Mum
celebrated her 89th birthday in September 2021, a ripe old age where
she has earned the right to relax and to enjoy her retirement.
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| Mum reads the daily news from a hard copy of the newspapers |
In
spite of treatment and medication, mum’s right knee still aches from the wear
and tear of old bones and ligaments, most likely chronically damaged due to the
nature of her work.
To
stand up and walk, mum now needs the help of a walker frame to steady herself. Even
with excruciating pain, she is brave and remains determined to stay mobile and
independent.
Sometimes
when her painful knees caused her discomfort, she would reminisce about a time
when these same pair of legs used to take her on her daily duties, walking
through narrow paths in kampungs and New Villages, uphill and downhill,
to visit patients and to attend to baby deliveries in and around Masai.
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| Mum likes to potter around in the garden |
It
was always good to listen to mum when she shared her reflections about her job
that put her on-call 24-hours, 365 days a year, because nobody knew exactly when
a baby was due to be born.
The
world for the elderly would drastically shrink when their work life and social
circles ceased to exist, so they tend to only talk about topics close to their
hearts.
In
the prevailing pandemic and lockdowns, the world for the elderly further shrunk
with less physical contact with family and friends, and while video chats were
a welcome compensation, it was not the same as in-person meet-ups.
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| Mum uses a walker frame to steady her steps |
In
my story, My mum the midwife (NST, Johor Buzz, Nov 2008) I brought to
light the important role of a midwife, who was responsible for two lives – that
of the mother and newborn – often in very challenging circumstances.
I
remember in the dead of night, when we were snug in bed, someone might wake us
with a call, “Mee-see!” and mum would respond to her call of duty to go
with this caller to help deliver a new baby.
Mum
said sometimes the caller was just a youngster riding a motorbike and she would
head out into the night, riding pillion with him. [In the districts, young
people learned to ride motorcycles while they were not yet old enough to obtain
a license.]
At
that time, some villages were only accessible by boat so mum had to walk on a
rickety jetty to climb into a sampan to cross a river to reach the
villager’s house.
Looking
back with a shudder, mum marveled that she was fearless when duty called but in
fact, she was in a precarious position because she could not swim and only
trusted God for her safety each time she left home for a case.
An
unforgettable experience was when mum attended to a patient who lived in a
kampung house built on stilts. When mum was ready to leave, she stepped out of
the house directly into flood waters, and she had to wade her way out from the
kampung.
Another
shocking experience was when mum arrived to see a patient with a parang
lying next to her. While she felt intimidated to see such a long-bladed knife
there, mum proceeded to sterilize her patient to prepare for the birthing.
Just
as the baby arrived, mum was stunned when the parang was used to crack open a
coconut above the patient’s abdomen for the coconut juice to splash down in
some archaic ritual, an act which also quashed mum’s effort to sterilize the
patient…
These
and other exciting experiences are familiar to me but when mum reminisces about
them, often repeatedly, it was a way for her to reaffirm her value and
contributions to the community at a time when she was strong and capable.
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| Mum's appointment card with Klinik Mahmoodiah, marked with DEFAULTER in 2016 |
Over
the years, we have faithfully kept all her appointments except once in 2016
when we were travelling and for this failure to keep her appointment, mum was
very upset to see that she was labelled a DEFAULTER on her appointment card.
I
could understand her distress because it was typical of the elderly, particularly
retired Government servants like mum, who would choose never to default on any
appointment with the clinic.
While
my sister and I have been cautious and hesitant about bringing mum to the
clinic for her health review appointments in the lockdown periods, we still
managed to do so safely, twice in the past 17 months.
As
the virus variant continued to rage on with rapid infections, mum stayed safely
at home and we kept a strictly No Visitors policy to avoid any contact and threat
of infection.
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| Dr Low Wei Shyong during his house-call in March 2021 |
When
grandmother was still with us, our family doctor at Kelinik Woo & Hong made
house-calls to see her and we continued to consult with Dr Low Wei Shyong, who
took over the practice in this clinic.
Dr
Low made this house-call to see mum and with his professional and pleasant
bedside manner, mum had a very comfortable consultation with him.
The
next morning, I was at the clinic to collect mum’s prescription. And when mum’s
blood and urine test results were ready, Dr Low discussed it with my sister and
I over the telephone before I went to collect the hard copy of the report from his
clinic.
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| I presented Dr Low with my 2017 Bestseller, My Johor Stories: True Tales, Real People, Rich Heritage |
It
was also my pleasure to present the good doctor with a copy of my 2017 Bestseller,
My Johor Stories: True Tales, Real People, Rich Heritage, for him to
read about, My mum the midwife, our life in Masai in, Going back to
Masai-chusetts and about dad in, My mentor, my dad.
Dr
Low explained that due to the pandemic, he has adopted a New Normal to do more
phone consultation and tele-medicine with patients. And as he got better
acquainted with us, I was comfortable to reach him for phone consultations for
mum.
When
the doctor gave the all-clear that it was safe for mum to receive the Covid19
vaccination, we proceeded with the process for mum and in May, I had the
pleasure to inform Dr Low that mum was fully vaccinated.
In
his reply, Dr Low complemented me on my book and told me that he was reading my
stories in his clinic, in between patient consultations. He said and I quote:
“My
Johor Stories is a delightful read! Short, bite-sized stories which, as a
Johorean, I can relate a lot to. Very soulful, especially the stories about
your dad. He was so disciplined and loving to his children.”
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| Dr Low making his first ever car-call from my parked car |
As
daily reports of new infections were still ranging high, my sister and I were
reluctant to bring mum to the clinic for this appointment. Because it was
necessary to get mum’s test results for the doctor to review and prescribe, we
decided to seek Dr Low’s help.
