My uncle is admitted in NUH. He's my father's cousin. My uncle is not working anymore. He still has 1 wife and 2 children to support. The first one is only 22yrs old and there's still a younger one.
To cut the story short, he was admitted to a hospital in Jakarta due to high fever. When they checked his Hb was very low. They suspected he got anemia hemolitic. He stayed in hospital for 1 month and didn't get better. The family decided to look for second opinion, so they came to Singapore, NUH to be exact.
The first day they came he was very weak so they went straight to the hospital. The doctor suspected that the treatment in the first hospital was too harsh, therefore leaving him neither better or worse. This is his 3rd day in NUH and they are still doing biopsy. No medicines yet, only panadols and blood transfusion.
I visited him yesterday. He was transfused with new blood cos his Hb was very very low. 6 I think, below the normal count which is 10.
My aunt said he rarely gets sick, no health problems, healthy habits, good life. My uncle said, "this is like getting slapped in the face by Allah".
Even when you are so healthy, you take care of yourself, you still don't know when Allah decided to test you. We can't really expect our lives to be smooth all the way even though we wished to. It's scary sometimes when you think about it. At times like this I'm always reminded of my good friend. She suffered from an unknown illness for years, only taking painkillers, do MRI etc and she looked mighty brave. She never complained. She shared stories but not to the point of complaining. I wonder if she ever cries.Only recently she found out it was fibroid myalgia. The sister is schizophrenic and the mother now is in hospital. Sometimes I think Allah loves her so much that Allah tested her to that point. Sometimes I think it's unfair to me. There are so many people who lives lavishly without worries, no problems, everything is good, and they're not good people.
Anyway, back to my uncle. Two days ago the result came out. It is lymphoma, blood cancer, stadium 3. For most people when you are diagnosed with cancer at this stage it's like a death sentence. Even though you are treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy it will only prolong your life in about 3 to 4 years ahead. Then again age is in God's hands, but theoretically, that is your life span. The one thing that struck him the most was the fact that he'd been living a healthy life to that point. I remember a hadits or some saying that says, "A Muslim has to believe that everything comes from Allah, good and bad." Allah doesn't give bad things to make you miserable. Instead Allah is giving you opportunity to prove that you have the endurance and patience to go through it all, and you will be rewarded. Read the Qur'an and please tell me do all those Rasuls experience good life throughout their life? NO. Allah always emphasized that we will be tested like all those before us.
He cried during my last visit. I think he's scared, I know I will if I were him. I know it's tough to be positive when you are sick. But being positive is your way out of it. He's scared he will be a burden, scared there won't be enough money, scared of dying I think. I pray that Allah blesses him with endurance, patience and spirit to go through it all. I pray that Allah blesses his family with wealth, health and patience to go through it all.
When you have money, you can buy everything. But you can't buy health. If I were to choose to be rich or to be healthy, I choose health. I need to remind myself every now and then when I complain we are not getting richer and other people have more money than us.
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