We All Fall Down

I chatted with Medic Guy Monday night in which he told me that he had suffered a stroke some week ago. Apparently there was some kind of tumor in his head that ruptured and bled, he's relatively okay now but he feels tired and can't walk that well and can't drive or work. He's doing physical therapy and on his way to recovery but he won't be able to fly in helicopters anymore which upsets him more than anything. I have to say I wasn't expecting things like that would happen to a guy only a few years my elder and I feel kinda helpless not being able to offer any kind of help.

At 6 in the morning, my cell phone rang. After being aware of that and walked to retrieve my phone, it stopped at three bars. (It's a music ringtone... My Moon My Man by Feist, don't judge. :)) I thought it was odd or maybe it was a prank, usually people know not to call me before 10. But five minutes later, the phone rang again and it was grandma.

It's been 12 years that I've been in the States and grandma still don't know what how the time difference works. She's still asking me what time it is here at my side and seems surprise at the answer every single time. Also I'm not sure she knows how answering machine works either, she's not fluent in English so she tries to have a conversation with the English speaking lady at times, that or hang up thinking she had dialed the wrong number. That's all cute and all, but it could be annoying sometimes.

This time she called telling me that she's not doing so well. She had fainted just two days ago due to her hypertension, she got rushed to the hospital but got sent back home because they ran out of beds. Of course I got worried and it doesn't help with her telling me that her memory is also going. At times she goes out and then wonder what she was out for, she's also losing stuff and the bad thing is sometimes she forgets to take her meds and that is probably why she fainted.

The most unsettling thing is that I think she calls me because she thinks that she doesn't have much time left, it's kinda heartbreaking. She is 84 now. Unlike previous years, she lives by herself now and even though her 6 kids, my aunts and uncles, are all in Hong Kong, she had made it difficult for anyone to live with her throughout the years. I'm tempted to go back for a month just to be with her but then I might just get tempted to find a job and stay which is not something I really want to do.

Ever since I went to see the foot doctor, which sounds so much better than Podiatrist, my foot had been feeling a whole lot better. The stretching really helped, I can hardly feel the ache anymore, but for some reason I'm still limping. Some friend got an infection on his toe, another one got severe allergy that triggered his asthma.

Altogether we make a terribly broken person.