Back to the hospital

Cowen and I barely walked out of the our block on our way to the polyclinic this morning at about 9am as Cowen was feeling a little unwell, when I received a call from Jovelyn, our domestic helper, that mom acted strangely -- her arms were shaking and she made strange noises. We quickly turned back.

Mom wasn't looking good. She wasn't responding to me and she couldn't focus her eyes on me when I asked her to do so. Recognising that as a possible sign of a stroke or an impending stroke, I called the ambulance immediately.

This is the second time in less than four months I found myself at the A&E of TTSH. Coincidentally, on both occasions Cowen was by my side, and on both occasions the boy wasn't feeling very well.

They put mom in a normal ward. I noticed that her eyes were somewhat fixated to her right. The comforting thing is that she could now respond to me, and looked much better than in the morning. I left mom to the care of Jovelyn as I needed to conduct a meeting back in office.

I went back to TTSH in the afternoon. Mom's condition seemed to have stabilised. She has regained movement in her right arm, but lost the mobility of her weaker left arm. She was able to roll her eyes a bit now, but still unable to roll them to her left. She has also regained her responsiveness.

She was put on a no-food diet as she needs to undergo a blood test tomorrow. I have to wait for the scan result.

I couldn't stay long as I had to bring Cowen to his music lesson. After the lesson I checked with Jovelyn and I was told mom has also regained a bit of the movement of her right leg.

One of my friends said this is like "three steps forwards, two steps back". I just have to resign to the fact that previous stroke victims are more susceptible to stroke.

Things have been looking up over the past few weeks until today. I harboured high hope that mom is on her way to recovery, though I recognise that it could not be hurried. Now, I'm more frightened than ever. No matter how hard you try, you just never know what will happen next.

Is this what they call the trial of resilience? A test on your adversity quotient?

I said to mom by her ears, if this is some kind of challenge she has to face, we will face it together.

Aaron