How wonderful it is to listen to beautiful music, to read, to dance, to enjoy looking at the scenic nature, and to taste food. The last one, which we all take so much for granted was taken away from dad when he had a second stroke recently.

Dad is still in hospital being fed milk every 3 hours through a tube that goes inside his nostrils right down into his stomach. He is unable to taste anything, not even a spoonful of water.

It is very sad to see his lips so dry and to hear him calling out “I am thirsty.” or mumbling “I can’t eat. I can’t eat. I am not scared. I can’t eat. You can’t eat.” He wants to eat mango or durians, his favourite or just have a taste of water, sweet thirst quenching water but even that is denied him because he has lost his ability to swallow. In medical terms this symptom of difficulty in swallowing is called dysphagia. Even a small spoonful of water would dribble out and it is dangerous to feed him orally because of the risk of aspiration. (when foods or liquids go the wrong way into the lungs).

However, yesterday, a miracle, dad was able to take in 10 spoonsful of porridge all of a sudden. Now the target is to be able to bring him home without the feeding tubes. The road to recovery is long but this surely a good forward step.


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