Deja Vu

Jeff here again. I called my sister when she got back from Taipei and asked her what happened these past few days. I was busy with work and didn't get a chance to call. It also took me a while to finish writing about my trip. The idea was to have my sister write while she was there, but I delayed that. When I did give her the username and password for this blog, she couldn't login for some reason. And by the time I figured that Blogger has a new and an old login page, and she had logged in the other one, she was on her way back to San Francisco.

In any case, she told me about my dad's swelling and how my mom was going to take my dad to the hospital after she dropped my sister off. But she had just talked to my mom and they ended up not going because my dad was too tired. This was Saturday here in the States.

I called my mom and she said basically the same thing as what my sister told me, that my dad was too tired. But today, she was going to take him. I talked to her again Saturday night (Sunday afternoon over there), and she told me that she still hadn't taken him.

Apparently, my dad woke up and went to the bathroom and took a shower. After showering, he was too tired and went to his bedroom to take a nap. He got up to eat lunch, but afterwards, he was again too tired to go to the hospital and went to sleep.

Frustrated, my mom told me that she couldn't sleep very well the previous night because she was constantly worried about my dad. His swelling was bad in his feet and his stomach. She said he could walk, but not that far. On top of that, he was eating less and less, and was a little constipated too.

My concern was what if the swelling got so bad that he couldn't get himself up? How would she get him out of bed?

My mom agreed. She told me that she thinks my dad doesn't want to go to the emergency room because of his first experience there. It was New Year's Day, he had just arrived from Shanghai and he had a very high fever. My mom took him immediately to the hospital emergency room. He stuck in the hallway for days, with constant noise and no privacy. On top of that, my dad's fever raised an alarm with Taiwan's Center for Disease Control. They thought that my dad went to China and came back with Avian Flu.

I asked my mom to let me talk to my dad. She woke him up and he sounded really weak, despite it being 4 p.m. in the afternoon their time. I asked him why he hasn't gone to the hospital yet. He said somewhat incomprehensibly that he had a checkup on Tuesday.

I assumed that he meant that he was willing to wait it out. So I told him: "Pa, you are in serious condition. The swelling is making you so uncomfortable, you can't eat. If you don't go to the hospital, you are just going to get worse.

"Remember when you told me you didn't want mom to suffer? Well, if you don't go to the hospital, you are making her suffer. So please go to the hospital, you will feel a lot better after they drain all the fluid. It won't take that long."

My dad only responded with an occasional "Ehhh."

I got back on the phone with my mom and we talked about getting him to the hospital. I asked her what would she do if my dad could not physically get to the hospital. I suggested calling an ambulance or calling on my cousin.

She said there was another downside of going to the hospital now - it was a holiday weekend. It was almost deja vu, because the dreaded emergency room episode also took place during the New Year's holiday, and half the hospital staff was out. This weekend, it was Tomb-Sweeping weekend, and most definitely, hospital workers would be out paying respects to the dead.

I told my mom that we're sorry we couldn't be there to help and that I hope she stays strong. She responded, "O.K.-la, bye."

The next day, I called the apartment but no one was there. Part of me was relieved that they had finally gone to the hospital. I called my dad's cell phone twice and he answered the second time. I could tell that he was in a hospital, there were voices in the background.

I asked him where he was. He said he was in the hospital emergency room. I told him I was glad he was there.

"Glad ni de pi! I am so tired, but I can't sleep because it's too noisy. I haven't slept for two days."

I asked him why he was there so long, how come they haven't taken the fluids out. He said that they tried to, but when they were taking it out of his belly, they saw a little bit of blood and so they stopped. The doctors think the blood might be coming from his liver, so they have to run some more tests.

He was pretty miserable and pissed off. But I told him, "Dad, I know that you are not happy right now and you're not comfortable, but I'm really glad that you are in the hospital."

He said, "Ehhh ... O.K., I'm tired. Bye."