Facing Uncertainties in Life

For today’s visit, my team that comprised of me (J K CHEW, just for those who wonder how my old Army name tag looks like), my Mechanical Engineering friend, C J NG and his Secondary School friend, C J TEO from Pharmacy, visited “Mr O”.

This is my 2^nd time visiting him and it seems like I actually had more to reflect upon during this visit than the previous time.

We spent majority of our time with him, explaining the functions of his phone, helping him read some letters and write notices on his calendar regarding his medical check-ups. Other than the above, we spent a little time listening to him share about his past; a turning point of his life.

It was one day approximately 2 years ago, Mr O was on his driving shift as a TAXI driver. Suddenly he felt dizzy and thus decided to visit the doctor and seek medical treatment. Little did he expect, the doctor diagnosed that he had something like a tumour or a blood clot (Mr O did not know exactly what happened) at the back of his right brain and would require a surgery to be performed to alleviate the problem.

After that surgery, his life changed and everything is no longer the same anymore. The right side of his face got immobilised, he can no longer close his right eye, the vision from his right eye turned blurred and he lost his sense of hearing at the right ear. He was hospitalised for 1 year, and throughout those days, he was unable to consume solid food and had to be fed with liquid food (usually milk) through a tube that runs from his nose to someone at the lower left side of his abdomen. That caused his body to be weakened due to the rapid loss of weight, with a record low of 45Kg. He could not sleep normally and was in pain for majority of the time, during that 1 year he spent in the hospital.

Currently, he is no longer tube fed and is able to consume solid food. He gained back some weight and is slowly restoring his health. Occasionally, he is still able to hang out with his friends and is leading quite a normal life now.

However due to his condition, he is unable to drive anymore and had since retired as a TAXI driver. He currently lives on government welfare and will still need to report back to the hospital for recurrent check-ups.

From Mr O's sharing, I realised that life can be filled with uncertainties. Just any unforeseen occurrences may alter the path of our lives completely. However it is also up to us to learn how to face the changes and develop the tenacity to overcome adversities.

I would not know if Mr O has gotten used to his predicaments, however what I believe is that he must certainly require a lot of courage and determination to brave through that 1 year he spent on tubes in the hospital.

- Joel Chew