A YEAR AGO TODAY …

I had camped out at the Damansara Specialist Hospital.
The other half was put on induced coma for a viral infection to the brain. Until now, we have yet to know what strain it was. At best, we were told it was some kind of encephalitis.
It was a harrowing experience that we – his family and I – would not want to go through again.
Being fit physically does not guarantee that we are free from any form of viral attacks. That is for a fact. The other half was fit and healthy when he got struck by the infection.
But he was lucky. It did not linger too long in his body to do any damage.
He survived it without a scratch. Well, not exactly. There is a slight indent on his right frontal hairline where the neurosurgeon had done a procedure to clamp the blood vein on his head. That indent, since covered by hair (no, he is no longer bald!), is a reminder of what happened a year ago.
There was only one minor scare a month or so ago when he asked if the doctor had told me if the infection could recur. He told me he felt feverish around Mahgrib. This was after he had returned from an outing at Bukit Cherakah.
I had wondered if it was psychological especially since it was going to be a year to the day he was first hospitalized.
I SMS-ed Tokasid for advice and he recommended that the other half undergo blood tests for infections. Well, men being men (or are they boys?), he hasn’t done it.
“Maybe I should refer to a bomoh instead,” he joked, saying that he could have been “sampuk” while in the jungle.
No, he hasn’t gone to see a bomoh either but the feverish feeling is gone.
He has re-started his gym and busy pitching a product he had been taking since his recovery.
He is my walking testimony of the product and I have been busy pitching it to my family members and friends too.
During his hospitalization period, I made new friends through this blog, for example, but somehow he met them first.
He bumped into TPJ the first time at the Taman Tun Dr Ismail mosque about a month after his discharge from the hospital. TPJ first wrote a comment on my posting here.
TPJ had approached and introduced himself to the other half. “I met your friend,” he told me after the Friday prayers. When he told me it was Tengku Putra, I told the other half that while he had dropped a comment on my post, we had never met.
In fact, they bumped into each other a few times after that. I had the opportunity to be introduced to Tengku Putra at the Umno General Assembly in end-March.
I have since met Raden Galoh , Elviza , Pak Idrus, Tokasid and a few others at a Blogger’s meet at the Curve.
And, of course, who can forget Clark Gable of Pulau Duyong who came to the hospital when the other half was in a coma and when he was out of ICU.
There are many others who I still kept in touch via SMSes, emails and their blogs.
Alhamdulillah, a year over, he is well. We thank you for your support