Friday, 27th June 2008 –
Off to my brother’s house in Damansara Jaya.
Saturday, 28th June 2008 –Went to Malacca together with the whole jing bangs for my nephew’s engagement. The hosts prepared lots of delicious food, mostly yum yum kampong cooking.
Sunday, 29th June 2008 –Nothing much to do today, so just went to the bank to settle a few things which I couldn’t settle earlier in Ipoh. Thank God for ATMs and Cash Deposit machines so banking could be done outside banking hours.
Monday, 30th June 2008 –
Off to Putrajaya Hospital for my mother’s ECHO and ultrasound tests. She’s due for knee operation on Saturday, 5th July and so she was admitted for all the pre-med requirements. Initially the 2-bedded rooms were not available and so she was sent to a 4-bedded room. An elderly lady who had her knee operation earlier asked where we were from. When we mentioned Ipoh, her reaction was,
“Ipoh jugeee…”
Apparently she was from Kuala Kangsar and another lady beside her bed who just got admitted was from Ipoh too!
After a while the Sister came in and told us one of the 2-bedded rooms will be available soon as the patient’s knee operation due this week had to be cancelled as he had heart problems. So my mother was transferred to the 2-bedded room together with another lady who was due to undergo surgery on Wednesday. It was my sister’s turn to be the “
penunggu” (hehehe…) so she stayed back at the hospital while I headed back to my brother’s house.
Tuesday, 1st July 2008 –
It was my turn to be the
penunggu at the hospital, but since my mother’s medical reports came out okay (her heart, the doctor said, was in tip-top condition. She does have some problems with her kidneys but that would not affect the knee operation) we were told that she could go back first and get readmitted on Friday before the operation on Saturday. So after lunch, we took her back to my brother’s house in DJ.
Wednesday, 2nd July 2008 –
Since there was nothing much to do today, I agreed to meet up with
K. Ruby at KLCC at 3 pm. My sister and 3 of my nieces came along so they could
ronda-ronda KLCC while I gossiped with K.Ruby. We didn’t want to get caught in the after office traffic, so we decided to drive to Kelana Jaya LRT station and took the LRT to KLCC. That, mind you, was my first time ever using the LRT. So next time if I need to use the LRT, I won’t be looking so much like a
rusa masuk kampong (in my case, it was more like a
orang kampong masuk bandar!).
Despite taking a break from my voluntary work, it didn’t stop my PLWHA clients from calling me. “Opah” (Hamid’s mother) called me to say that Hamid who was admitted at Ipoh GH would be discharged today and that his condition had actually worsened but the doctors told her she could take him home. I told her I was in KL and as such I couldn’t help her with whatever arrangements.
Thursday, 3rd July 2008 –Since there was not much to do, I just went out for a while to get some supplies for myself for my hospital duty (I had yet to become the
penunggu so the next day was my turn). Spent most of the day relaxing at my brother’s house and feeling “
mati kutu” not knowing what to do.
Friday, 4th July –
Went to Putrajaya Hospital again to get my mother readmitted. It was my turn to stay back with her at the hospital so I brought along my own supplies as well. We had to wait a while for the admission as the hospital’s computer system was down and as such things had to be done manually.
My mother got the same bed in the same room that she got earlier on Monday. And oh, same room-mate… only by this time her room-mate already had her operation. It was good to note that she looked fine, so it was good for my mother to see her that way.
Mrs. K called while I was at the hospital room waiting for my mother. She called from the canteen at her workplace, which was noisy and she couldn't hear me clearly; while I had to speak softly as I was at the hospital room. She mentioned that she needed to talk to me as her husband was having some problems at work, involving money. Actually I’m not going to get myself involved in the family’s personal problems but I didn’t want to prolong the conversation at the hospital so I just told her I’d get back to her next week when I expect to be back in Ipoh. I do need to pass some info to her about help for Baby K but that’s about it.
Anyway, a few doctors from the various departments came to see my mother at her bed to prepare for the operation scheduled for the next morning. My mother was all psyched up for the operation.
But just as I was trying to find some comfortable positions on the chairs for me to sleep later at night, one doctor came looking as though she was getting ready to get bombarded. You see, apparently, the hospital’s computer system which was down since the night before was still not up yet and so there was a directive from the hospital management that all operations scheduled for the next day had to be cancelled! They were very much dependant on the system to get whatever test results online, so with the system down, things had to be done manually and may take much longer. Rather than answering on things going haywire, it was safer to answer on cancellations.
Oh, what a frustration! But we could only plan, at the end of the day, we still have to accept God’s will. So we will just have to wait for them to fix another date for the operation.
Although it was already almost 7 pm when the doctor handed us the news, we were allowed to go home. And so, again, I didn’t get the chance to be the
penunggu…
Saturday, 5th July –
The supposedly scheduled date for the operation, but since it was cancelled, and we were told that the next date would very likely be on the 3rd or 4th week of July (still uncertain) we headed home to Ipoh. While we were approaching Tanjung Malim, my cousin called. Her husband works at Putrajaya Hospital and he told her to get us to contact him ASAP. So I did, and was told that the head of orthopedic department wanted to do the operation on Monday if the system was up running by Saturday. I told him we didn’t mind going back to KL the next day (Sunday) but would only do so if indeed the system was up. He promised to call me if the system was up by Saturday evening.
Well, he didn’t call. Which meant that the system was still down.
Today is already Monday, and as of last night, I was told the system was still not up yet.
I guess these things are to be expected when we become too dependant on computers. Having a computerized system does indeed help in getting things done efficiently, but once the system is down, things do get upside down.
And so there was an anti-climax ending to my supposedly short break from office and voluntary work last week.
I am now back in Ipoh, but am also on standby as they may call us anytime for the new date of my mother’s knee operation. And when that happens, I may need to go for another break.
