I just reached Bangsar, from a two-day trip to Kuantan.
I took my father to see his regular doctor, who has been monitoring him for several months now.
BP is normal, as is everything else. In fact, it seems that my father has recovered so much from his fourth stroke that the doctor has stopped thinking that he's going to die at any moment and began asking questions as to how he stayed alive all this while.
I assure you, it's not proper diet and exercise. And he still smokes four packs a day.
Men his age usually go for gardening or that kind of shit. My father does lumberjacking. He cuts down trees - small ones - and kill squirrels. And has dreams to plant vegetables on our one-acre land. Again.
Everyone in my family are stubborn. We don't die that easily.
And from being at risk to die at any moment, my father is still alive. He can walk, but not so well. He can talk, but not so good either. His speech is clear, but his memories are fading.
However, he still has total recall of certain events.
When we got him on a new diet - fuelled by my research online - he was adamant at whatever the fuck he wanted. What we got in the end was a compromise of sorts.
He still hasn't made a full recovery, but I believe that he can shake off this latest stroke within the year.
I also truly appreciate the physician treating him. Dr Ooi, also known as 'Dr 001' amongst some of his peers, is considered one of the best, if not the best in Kuantan, and maybe Pahang.
He made changes to my father's medicine every time we went to see him and we looked up each tablet or pill. Most of them are new drugs he wanted to try out.
It seems to work and for the first time in months, I do not answer any call from my hometown with baited breath.
Maybe what my father said was true, after all.
"Amir, don't be a bad person. You know what happens to bad people? They die."
Yeah, right.
