly crying in the stairwell of the hospital, which reminded her of the patients who had helped her before, how could she help these people?
The idea of opening a store in "Tumor Street" was born at this time.
"Who said cancer is a terminal disease? I regard it as a kind of cold. It's been 8 years since I made money to buy medicines and raised my son to go to school. Didn't I come here too?!" Liu Changying said, "I hope my experience can encourage these new patients, I don't have the financial capacity to help them, but I can tell them how to deal with it, how to adjust, and I can help them adjust their mentality."
Fireworks on "Tumor Street"
"Can peaches, watermelons, and bananas be eaten together?" In the evening, at the table in front of the "Ah Ying Convenience Store", people began to discuss the dietary taboos of cancer patients, and Liu Changying also joined it.
If a patient comes to buy ice water, Liu Changying always reminds kindly: "You can't drink ice during chemotherapy. If the patient insists on buying it, I won't sell it to him."
In this way, Liu Changying not only told the "comrades in arms" about their anti-cancer experience like a battle-hardened soldier, but also taught them how to use diet to regulate their bodies. For "new comrades in arms" who did not understand the medical treatment process, she also helped to run the hospital registration.
A patient has a child at home. Every year when he comes to Changsha from out of town for reexamination, Liu Changying helps to register.
In this way, "after seeing the disease on the same day, I can go home on the same day, which saves money for accommodation, and saves time to go back to take care of the children." Liu Changying said, but now she rarely goes to the hospital to queue up for registration.
"Click here to follow the WeChat public account of Hunan Cancer Hospital, and then go in from the Internet hospital, make an appointment, pay for outpatient services, wait in line, prescribe medicine, etc., all here, just click in and operate. First, I will apply for an 'electronic health card for you'. "Are you okay?" This is a scene that has often happened in "Ah Ying Convenience Store" in recent years.
In 2019, Hunan Province promoted the application of "electronic health card", and the Cancer Hospital was one of the first to start the pilot.
Now, every time a patient from abroad asks Liu Changying to help with registration, she will teach them to use the electronic health card to make an appointment for registration in the applet.
For those who can't operate, Liu Changying will also provide remote video guidance. She seems to have become an "expert" in medical guidance.
Once, when Liu Changying went to the hospital with a thick stack of medical records for review, the doctor told her that all medical information can now be viewed on a mobile phone. With the help of AI (artificial intelligence), the patient's medical records can be intelligently realized With automatic sorting, "one mobile phone can go all over the hospital".
"Cancer patients, especially those undergoing chemotherapy, are very weak. It is really terrible to go to the hospital and queue up again. The more convenient functions of this kind, the better it will be for us." Liu Changying said.
Day after day, Jiatong Street is always so lively.
The advancement of medical care, the intervention of science and technology, and the mutual assistance of patients have filled the air of "Tumor Street" with a strong and optimistic flavor.
Electric cars passed through the crowd, and Liu Changying and the patients sat at the small square table in front of the convenience store chatting, just like normal people.
All this makes this small street that looks a little outdated, exuding ordinary but valuable fireworks.
Hope is rising in such fireworks.