Life's Throwing Lemons

Life's really unpredictable. A month ago, we were joyfully celebrating big bro's wedding and I thought I would have ample time to work on my blog after the wedding coz I was quite free. However, something totally unexpected and unfortunate happened and I was busy in and out of the hospital for the last 2 weeks. I still remember we were having a great time celebrating mom's birthday but 2 days after that, dad had a stroke. =( Everything came so sudden and fast...never  would I have imagined that this would happen so soon...haiz! 

Mom woke me up about 4.30am that morning saying that dad's leg was numb and she was gonna send him to the hospital. Good thing was that I was home so was able to help drive and rush to the hospital. Went to the Lam Wah Ee hospital first but the A&E officer said there's not neurologist there so asked us to go to another hospital. At that time, dad's situation was still not that bad coz he was still able to move his hands. Then we quickly rushed to Island hospital, the neurologist was there early but couldn't do much coz he said that 'golden hour' was over so had to do MRI scan. Quite unlucky coz dad was asleep before feeling the numbness, so it was hard to determine what time exactly the stroke started. If it was within 2 hours, the doc could have done something to prevent the situation from worsening. =.=

According to the doc, what happened was dad's right brain was bleeding and formed a blood clot...affecting the entire left part of his body...so they had to inject some med to dissolve the blood clot and put dad in the ICU...sucks. If you want me to describe how serious dad's condition was...all I could say is it's serious enough to be in the ICU for 3 days. :( No one wants all these to happen but there's no point guessing why and how this happened to someone healthy like dad. Things are gonna be different from now on but I'm sure our family will stay strong together and help dad go through this tough time. It's gonna be a long recovery road but I have faith in dad that dad will be able to stand up again. 

This was the 'cold camping place' that I was talking about in my earlier post. This ICU waiting room sort of became our room coz we were sleeping, eating, watching TV, hanging out there for almost 3 days when dad was in the ICU. We were really making ourselves at home. :p

Took care of dad in the hospital after he was transferred out to normal ward. Sometimes, it feels like god has planned all these in advanced...at least all these happened after bro's wedding was over and I am still free while waiting to start work in Jan. I'm the free-iest person in the family so spent the most time in the hospital accompanying dad. :p Haha...see how I make myself comfortable in the hospital with my netbook, deck chair, hoodie, etc.

Bro also came back during the weekends to help out. It's always good to see dad smiling. :) Dad had some physiotherapy session in the hospital...I'm the unqualified assistant trainer...hehe!! :p

Sincere thanks to all friends and relatives who dropped by to visit dad in the hospital and brought lotsa laughters.

At first, dad had 2 doctors...one neurologist and another neuro surgeon. Then after bros spent one night in the hospital...one more doc was added...this time is for the heart coz dad's stomach was aching the night before. Dad's definitely topping the list with the most doctors. :p Dad had 4 different neighbors throughout his stay...2 changed room coz we were too noisy...especially when there were visitors around...haha!! Another angmoh was discharged before we could chase him out. :p 

Flowers and gifts from dad's colleagues and some relatives.

Just like the title of this post...life is giving us lemons right now and this hardship is definitely a challenge for all of us in the family. It's difficult for us to understand what dad's going through right now...what we need to give him is patience and motivation. What happened has happened and there's no point making ourselves miserable over something that we cannot change. Everything's gonna change from now on...but I'm hoping that it'll change for the better. Looking on the bright side, at least this illness is not terminal and there are still chances of recovery. This has also brought our family closer together as we got to spend more time doing things together. =) It's also a good reminder for us to cherish everything that we have now especially our family and be contented. Never ever take things for granted. 

Quote to share: "Life is not about how hard you can hit. Life is about how much you can get hit and keep moving forward!"