Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Tragedy strikes not once but TWICE!!

In a span of 2 months, I lost a father, and now I nearly lost my mom to blindness. Yup, exactly two months ago, I had to undergo a funeral for a dad who just in two weeks span passed away. His death was mysterious as it was...all started with a food poisoning and the very next day, he could not walk. YOU may ask...what does food poisoning have to do with the inability to walk? Tell it to those doctors in UMMC (University Malaya Medical Center)...they could not detect a single thing about him but just that my dad could not walk...and they (docs) suspected that he had a fall and we did not do anything about it.
After he came back, mom and me, had to take care of him. Being bedridden is not joke, imagine having to clean up a person who has to do his "business" in bed and coupled with it the smell and the instances where my dad a proud man, would not want anyone to touch him nor see him naked, was the very epitome of his endearing struggle against all this. After a week trying, mom and me, just could not handle it, I was already not used to having this kind of lifestyle, it was mostly sacrificial I would admit it but I took it in stride. We needed help...so the place we placed him was at this place called Felicity Nurising home just down the road from us.
Oh yes, when you have a bedridden person, remember this, please move them every 20 - 40 mins, because if not, bed sores will develop! When I saw my dad's bed sores, I could just cry out...not wonder he was shouting in pain! It was excruciating pain all this while, it was worse than being crucified because crucifixion will mean one thing..you die but this was continous pain...and it was a pain that I believe most tortures will dare use!
But, alas, when we thought our problems had diminished for the time being, it was not to be, for exactly two days later, dad passed away. That was April 25th, 2006.

Now exactly two months later, June 24, 2006 mom who had developed a red eye (actually started a week ago). Thinking that it was a minor red eye symptom, I took mom to the local clinic to see a GP. He never even thought it was serious, just merely giving her some eye drops and and antibiotics. The next few days looked good but then again, the following days, it went bad...the redness came back!! I took her to this specialist clinic in Tmn Tun- a guy I met in the gym who later I found out to be an opthamologist. Perhaps this was all laid out for me...so again, never underestimate the people whom you meet out there, they could turn out to be your angels!
This was on the 24th, a saturday...and mom's appointment with Dr. K was at 1400 hours. Upon checking my mom, he immediately told me its an acute close angled glaucoma (http://www.naturaleyecare.com/gad_ovt/glaucoma.htm) and her IOP **Intraocular pressure (IOP)** was around 40 to 60 which is BAD NEWS!!
So throughout the whole hour, the nurse in the clinic helped mom to drip the eye drops on her. Two hours later, it was found out that mom's IOP never dropped, so Dr K wrote in an urgent letter to have mom sent to UMMC for treatment. Hence, we went back home, took some of mom's personal stuff and by doing so, gave me her keys saying that in the event anything bad happens, I will have to take fort of the whole thing and there would be some stuff that she has left for me...I told her, nope, nothing bad will come to you..just go and don't worry too much.

Immediatly, we were ushered up to the ward 7E, at the West Wing...there a certain Dr. Chung attended to her and immediately did all the necessary tests. However, her IOP still did not come down...and this was not good news. Mom had to stay for the night.

The next day, she underwent a Trabecular op. to ease the pressure and to allow the liquid to flow again. It was good , but the pain mom had to endure at her age...78 is just too much. I cannot fathom at times...why things like this have to happen? After the surgery, she underwent laser treatment to treat her eyes...so now, her right eye is considered treated but she will not be blessed with the same conditions of what she had before i.e. perfect eye condition. The left eye looks like its on the same developing stage as the right, so now, the only chance is to save the left one...

I breath aloud with a huge sigh...wondering if all this surprises will ever stop but I guess not, life's not about this at the moment for me. I believe I'm undergoing so many tests in my life, they tend to reinforce me that I must lose faith and trust in God, that He will indeed show a way to all this misery. Yes, it seems tragedy does strike many times...but you know, that whatever happens, I will be able to smile at the storm and look at it in its eye, yes it may be bad but I know its never that bad, and the best thing is, I know I have someone whom I can call..who is not going to waiver nor change his ways...He is strong and his love is constant forever!

Yup, Lord, I know I have been bad, but please do not pass this buck to those I love, pass it to me instead and if the time is right, take me off now, so that I can safely traverse through the valley of the shadow of death.
Amen!

1 comment:

Slutilla said...

My dear, frankly I do not know how it feels like to be in that situation.

But what I do know is, even my sick pet will stress me out almost to the limit, so I can only say that this is maybe a million times worse, if not more.

You are strong to endure all these, and will continue to be strong, and I respect you for that. But I do believe that no matter how trying a situation in life can be, there MUST be better days ahead. It's like a rule of life. Suffering is like a storm, it will come quickly, if you are strong enough to survive it, you'll see the rainbow.

I may not be able to see you as often as I'd like to, but should you need someone to talk to, to share or just to be with, I am just a phone call away.

Take care and stay strong!

K