Slowly Adjusting

By now, I was slowly getting used to the military kind of schedule. My stomach and eyes have been trained to respond to certain timings of the day.

Handphone has become very important to me. Before the hospitalization, I was known for not carrying my handphone for several days. Now, this is the only way for outside communication. I asked my family and friends not to come to visit me, warning them about possibility of infection due to TB patients.  

One of my aunts, ABC, has been bringing me bananas and stir-fried greens with only garlic and chilli with no salt. A few times, she brought me some Malay cakes ( kuih) for breakfast because she also had to bring her 92 year old mother for check-up. Grandmother also has ascites like me.

One of the Christian neighbors is a lawyer. When he heard that I had no will, he drew one up for me and also brought another neighbor to be the witness. He didn’t want to charge me a single cent. Kind gestures like these are what warm my heart towards Christ, not long sermons.

The neuro team came today to check on me. They did some physical tests and studied the pet scan. “There is no blood clot, so we are very happy for you. But you are still under observation,” said the Head of the team.

Under observation means that a nurse is supposed to tend to me and checked on me regularly. I don’t have to beg to be helped. A new nurse was assigned to me.  She was nice, no scolding. I was happy. It really made all the difference if you have a nice nurse to help you or a sour face one whom you have to beg to get her help.

Dreaming about this sour soup
makes my mouth waters

The foods were getting to me by now – two boiled vegetables,  one the veg is always a melon with turmeric and fennel seeds, and another vege will be cabbage or very dead bean sprouts. My high protein diet low salt diet consisted of one big chunk of chicken sitting in a soup or a watery curry. As a Chinese, I am unused to eating a big chunk of chicken. If it is diced or sliced into smaller pieces, it would be more appetizing for me.  The fish was too smelly so I ended up with chicken. No beef because it is costly.   Sometimes I choose vegetarian meals, but the tofu tong fun soap was tasteless. Only the curried lentils and beans were more savory.

By now, I started to dream about foods I love.  Curry laksa, assam laksa, bak kut the, yong tau fu, chee cheong fun, Penang fried kewo teow, sea food tomyam, mango kerabu, Thai green curry, Thai style fried fish with mango sauce,  claypot tofu with spicy minced meat, and anything cooked with hot chillies!

Another of my favorite sour salad.
It has chopped peanuts with
sliced green papaya in lemon juice. Full of vitamin C!

My sister brought a few pieces of yong tau fu when she visited at night. I wolfed them down. “Don’t come every day, go rest.” I thanked her but I didn’t want her to rush over with foods daily after work.

The African doctor was on call at night. He came to check on me and asked me I had been treated right by the nurse assistant. I told him the repercussion I got from the Bell Palsy episode. 

“It is not supposed to be this way, but what else can I do?” He sighed. “I am only a trainee doctor.  I care for my patients but I can’t help them when others don’t treat them right.” .” 

So far, today was the only good day that gave me some peace of mind. 

By Ching Ching