Another long weekend

Ahh… another long weekend gone. The last weekend ie 18th – 20th December, I was in KL to attend my school alumni dinner. This weekend I was back in KL again. My nephew’s engagement was on Saturday in Kajang, so by Friday I was already at my brother’s house in Damansara Jaya.

When I was in KL last weekend, Yati sent me a text message informing me that her husband AJ had been transferred from the CCU to the normal ward. She did mention how worried she was, looking at her husband’s condition. Since the hospital’s visiting hours had been shortened of late, I haven’t had the opportunity to visit him at the hospital.

This week, another text message came, not from Yati but from my fellow volunteer who had been assigned as AJ’s buddy. AJ died early morning on Christmas day at the hospital. I was already at my brother’s house by the time the news reached me, so no, I didn’t visit. I decided to send my condolences to Yati via SMS and I apologized to her for not being able to visit. I will probably check on her later. Knowing Yati, I think she’ll cope. She already had plans to sell drinks to earn some income for herself and her children. And since she’s staying with her mother, at least she doesn’t have to worry about where to stay.

Since I so happened to be in KL this weekend, Mamasita, who also happened to be in KL for her son’s engagement, arranged for some sort of get-together with a few bloggers on Sunday. It was supposed to be a brunch affair, but the place she chose, a Korean restaurant, only opens at 11.30 am.

I wasn’t really sure where the restaurant was located – while I knew how to get to OU, within OU itself wasn’t familiar territory to me. So yep, me being me, I was early – the first one there. After finding out the location of the restaurant, I decided to ronda-ronda for a while before going back to the restaurant to meet up with the rest. As I was walking over to ronda-ronda, I saw a familiar looking lady. It was Dalilah aka Raden Galoh. Yayy! Got friend to chat with while waiting for the rest to come.

While I was chatting with Dalilah, a text message came in. It was from the organiser, Mamasita, informing me that she was already on the way and telling me to “tunggu jap!” For a while there I was thinking of replying her SMS to tell her that since nobody was around, I went back… :-) But in the end I decided to be a good girl…

After a while there she was… the ever smiling Mamasita… only this time I managed to catch her off guard, so this pic comes without her “iklan ubat gigi” smile… hehehe…

A few minutes later, Dr Rohaya, or better known as Raw, got there. Raw is Mamasita’s sis-in-law and also my junior in school, in fact we were both in the same school debating team many many moons ago.

And then the lady bloggers (plus a few husbands/sons who decided to sit at another table nearby) started trickling in. It was my first time meeting Desert Rose and Edelweiss.

Then came Kak Teh from London and Shahieda from Capetown. Waah… international bloggers meet lah this!

Tireless Mom dropped by for a while with her kids (tireless kids?) but they didn’t join us for lunch as they were going off to attend a kenduri somewhere. Kak Puteri Kama came later after I was getting bloody fool… oops, I meant bloody full…

Dengan penuh semangat Kak Puteri bercerita, apa jugalah dikelentongnya Dalilah tu!

Blogger Zendra came by when I was almost leaving. By 1.30 pm, I decided to make a move as I was planning to drive back to Ipoh after zohor. It wasn’t an easy task… the peluk-cium goodbyes took some time, and to add to that, masa tu lah masing-masing nak bergambar… including our Choc-a-blog kakak here from London…

And finally, what good were the guys there for if not to take group photos of the ladies huh?

It was nice to have met you wonderful ladies. Glad to know that this orang Perak was not the only peghak one around who was trying to figure out how to eat the Korean food... hahaha!

Getting on with life…

Remember my recent update about Yati complaining to me that her husband AJ seemed to be getting weaker but simply refused to go to the clinic or hospital? Yati herself had almost given up on him as she didn’t how what else to do with him.

“Pujuk sudah, marah pun sudah kak. Tak jalan!”

I told Yati she had to continue coaxing him to get treatment. Otherwise nobody could help him. I even told Yati to threaten him that I’d be visiting them at home if he still refused to get treatment. I knew neither Yati nor AJ wanted me to visit at home to avoid suspicions from Yati’s family who were still unaware about AJ’s HIV.

I guess the threat worked. The very next day Yati sent me a text message saying she was at the hospital. I called her to find out more info.

“Di mana ni?”

“Kat hospital lah.”

“Masuk wad ke?”

“Tak tau lagi kak, masih kat tempat emergency lagi ni. Doktor dah jumpa tadi, depa kata hati dia bengkak. Tapi lepas tu dok melangut je lah. Saya pun tak tau depa nak suruh balik ke apa ke.”

Oh well, it was the emergency unit… unless you look like you’re dying, you’ve got to wait!

After a while I got another text message. They were already in the ward – AJ had to be warded and he was put on drip. Yati was worried. The next day was the Saturday that her brother was getting married and the whole family including herself was going to KL. I told her I’d try to visit if I had the time but whatever it is, I’d inform AJ’s buddy about it and get him to visit at least.

Saturday came and I was down with a flu. I didn’t dare visit for fear of spreading the flu to others, especially at the hospital ward. Besides, I wanted to have a good rest as the next day was our awareness campaign at the OA village. But my colleague who’s been assigned as AJ’s buddy did visit.

Yesterday I got another text message from Yati – inviting me to her house as her family was planning to have bacaan Yaasin after Maghrib. Hmmm… so now they don’t mind me visiting at home? No more worries about her family becoming suspicious? Or does her family already know?

Anyway, remember AJ was supposed to have his blood test done at a private hospital to get his CD4 count? And they couldn’t afford it and so we approved the amount from our Client’s Welfare Fund? Due to the long list referred to the private hospital by the GH for the CD4 tests, an appointment had to be set. The appointment was for this afternoon but AJ was at the ward in Ipoh GH. Yati called me to find out what to do.

Somehow these clients prefer to call me to ask these things when it would have been easier to ask the nurses at the ward. Or are they just afraid to open up their mouths to ask?

I told Yati to explain the matter to either the nurses or the doctors. Or call the lady in charge at the private hospital to explain the situation. Yati did finally call the lady at the private hospital and was told to get the nurses at the ward to arrange for AJ’s blood to be taken, then reps from the private hospital will come over to get the blood and payment for the blood test.

Later today when I called Yati, she sounded a bit happier. She said AJ seemed better and could at least sit by himself and could walk to the toilet if aided. Earlier he was so weak he looked so helpless.

Hopefully that is proof enough to him that he could get better with proper treatment and that life is not over just because he has been infected with HIV. He just needs to have more faith.