A Second Chance

On the 14th January 2005, I fell very sick. I kept throwing up everything that I ate and I had diarrhoea. I thought it was food poisoning. It went on for 3 days. Sensing that something could be wrong, my husband Chris sent me to the A&E Department at a nearby hospital. After a bout of tests, it was confirmed I had Dengue Fever.

I was warded immediately and put on drip. My fever was 40 degree Celsius. And throughout the whole night, I was constantly sponged with cold water to bring down the fever. I was freezing but my body was burning hot.

Every day a nurse would come in twice to take my blood samples. I couldn't eat and was on drip most of the time. Chris slept in the ward to keep me company at night. For the first few days, he would rush from the practice after closing hours to the hospital. In the afternoons, my son Jaymes would come after school to take care of me.

I was very sick and my temper was horrible, the nurses were reluctant to come near. I would pull out the needle of the drip and refuse medication. Chris would silently bear my nonsense. He would help me to the toilet and also bathed me in the mornings. Then he would go home to check on the kids before rushing to work. School had just started not too long ago, so there were many things to do.

Also he was having a lot of trouble from our tenants. They knew I was hospitalised and yet they wanted Chris to go down to fix up the internet and changed new furniture and fixtures.

On the 6th day, my condition deteriorated. My red blood cells count dropped to a dangerously low level and my gums was bleeding. I couldn't get up and I was too weak to speak. I had lost 6 kg in that few days. I was dying.

The doctor quickly ordered a plasma transfusion. At that time, there was a Dengue Fever pandemic in Singapore. A few people died and hundreds were hospitalised. The doctor couldn't promise that I would get better. It would depend very much on whether my body would accept the new plasma.

I could see that Chris was mentally and physically drained, at that moment I just wished to die. I was suffering so much that I couldn't take it anymore. I would get hysterical and Chris would hold my hands and pleaded with me to hang on and get well. At times, he would hold me tightly and cried. During the next 2 days, we could only look at each other with tears streaming down our eyes.

Seeing him so weary and miserable, it really broke my heart. I was prepared to leave if it was God's will. It was a torture to see the man who have always been my pillar of strength to crumble.

On the 3rd day of my blood transfusion, I got slightly better. Chris was ecstatic. When I was off the drip, he went to the market to buy chicken to boil soup for me. And he would spoonfeed me.

I was warded for 12 days. Chris stayed by my side 24 hours a day for the 5 days I was really sick. He couldn't go to work and he told the tenants to go 'f*** a spider' when they couldn't stop calling him on his mobile! hahaha.......

I've been through Hell and back, it was Chris who gave me the strength to fight at my most critical moment of my life. To my husband, Christopher Tan, this Valentine's Day post is dedicated to you.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!