This
time, instead of a house-call, we arranged to meet him half-way. To avoid
contact with others in the clinic, the good doctor agreed to see mum in my car,
parked outside the clinic. This turned out to be Dr Low’s first car-call.
The
next morning, I sent a sample of mum’s urine over to the clinic and a week
passed before Dr Low reverted with the results of mum’s blood and urine tests.
As
Dr Low congratulated us on what we were doing to manage mum’s health and
well-being, it was indeed a comfort and relieve to learn that there was nothing
alarming in the findings.
Weeks
passed and the date for the doctor’s appointment to review mum’s health at
Klinik Mahmoodiah was fast approaching but the number of new infections in
Johor Baru continued to stay dreadfully high.
As
we kept a close watch on the number of new infections around us, we also
observed that mum was keeping in good general health.
As
the appointment date drew closer, my sister and I made the decision to not let
mum go to the clinic but to present a copy of her blood and urine test results and
show the record of her daily Blood Pressure readings to the doctor, on her
behalf.
This
is truly an unprecedented time in history and it was important to reassure mum
that it was all right for her not to be physically present at the appointment,
but that I would go on her behalf. (I did not say it:) So she would not be
labelled a Defaulter.
In
a prior phone call to Klinik Mahmoodiah, I explained to the nurse that I would
be going for the appointment on behalf of my mother.
It
was also an unprecedented situation for them because she paused to seek a
colleague’s view before she came back to the line with a dull phrase like, “Tak
tahu lah apa doktor kata…”
That
afternoon, I went to the clinic on behalf of mum armed with a Que-sera-sera
attitude, ready to face whatever was ahead in my encounter with the doctor.
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| The reception counter at Klinik Mahmoodiah |
As
I explained that I had the relevant reports for the doctor to review, she was
rather blunt and unsympathetic but I kept my cool.
Then
she wrote in Red, Wakil Ibu, on the Registration Number and passed this
small piece of paper to me with a reminder me to bring the patient in for the
next appointment.
Filled
with relieve, I proceeded to the next counter and gave the young man this
Registration Number to collect mum’s clinic record card.
When
he passed mum’s card to me along with the Registration Number, he told me to go
to BILIK 4 even though the chop in Blue on the Number read as, BILIK 2.
As
I approached BILIK 4, I realized that it was where the patient’s Blood Pressure
would be taken. Since I was not the patient and I had the record of mum’s daily
BP readings ready, I proceeded to BILIK 2 where I dropped mum’s appointment
card into the small box fixed at the room’s entrance.
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| My Registration Number with the words, Wakil Ibu written on it |
Moments
later, the door of BILIK 3 opened and a doctor – from the white lab coat he
wore, I guessed he was a doctor – came out and collected the patients’ cards
from the small box outside BILIK 2.
When
he picked a card and called out my mum’s name, I responded and was ushered into
BILIK 3. There were three others inside this room, all wearing white lab coats.
Incidentally,
these past two days I was working on the manuscript for my Book Three and had reviewed
the draft for my story on the first Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Johor Baru
General Hospital, the former name of Hospital Sultanah Aminah.
To
share this story, I also included a historical reference to the hospital’s
Officers’ Ward or First-Class Ward, a building that was once the residence of
the sister of Sultan Abu Bakar, Ungku Khatijah, built in 1928 on a hill known
as Bukit Cengkih or Clove Hill after a clove plantation here.
When the
First-Class Ward was relocated to the new extension of the main hospital in 2009, this building was used as the Hematology Ward and part
of the Monash University Malaysia campus for the Jeffrey Cheah School of
Medicine and Health Sciences.
Then when I entered
BILIK 3 and saw the other three young people clad in white lab coats, I safely concluded
that they were trainees in the Monash University Malaysia campus for the Jeffrey
Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences here.
The doctor who ushered
me into the room, invited me to sit down on the patient’s chair while the young
lady trainee took her place at the desk as the consulting doctor.
When the doctor
asked for my name, I started to explain that I was not the patient but was there
on behalf of the patient. He still wanted to know my name and when I told him, it
was like a confirmation because he had already recognised me from my voice. [We
were fully masked and wearing face shields.]
“I’m Dr Ho,” he declared
as I turned to look at his name tag which read, Dr Ho Loon Shin, and I too recognised
him because I had forgotten that he was a Lecturer with the Monash University
campus here.
Meanwhile
Dr Ho gave me a glowing introduction to the three trainees and told them about
our mutual friend, the late Michael Parry, who was his Headmaster in their
school in Kulai while Dr Ho was then the Head Prefect.
With
the introductions done, Dr Ho stepped away from the desk while I proceeded to
consult with the young lady trainee in our roles as patient and doctor.
When
I presented her with mum’s blood and urine test results and record of BP
readings, Dr Ho went into teaching mode and helped to evaluate the details page
by page for the benefit of the three trainees. [A copy later attached to mum’s record.]
Even
though I entered the clinic with deep apprehension, everything changed when Dr
Ho took me into BILIK 3 where I met with the three trainees, How Eng Han and
Lim Wai Kit, both from Kuala Lumpur, and Ewurama Akroma Dontoh, the young lady
from Ghana, Africa.
It
was truly an unexpected encounter in an unprecedented time but an encouraging
experience for me because mum’s health and well-being were evident from the
findings in the test report.
Once
again, I was reminded that God is always faithful and good.
Deeply
grateful for being accommodated in the New Normal, I the Wakil Ibu, left
the clinic with a prescription for mum and her next appointment fixed for January
2022.
NOTE: My Johor Stories series of books are available from MPH bookstores nationwide and online from mphonline.com
