Warning: This piece is just my own ramblings - more of a mental therapy for me to just spill out everything that I have endured over the past three weeks.
To sum it all up before going into the nitty gritty details, it has been nothing but emotionally taxing, physically tiring and on the overall, mentally depressing.
July began with the news of my uncle (father's elder brother) passing away after succumbing to years of suffering due his immobility.
As the family was busy preparing for the funeral and last rights of the deceased, my other uncle (father's younger brother) got a lab test report confirming what has been our worst fear all this while - he was suffering from advanced stage rectum cancer.
And so the family tried to get over and done with the funeral of my late uncle so that we can be there to lend support to the other living uncle who's battling a tumour positioned some where near the rectum but equally close to the intestine.
From the outset, the consulting surgeon told us that this will be a very delicate and major surgery - the chances of survival and recovery was a mere 50:50.
The news of my uncle's illness didn't go down well with my father, who had just lost his elder brother rather unexpectedly, although the deceased has been sick for quite awhile.
As the day came for us to perform the 16th day prayers for my late uncle (the morning of which we usually let go the deceased's ash into the sea), my father who was praying at a temple fainted and felt his knees weak - my brother and I rushed him to the general hospital where the doctor merely said the fainting was due to low sugar.
The doctor gave my father some medication and told him to rest at home.
But in the midst of all this, my father insisted that he be taken to Semenyih (home of my late uncle, father's elder brother) so that he can participate in the 16th day funeral prayers - and so, the Scandinavian Prince and I did accordingly.
Throughout the several hours in Semenyih, I kept telling both my hubby and mother that my father is not alright despite what he claims.
I strongly felt something else was wrong with him - his speech was slurred, his sense of directions were grossly wrong (he's a very sharp witted person usually) and he doesn't seem to behave like everything is indeed a-okay.
As soon as we were done with the prayers, I drove my father straight to the general hospital's emergency ward against my father's wishes - and there - after a CT scan - the doctor concluded that my father has indeed suffered a mild stroke!
So, he was immediately warded for observation and boy, was it tiring for me to juggle between work, hospital, picking up my mom from Ampang and sending her back, etc. for the whole week. It felt as if the world was coming crumbling down on me - I just had one bad episode after another and it was getting too exhausting.
Luckily enough, proper medication and close observation from the team at the general hospital enabled my father to recover rather quickly. He is almost 98% back to normal but I have been warned by the doctor - this is my father's fifth mild stroke and there is no taking it light.
He is fortunate for not having fallen down and suffering head injuries which could have made his stroke far worse.
While dad remained in hospital and showed signs of improvement, the one thing that was consistent was the fact that he was extremely worried about his younger brother (my other uncle who was diagnosed with rectum cancer).
Just as my father got discharged and was told to follow up with continuous outpatient treatment and therapy, my uncle's tumour was in need of serious medical attention - the hospital then fixed July 23 for the complicated surgery to be carried out.
With God's blessings, my uncle's surgery was a success but the recovery process is going to be a slow and painful one - the same perhaps applies to my father as well - doctors say he is well for now but we never know.
What do I call this? A close brush with death involving loved ones? A miracle?
I don't know - and I can't define it but all these have only deepened my faith in God, his omnipresence and bountiful blessings in life.
