new year scare

My dad went into anaphylactic shock yesterday night. The Disprin he took to relieve his headache reacted badly. It wasn't expired, nor was it fake (presumably!) and he'd taken disprin many times before, as prescribed, diluted in water. Who knows what happened this time!

He gave us quite a scare. My mom and sis tried their best to somehow keep him conscious and rub him into wakefulness. I ran about calling our neighbour with whose help we got him to the hospital. While the ambulance was coming I frantically called our Doctor uncles who were unavailable for what seemed an eternity! When finally I connected, dad had become better. Uncle asked me to ask dad to show his tongue and confirm what date it was to make sure it wasn't related to the brain. Dad was able to do and answer correctly, so we all heaved a sigh of relief. We were all thinking that he might have suffered cardiac arrest and become paralysed.. It was a terror-filled ten minutes which was really a walk-up call.

I thought about all the times dad tried to tell us where the important papers and documents and assets were. And the time when he seriously sat and talked about how we needed to know what to do if something happened to him. And I thought how unprepared we were and would always be because he is the pillar of stability in our lives and we are so dependent on him for everything. In those ten minutes, I hope, my life has changed. I hope I have learned to be prepared. I hope I will have learned to be more worldly. Only time will tell what I have learned...

My dad is fine now, and I hope I will not have to re-learn this lesson for a long time in the future..