Family | Heroes Always Triumph

Just last Saturday, I accompanied my Mom to TTSH for her physiotherapy.

Today was Dad's turn to get his colons checked-out through colonoscopy, done by the same Dr. Ooi Boon Swee who is handling Dad's case, just 4 days ago when he did a follow-up check on Dad at Clinic D on Thursday, 15 June 2006.

The Endoscopy Centre is temporarily relocated at Block 7 Ward 77. Dad had to go through this routine again, a year after the removal of his cancerous tumor in his lower intestine.

Today was a critical moment to actually find out if there was any new growth further inside his intestines. Since the removed tumor was very near his anus, it blocked the scope from being able to be inserted further in to be investigated.

The day unfortunately started kind of badly though. It started to rain, I mean a down-pour in the morning.

Since the journey to the hospital from my parents home was less than 30 minutes, we gave ourselves ample time to beat the morning traffic. We set off an hour earlier.

The cab that I took from my home to my parents' had another booking done, so the driver could not continue with the journey to the hospital after fetching my parents. We had to flag for another cab there.

It was incredibly hard to get one!

Knowingly so, because it was a Monday, in the peak hour of the morning and heavy rain. The combination made getting a cab so frustrating.

I could not even get through the cab booking hot-line the whole time we were waiting for one!

There, we waited at the covered walkway for about half hour before we finally got a cab. That was only because someone alighted a distance away from us.

The journey was bad all the same!

We took the BKE to avoid CTE busy traffic, but once we entered the highway, the EMAS electronic signboard pre-warned a notice of "Massive Jam. Accident on KJE after Mandai Road."

The cab driver made an "escape" to CTE instead via SLE.

To our surprise, SLE had a traffic jam too right at the entrance. Totally strange as SLE near the Singapore Sports School had never jam before.

The cab "crawled" on the highway for 20 minutes. All because of a broken-down car, that was later pushed to the road shoulder. Sigh.

There was however a bumper-to-bumper accident on the opposite direction that caused another massive jam, there. That was totally unfortunate for the drivers on the opposite direction.

Once we entered CTE, as expected our cab just inched slowly for another 40 minutes. It was a total test of our patience.

We were suppose to be at SGH by 8:15am, half an hour to prep for the colonoscopy procedure at 8:45am, but reached the hospital and registered at 9:05am instead!

Wow, the journey was extremely trying, but the cab fare takes the cake. It cost us S$26.50 when it should only have cost $13.00 to $15.00 at most in a normal situation!

I even received a call on my mobile from SGH Service Desk while we were registering Dad, asking me why Dad had not turn-up for the procedure. We were 45 minutes late!

Thought we had to reschedule the procedure and I had wasted my precious annual leave for today, but instead Dad was prepped less than 10 minutes after registering.

He was then escorted to the theater for his procedure which took less than 10 minutes. Dad was out, all changed back into his own clothes as he came out to meet us at the waiting area.

We were then ushered to the Appointment Counter where the results were explained by a Staff Nurse and appointment made for a follow-up 1 YEAR LATER!!!!

Yes, 1 YEAR LATER!

Dad's blood test result came out normal. His colons... with all the glory of coloured photographs shown to us, turned out normal too! His next appointment is on 21 June 2007!

Dad is healthy again!

Praise to The Almighty for the blessings He has given to Dad and his children, for this wonderful news!


Mom just smiled wide when I told her the news. She praised him for sticking to his diet religiously and taking great effort to stay healthy and taking care of her at the same time. He is Mom's hero.

A wonderful belated Father's Day gift from the heavens above! Nothing can top this!

I wasted no time to SMS all my brothers and sisters about the outcome. My cell phone started chiming repeatedly as one after another responded with great joy!

It was my perfect Father's Day gift to me, too.

All that good news made us forget to take our breakfast. We eat at SGH cafeteria while chatting and joking away for a while.

Dad was on such a cheery mood that when Mom saw and commented on a cute little Bambi stuffed toy in the Pharmacy display window, that he surprised her by buying it for her.

Just like my courting days! How great was that!

I sent them home after that to do my next task. To buy some display items for revamping Wify's shop.

Come to think about it, the rain did not bother us anymore.

Everything seemed brighter and full of wonderful hope again. I was gleaming like I was in a daze.

I decided to take my time to be alone. I took the bus ride home from Woodlands on Service 168, a double-decker, routed via SLE and TPE.

All quite, except the humming of the engine... lost in my happy thoughts with a smile on my face that I could not hide. Why hide?!

Till this day, Dad and Mum do not know that the tumor that Dad had was cancerous, at stage 3. It was kept a secret from them.

Today, he is as healthy as an 80 year old can ever be.

The feeling of great satisfaction and closure for me personally. The utmost gratefulness to The Almighty to bestow such a blessing unto Dad, unto us.

Again... Happy Father's Day, Dad!

My all-time hero and we love you.