The Balik Kampung trip: Part 1

2 saturdays back, i happily packed my stuff and left for home early in the morning. Usually i will start my journey about 7am so that i will reach there just after noon, in time for lunch. I'm beginning to enjoy the long drives alone, with the stereo blaring loudly. This is supposed to be just another trip home to be with mom and dad. No specific agenda.

Me having a quick breakfast in Tapah- my fav double choc donut and cold green tea.

The first few days at home was pretty normal and relaxed. Dad was having a bad cough and asthma attacks, so we fuss over him and make him comfortable. Other than that all was good.


Mom is having a small renovation project which turned our entire garden into a mini construction site. She spend her days "arguing" with Ah Hee, her resident contractor..mom loves to role-play architect and engineer, much to Ah Hee's irritation :-)...i think it makes mom happy - something else to focus on besides taking care of my dad. Mom would have made a great project manager i think!

The mess!

And this stray cat decided to stay over, so i had her to play with. She's cute isnt she, but she cant stay long. Mom said the cat will have to go soon. Both mom and dad are asthmatic and its not good to have cats around. Its ok if they can stay outside, but this one keeps running into the house, and likes to be around people, chasing after legs and all.

Poor thing!

Of course balik kampung means eating and eating and eating. Its 'musim buah', so there's manggis, and rambutan, and these...!
Kesian dad, we didnt let him have any coz he's coughing.

I love durians with gardenia white bread:-) strange?

All was good until early Friday morning. We rushed dad to the ER at about 1.30a.m. He was coughing badly and had a bad asthma attack. The nebulizer (that little spray asthma patients carry arount) didnt help at all. He was gasping for breath. Me, mom, my sis took turns in and out of the ER acute bay because its actually a no entry zone. They had dad on the "gas" thingy but its not working...i ran around for the nurse. The ER was frantic and seemed understaffed. "Help, get a doctor....its not working, he still cant breathe". Pure panic. Dad was also panicking and rambling deliriously. This made his heart beat too fast. Lucky a doctor passing by noticed, and finally he's getting the "EMERGENCY" treatment we came for. They hook him up with wires, and gave shots, and the nebuliser through the oxygen mask. I left mom there and had to wait outside, peeping occasionally when the door is opened. My sis went in despite the security guard staring disapprovingly. She came out.."doc sd he's not stable...another doc ask dad to mengucap, lets call Abang". Shit, i couldnt find my phone in my handbag. Lucky my sis had hers on her. Nobody was awake at the hour - my 2 brothers had their handphones off, and tidur mati - cant hear the house phone. Anyways, it'll take them 5 hours to get there...so i just left a message.

By 3a.m dad was breathing a bit better, and they are moving him to the ward. A little relief for all of us. Another doctor attended to him immediately at the ward, and mom stayed with him while me and my sis waited outside. The ward had huge sliding windows and we can see his bed from where we were sitting. He didnt sleep till daylight.


Its Day 4 and Dad is still in the ward. He's weak and the asthma attacks still comes and goes. He's been moved out of the acute ward into a single room tho. One one hand i hope he gets discharged today so he can rest at home....but when the asthma attack is bad, its best that he's there.

I've been back since yesterday because i'm running 2 workshops tomorrow and thursday.

(..to be continued)