Friday, July 27, 2007

Updates: Mr Chua and Auntie Kim Neo

1Mr Chua

They've narrowed down his problem to his prostrate. No tumour!!!! Yeah!

Now he's in a one-bed room with an attached bathroom and a really comfortable setting in GH. He's on the hospital's waiting list and his turn is currently a year later.

Word is that he's super cheerful and goes down to Auntie Kim Neo's ward everyday to share his fruits with her. He's still carrying the urine bag around (still can't pronounce / spell the term for it) but he's also carrying on with his life as if the urine bag's a part of his clothes. Socks, maybe.

Yup. The Chua's are definitely a couple filled with joy~

2Auntie Kim Neo

Auntie Kim Neo's not doing so good. Her cancer's brought her back to the hospital for the umpteenth time. It must be horrible to be in and out of a dreaded place again and again. After a while, it feels like you're never gonna leave the place. Am speaking from experience, people. <....driving school.... brrrrrr....>

She's on morphine, which means that she's in great pain. She's lost almost all her hair, and she looks aged and worn out. "Not doing well", according to my mum. Visiting hours are only 2 hours each time, if I heard correctly. Correct me if I'm wrong. The rest of her day is spent resting alone in her room. By the way, her room's similiar to that of Mr Chua's, with the bathroom and all, except she can't really enjoy it. There's definitely something wrong with people who enjoy their hospital rooms. I mean, that is so sick. No pun intended.

3Auntie Kiat Tin says the morphine's causing Auntie Kim Neo to hallucinate. At one point, she thought she heard some of the church members standing outside her room, with the nurse forbidding them to enter the room. I wouldn't go into much detail here.

Anyway, seeing all that's happened to her all her cancer years, it isn't that hard to imagine her getting weary of life and wanting to fade away into nothingness and just walk through the gates of heaven.

Makes us feel dumb for every second we use to pause, sigh, and think that life is meaningless, boring and monotonous, doesn't it? Most of us are students working our way through exams and assignments. Some of us are adults, or young adults, working our way through life, colleagues and domineering superiors.

Studying, exams, homework, studying, exams, homework... then... waking up at 7am, cursing at the car in front of you, trudging to work, nodding reluctantly to your boss... death, finally... Sounds stupid (pardon the word) and meaningless, right? Like... it's never going to end, like that's all your life's going to be.
In the end, it's death for everyone. So despicably common. So normal. Why should I go through all that? Why can't I just skip to the death part? It's like playing the PS2 Naruto game and struggling to get all the hidden scrolls and missions, but in the end, nobody really wins. Just a dumb adventure game. Nothing more.

Yeah, well... at least you get to choose your adventure. At least you get to put down that PS2 controller, go raid the fridge a little, visit the toilet, and then get back to the game. Most times, you're blessed enough to have a whole pack (or more) of game discs to switch to.

People like Auntie Kim Neo don't have that privilege.
They don't have some other game to play. They don't choose their adventure. They're handed their "game" and they're stuck with it. If we are to talk about death, I say they have the right to want to skip to the death part. Just turn off the PS2 and be done with it.

Us? Deep down, we actually like that PS2. No matter how game-less we seem to be, we persist in seeking a game that will satisfy us. Deep down, we want to have a game to play. We just want some other stuff to go with it, like some good snacks on the dinner table, an Astro channel to switch to when we're tired of playing, and probably a good MP3 to blare music and drown out the Naruto theme song that gets annoying eventually. When we don't get those, we get bored, we blame the PS2, we call Naruto a fad, and we curse the PS company for marketing dumb games.

I went too far again. Apologies to die-hard PS2 Naruto fans.

Anyway, the next time you begin to think life is meaningless, and start wishing a random car would hit you and smear your remains on the road so that you can get to heaven faster... try to think of people in your local church and other people around you (in the news, maybe?) who're going through really tough times. Try to feel a little bit dumb.

Then grab that PS2 controller, choose a better game, feel happy about being able to choose a game... and start playing with gusto!

1Wife: Mrs Chua. Mr & Mrs Chua open their house for the Klebang ministry.
2Brother: Unc Bvarry; Nieces: Sherene, Sharonne, Jaslyn
3Husband: Unc Kian Boon; Children: Shin Shin, Ah Zheng, Derk, Qi

No comments: