Days of our lives

Actually I was really stressed out that I don’t feel like documenting what happened in the past three weeks. But somehow, I just want to note down the facts so that in my later life of which I may not be able to remember precisely the things that happened now, I could reflect back on the things and the blessings that Allah gave me.

Anyway, it was really a soap-opera life. Papa initially was admitted to hospital due to dengue, ended up spending 5 days in ICU because of pneumonia due to infections via his IV drip. He was in the hospital from March 17 until April 3, 2009. That was 17 days at the hospital. He went into ICU from Mar 25-29, when his blood platelet is already on the uptrend.

See, when dengue attacks, your immune system becomes very vulnerable, and when infections seeped in, it better be controlled properly as all the nasty bacteria can become fatal when you have low antibodies. Papa had 3 types of nasty bacteria in his system, Enterobacter and Klebsiella in his abscess and Staphylococcus aureus in the blood stream. His hand was so swollen that the surgeon had to do a minor surgery in ICU. The effect of the infections was bronco-pneumonia. Both of his lungs were watery and he had trouble breathing. It broke my heart to see him lying, out-of-breath in ICU, so weak and vulnerable. Thank God the water in the lungs was not as much; otherwise they had to perform another procedure to poke his back with needles to let the water out. So much of poking him here and there I guess by now he’s allergic to needles.



I am thankful to Allah for giving Papa and me the strength to face this challenge, and thankful also that Papa is a fighter. Also thank you so much to my family for the emotional support during that trying time. Now Papa is in recovery mode, carrying a lot of prescriptions in a little bag all the time possibly until the end of the month.

On the lighter side of things, my kids are enjoying all the fruit and flower bouquets that Papa’s colleagues and friends brought along. Our house became like a mini florist during that time. At the same time also, Adam had his first braces installed, and I also discovered that Aisha could possibly be allergic to seafood as she’s getting measles-like rashes after eating some savory crab cookies. Anyway, life goes on…