04 Sep '16, the most hated day in my life because it was on that fateful day that my mom had passed into the mist of time and she'd no reason to go away at the age of 81. For me, life subsequently has lost its charm. Life goes on and I do my work, carry out my assignments and fulfill the social duties vested upon me but long gone is the enthusiasm and the need to impress someone - my mom!
I'd got up around a 10' to 4 and remembered that last year, I was sleeping near mom and had got up at a half past 1 and a quarter past 4, to have my mom cleared off the urine that she'd passed despite the diapers that she'd gracefully agreed to wear with effect from the previous evening - to prevent me from having to clean it! Mind you, she hated such appendages!!
She was fast asleep when I'd got up at 6, lit the lamp in the puja room and went about my chores. Preetha, our maid had come around 7 o'clock and had complained that mom was refusing to have a bath. All the three of us tried to persuade her but she'd agreed to it after touching the warm water kept ready for her. She, then, was assisted in dressing up and had gotten into her white 'Mundum, neriyathum' with a matching blouse - her trademark attire at home.
After having a cup of tea and two biscuits, she insisted on my taking her to the sofa in the sitting room to lie down for a while but no sooner had she been helped onto it, she'd got up and insisted on gettimg back to the bedroom. It was then that I noticed that she was sweating profusely and was convinced that she needed to be shifted to a hospital without delay. I'd called up our neighbour who owned the hospital and told him about my mom's medical condition and had asked him for an ambulance along with the availability of the cardiologist and the medical specialist at the hospital - it was a Sunday - to attend to her immediately, on arrival.
Though mom wasn't keen to get hospitalised, I'd convinced her that we'd be able to return within an hour or so after taking in a saline infusion intravenously because that was what I'd firmly believed then. But on reaching the hospital around a quarter past 8, things had taken a twist because an ECG of her heart, taken while at the Casualty, showed a variation and they told me that she was being shifted into the cardiology ICU. And about an hour later, the doctors had briefed me about my mom's medical condition:-
(a) Her BP was extremely low. Came to know then that the doctors can bring down an increased
blood pressure but can do nothing about a lowered BP!
(b) Her urine output was zero.
(c) She'd difficulty in breathing.
(d) And her condition was extremely critical!
I was allowed to see her and was shocked to see her breathing in short audible gasps with the Oxygen mask on. I'd called out to her and asked her to fight it and she'd looked at me as if to say, "There's my idiotic son who's unaware that I'm going and he wants me to fight it".
Around 2' to 12, through a gap in the curtains, I saw the doctors and the nurse around my mom's bed trying to revive her. I couldn't believe what I was seeing!
Tailpiece.
1. I've the following queries that are still seeking answers:-
(a) I'm sure that had I done a 'Sayanapradakshinam' around Guruvayoorappan's sanctum
sanctorum, she'd have been with us even now. But why didn't that thought come to me?
(b) Was I a good son to her? I'd like to believe that I was.
(c) Would she like to have me as her son in her next life, the cosmic factors permitting?
2. Lekha continued to be unwell, dampening our Thiruvonam celebrations but she still managed to rustle up a good lunch of parippum, pappadavum, paayasavum! I was more than happy. Hope she's able to take the drive to the doctor tomorrow morning!
I'd got up around a 10' to 4 and remembered that last year, I was sleeping near mom and had got up at a half past 1 and a quarter past 4, to have my mom cleared off the urine that she'd passed despite the diapers that she'd gracefully agreed to wear with effect from the previous evening - to prevent me from having to clean it! Mind you, she hated such appendages!!
She was fast asleep when I'd got up at 6, lit the lamp in the puja room and went about my chores. Preetha, our maid had come around 7 o'clock and had complained that mom was refusing to have a bath. All the three of us tried to persuade her but she'd agreed to it after touching the warm water kept ready for her. She, then, was assisted in dressing up and had gotten into her white 'Mundum, neriyathum' with a matching blouse - her trademark attire at home.
After having a cup of tea and two biscuits, she insisted on my taking her to the sofa in the sitting room to lie down for a while but no sooner had she been helped onto it, she'd got up and insisted on gettimg back to the bedroom. It was then that I noticed that she was sweating profusely and was convinced that she needed to be shifted to a hospital without delay. I'd called up our neighbour who owned the hospital and told him about my mom's medical condition and had asked him for an ambulance along with the availability of the cardiologist and the medical specialist at the hospital - it was a Sunday - to attend to her immediately, on arrival.
Though mom wasn't keen to get hospitalised, I'd convinced her that we'd be able to return within an hour or so after taking in a saline infusion intravenously because that was what I'd firmly believed then. But on reaching the hospital around a quarter past 8, things had taken a twist because an ECG of her heart, taken while at the Casualty, showed a variation and they told me that she was being shifted into the cardiology ICU. And about an hour later, the doctors had briefed me about my mom's medical condition:-
(a) Her BP was extremely low. Came to know then that the doctors can bring down an increased
blood pressure but can do nothing about a lowered BP!
(b) Her urine output was zero.
(c) She'd difficulty in breathing.
(d) And her condition was extremely critical!
I was allowed to see her and was shocked to see her breathing in short audible gasps with the Oxygen mask on. I'd called out to her and asked her to fight it and she'd looked at me as if to say, "There's my idiotic son who's unaware that I'm going and he wants me to fight it".
Around 2' to 12, through a gap in the curtains, I saw the doctors and the nurse around my mom's bed trying to revive her. I couldn't believe what I was seeing!
Tailpiece.
1. I've the following queries that are still seeking answers:-
(a) I'm sure that had I done a 'Sayanapradakshinam' around Guruvayoorappan's sanctum
sanctorum, she'd have been with us even now. But why didn't that thought come to me?
(b) Was I a good son to her? I'd like to believe that I was.
(c) Would she like to have me as her son in her next life, the cosmic factors permitting?
2. Lekha continued to be unwell, dampening our Thiruvonam celebrations but she still managed to rustle up a good lunch of parippum, pappadavum, paayasavum! I was more than happy. Hope she's able to take the drive to the doctor tomorrow morning!
No comments:
Post a Comment