Health Matters!

Dad gave us a bad fright last weekend. Well, to cut things short, he had a very very mild stroke on saturday. He was fetching mum to lunch in the car and sort of had a mild attack.  Mum called me when he was having the attack and since I had to tend to the 3 little ones, hubby went over to help.  Mum said dad recovered in a few minutes and hubby helped them back home to rest.  I insisted dad to see a doctor but he refused claiming that he was alright, even to the extend of lying to me that he had actually seen a doctor who said that he just needed some rest.  Anyway I alerted my elder brother, Boon, and told him to bring dad to a doctor the next day.

Sunday morning Boon tried to persuade dad to see a doctor but stubborn dad insisted no need and went back to rest after breakfast.  Few moments later, Boon called me that dad wasn't feeling very well and will be fetching him to the doctor immediately.  The doctor referred him to CGH immediately and he was warded for further observation.  Dad blood pressure was relatively high and was diagnosed with acute stroke or mild stroke.  As the chances of recurring attacks within 48 hours is usually 30%, doctors warded him for further observation and sent him for brain scan, MRI and ultrasounds.  

Luckily after a night rest and the test showed no haemorraging in the brain, dad was back to normal the next day except for high blood pressure.  Despite doctor's attempt to persuade him to stay for another day in the hospital, dad couldn't wait to go home and back to work, so we had to sign him out of the hospital.  Though he looked pretty tired out, he claimed he was back to normal.  Just to be sure, I went out and bought him a blood pressure monitor and reminded him to monitor his blood pressure at home since his constant hypertension is a major killer.

It's really a health alert for dad who had always wanted to exercise more for his own health but never got down to do it.  Nowadays he'll take a little stroll downstairs after work before he heads home to rest.  We all just have to constantly remind him to rest well and look after himself.