Yesterday my wish came true. I wished for company and I got it. And it was all because of dad.
Dad has stroke related dementia and most of the time he is in a daze, he is sleepy, talks to himself and makes hand gestures to himself. However, he has been taking a medication called Aricept that causes him to have what we call “awakenings” where he would be back to his jolly old self for a day or two after which it would make him so tired he would sleep for 24 hours non-stop and not even get up for meals. A day or two before the “awakenings” he would also suffer from imsomnia where he would be unable to sleep for more than 24 hours. Dad would get this “awakenings” about fortnightly.
Finally after many months of this, the doctor decided to stop the Aricept because of these ups and downs. Imsomnia, followed by “awakening” followed by marathon sleep. Dad stopped taking Aricept about a month ago. The doctor said that it would take about 2 weeks before the medicine was truly out of his system.
On Sunday, dad had his first “awakening” after stopping the medication. He rang me at 7.30am. He would usually call us up to chat when he is in this state. At other times, he forgets how to use the phone. I teased him and said “Dad, you called me to wish me Happy Birthday is it?” That caused dad to called big sis up to make plans for her to bring him to my house yesterday for my birthday. I was worried because big sis is often busy and I was worried about the inconvenience it would cause her. Dad is staying with big brother and she has to drive quite a distance to pick him up and send him to my place. But she did it despite her busy schedule.
Dad knew that I love to eat durians so he got big sis to drive him to buy some durians for me. He remembered that hubby doesn’t eat much durian so I don’t often get to eat it so he said it would be a nice birthday gift. He even gave me an angpow. How sweet of him. Big sis was too tired to drive him back so she arranged for second sis to come over as well so she could send him home to elder brothers place.
So, in the end, we had a little “party”. Hubby said its ok not to wait for him to cut the cake that we had bought the evening before. So the kids could enjoy it with kong kong and their aunties.
I got the best gift yesterday. I got dad back for a day and my two sisters gave me the best gift too, the gift of their time. And hubby gave me the best gift, the gift of understanding, since he said I should go on and celebrate without him and he only requested for a piece of cake in the evening. He also gave me the electronic dictionary that I had requested for. Hehe. I am quite excited about it because it is quite a powerful dictionary and I think it would be a great tool to help me teach the kids. What a nice birthday. 
Blogsphere: TechnoratiFeedsterBloglines
Bookmark: Del.icio.usSpurlFurlSimpyBlinkDigg
RSS feed for comments on this post | TrackBack URI for this post
17 Responses to 'The best gift'
Leave a Reply
How not to lose yourself after becoming a mother and wife Mother, Wife, Myself!
Problems Breastfeeding?
Parenting & Families Children's Books
Find out just how much more style and fun can be fit into any room when you put up a brand new kids futon loft bed!
tile flooring
Happy Birthday and its nice to have family around to celebrate rite? especially with our old folks! so glad your dad can give you so much of love! Fathers’ Day round the corner ya..
Happy Birthday to you! And yes, it was the most wonderful gift ever. Thank God for little blessings.
Happy birth mumsgather! Such a sweet celebration!
Happy Birthday MG!!!!!
Hi, mumsgather…we have the same birth date leh…15th June, right?! Anyway, Happy Birthday to you, may good blessings be with you always!
Happy Birthday Yenny. So many ppl share the same birthday. How fun!
Happy Birthday. Family is all we need right…
It’s your birthday also yesterday? Mine too… LOL!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to you too! Wuah we all sama sama birthday hor, only difference is I am big sister to you! Hahaha.
Happy Birthday!!! That is truly the best gift that anyone could receive.
May God’s blessing be upon you and your family always.
aw, dat is sure sweet. no money can buy! i’m happy for u and yeah, happy birthday to u too!
Happy belated birthday MG. I am so happy for you that you have had a good day on your day!
Thank you everyone for your wishes!
hahah…i’m so late. happy belated happy day!!
i’m glad u had ur dad back for a day..and ur sisters to help withall the driving around!
happy birthday! ur day sound fabulous….glad u had your dad back for your birthday. and the cake looks very yummy!
Happy Belated Birthday!!
Sorry I came by late, but am so glad you had such a wonderful celebration.Many more to come, ya?
Happy Belated Birthday MG. It’s really a wonderful surprise isn’t it? You have a wonderful family too.
Happy very belated birthday MG. I got teary reading about the sweet birthday moments you had with your family. You truly received wonderful birthday gifts where even money can’t buy.
hi mumsgather,
Happy Belated Birthday!
I can imagine how happy you were to celebrate ur big day with your dad. He could even remember your fav fruit, durian.
To let you know, I can’t hold my tears while reading your post. pssst, don’t let other people know, ok?
My late father also suffered stroke but he passed away about half an hour later.