The long journey

The road taken, is always a long one. 


I remember sitting in the MICU conference room in the hospital, talking about patients with my surgical team. My phone was ringing and ringing, but I ignored it. Being a medical student, its all about paying full attention to everything that was being said. Our usual routine starts at 4am, where the students go around seeing patients and leaving notes in the chart. And by 6am, everyone is in the conference room going through plans for the day for each patients. 


Once we were done by that, we head to the OR, where cases start running. I took my size 6 Non-SMT gloves and placed them on the scrub table. I walked out of the hallways to start scrubbing, and decided to check my phone for messages. There was one from my dad. All of the sudden, the ventral hernia repair in the room was no longer important. Getting to suture a patient was no longer important. Heck, even if I get to do the whole case it wasn't as important. 

Life is a very long road indeed. We can never see the end of it, and where it leads us too. My grandmother passed away that morning half way around the world from me. 


At first, it all seemed unreal. It was unbelievable. She had been in the hospital for many days, and was being treated for heart failure. It did not register in my brain that from that very instant onwards, I no longer have a paternal grandmother. But somehow, my body knows how to react by reflex to such situations. I asked permission for the morning off, and I can feel tears welled up in my eyes. 

Chinese New Year @ Johor Bahru Feb 2010

I was never very close to my grandmother. And I was never her favourite grandchild. But she is family afterall, and the thought of losing a family member is devastating.


I made a couple phone calls back to Malaysia, just to find out what happened. Honestly, the Malaysian health care system is so different from America, and I certainly cannot comprehend why some aggresive measures weren't taken that could have prolonged her life. But such decisions are fated, and I think it is destined to happen. She is now finally in peace in a better place. No more working hard, no more struggling, no more being bossed around.

May 2005 @ Penang. Grandma's birthday.

Bye bye grandma. May you rest in peace.