Most of my fellow comrades must be jubilating by now. The war against the finals has ended, and today, they rightfully celebrate their freedom and begin their holidays in full swing.
As for myself, the official final tally stands as this:
Out of my 6 papers, I was only able to attend one examination. The rest I have to replace with special exams. I’d rather not think about it too much right now, or I’ll throw up again. That, I do not want.
The lowdown is simple:
In a span of a fortnight, 3 cough syrups, half a dozen packets of pills and 5 doctors later, I landed myself in the hospital a couple of days ago.
The coughs had become more chronic, the fevers more recurrent and I was brought in shaking from head to foot.
As much as this whole hospital episode provides a great opportunity to inject a little drama into the banal entries of mine as of late, I think I would rather go with boring than theatrical at this juncture. Besides. I don’t want to look like I’m out for some pity. Well-wishers have been gratefully received though, and I hold your messages close and dear.
Thinking back on the past couple of weeks has been hard. I can’t remember much on what happened, but I recall the coughs keeping me up most nights and having long bonding sessions with the toilet sink. The days were long and…fuzzy. A thought did cross that if I didn’t force myself to at least roll out of bed, I’d most definitely lose function of my limbs.
Oh, I must say something about hospital food. Or maybe, I’ll let David Gray sing it for me:
“Just a little something for the pain. Hospital food getting you down? Honey now I’m not one to complain…“
I think the most efficient way to make a person lose weight is to put him/her on a diet of hospital food for some time. It will work. I guarantee it. And since I’d rather not sound like an ungrateful brat when there’s famine and poverty in other parts of the world, that is all I will say in the matter.
This whole getting sick business is what I call ironic. Crazy.
Because I am the type who gets the clean bill of health 99.99% of the time. My most serious case would be a headache, or cramps. I’ve openly prided on the durability of my immune system once during a particular flu plague, and it felt great to feel so kick ass despite being exposed to all the nasty in the air. As I said, it takes a lot before I go down.
So to fall ill at the most inopportune moment, smack at the end of the semester with the finals going on is crazy ironic.
SubhanaAllah. Some things just don’t work out sometimes.
I hope this hospital stay is my first and last one ever. I couldn’t take the boredom, and that was just 3 days. In fact, so bored was I that I made a valiant attempt at studying Company Law in bed, with plans to play hero and take the paper yesterday morning. Suffice to say, I got a lot worse later on and that plan went bust. So much for heroics. I think the nurses were amused.
In hindsight though, this whole chapter’s been quite enlightening. I look back and suddenly it feels like my priorities have
shifted into their proper places. I used to operate on this equation
that EXAMS=LIFE, but that’s out now. Funny how losing health sharpens
your perception on how you view the world, despite how minor my case
was in comparison to other patients. As far as I’m concerned,
LIVING=LIFE is how I should have seen it ages ago. I will never forget
how paralysing it was to feel so helpless to take in a simple breath
without choking. That helplessness made me feel powerless over myself
for the first time in my life. No control. It was frustrating.
At present time, I am much better Alhamdulillah. Although my bonding sessions with the sink still continue, and I still feel not quite here, I’m home now and on a road to recovery. I had some girls come over to visit me earlier tonight; they helped a great deal in the spirit-lifting department. The calls, the messages, the prayers, the comments, everything helped, everyone helped. I suppose one of the perks during this whole ordeal was people coming forward to show they care. Doutbless, I felt a little embarrassed, but I can’t say it felt bad either. =) Thank you all. It means a whole lot to me. You will never know how much.
I think…I need some rest now.
But I’ll be bouncing back soon, Insya Allah.
Enough said here.
