Forthnights

Bad Wave @ year end

There seems to be a wave of bad things happening recently.

My grandmother suffered a stroke recently, her second actually. From what I heard, her first stroke came when she was in her 20's while giving birth to my uncle. She's over eighty now, and when it happened, she was staying with my aunt. My father was there the day it happened, and she was starting to slur in her speech a lot. By the time my father left, he got a call that she couldn't take at all, and ther rushed her to the hospital. She was in the hospital for about 3 days, and sadly she can no longer talk, eat or walk around. Doctors said that the blood clot in her brains are too many and to small to do anything about. If it were just a single major clot they would usually recommend surgery. But in my grandmothers case, the only option is to give her some very specific medication. Problem is that the medicine is quite harmful and 10~15% dont survive it, and given my grandmother's health, the chances look even slimer. That means that she will pretty much remain the way she is for what's left of her life, unable to walk, talk or eat.

My uncle suffered a heart attack barely a week later. He had been having chest pains the entire day. Her wife (my father's sister) was staying with my grandmother and uncle, still recooperating from her surgery to remove part of her liver due to cancer. Not suspecting much, my cousin brought him to a nearby clinic. The doctor seemed to dismiss the case too casually, and just prescribed regular aspirings and such, suspecting was just some sort of minor ailment. But 4 hours later, late into the evening, his condition seemed to only worsen. They brought him back to the same clinic, and this time, after consultation with a more senior medical officer, they asked my cousins to rush him to a hospital immediately. It was only then that they realised he was having a heart attack. In the hospital, the doctors told my cousins that had they come in any later, my uncle would have been beyond saying. The first few hours of a heart attack are critical to the outcome of treatment.

A friend of mine urgently flew all the way back from Australia, just to see her grandmother, who suffered some sort of shock / complications due to diabetes, and for 2 straight weeks, she put in day shifts and 12 hour night shifts just sitting by her grandmothers side, just in case she passes away. Doctors could not even estimate how long she had to stay in hospital, and the entire family were unsure how long this would stay this way. Her grandma was also disable and bed ridden from this latest medical episode.

Another friend of mine was warded into the intensive care unit (still there) due to complications to her asthma disease. It got so bad that her breathing was abstructed and she had to be rushed to hospital. Just barely a year ago, she just went through an operation to clear her airway so that she could breathe properly again. Maybe it was the stress, maybe it was the environment, but whatever it was, her condition suddenly became critical and she was warded, and from what I know, she had asthma attacks on a daily basis. Every single day, concerned friends would forward text messages with latest updates on how she was doing. None of us have had a chance to visit because of her extremely fragile condition, the doctors and family discourages us to come until she is better.

Truth be told, it seem like some sort of bizzare wave of negativity. How can all these things happen within the course of just a few weeks? They say there are no such things as coincidences. And having four major medical incidences known to me from within my immediate social circle certainly seems like something beyong a mere coincidence.

posted by Compulsive Blogger @ 1:07 am Comments: 1