Our Precious Ariq

The Day Our Ariq Rushed to the Hospital

The charming first son

 

It’s been much too long since the last time I wrote for this blog. Many things happened during my absence and all evolved around our beloved first son. He’s been having frequent convulsion (many refer this as an epileptic seizure: occasionally referred to as a fit, is defined as a transient symptom of “abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain”) due to his cerebral palsy. This seizure occurred monthly and with a similar pattern. There’s more, he was hospitalized twice because of this.

The unbearable charming smile showing his gaping front teeth

In our daily life, our communication with Ariq is usually a one-way communication, either we ask him to do simple task or he tells us what he feels/wants; therefore, in such an emergency state like when the seizure attacks, communicating with him is quite difficult. When this happens, we rely upon our understandings towards his gestures or facial expressions since Ariq can only communicate such common feelings as cold, hot, salty, bitter, sweet, sad, and happy and few others.

Ariq and Baraka: Our two precious jewels

Sunday morning fun at Tavis Sports Club, Cinere

Ratna, my lovely wife with our two charming boys

It all started few months ago when one night, my wife told me, that he suddenly shivered and vomited several times. I was still at the office that night. I didn’t see how it happened but for a while I couldn’t say anything upon hearing the news. I couldn’t stop imagining how unbearable it must have been, if I had been there, seeing this charming and cheerful son just laid helplessly, emptying his bowel, in agony. She told me that he didn’t move and his temperature was nearing 40° C and since giving him alcohol-dipped swabs under his arm didn’t seem to help much, she rushed to the hospital. We were lucky that the hospital is nearby, only a few blocks away, but still she felt it was such a long way to get there. It normally takes us 10 minutes to reach hospital from our place.

The Puri Cinere Hospital on Foursquare

Our precious Ariq

Next thing I know, I was racing my way to the hospital on my bike. I thanked God that I managed to get there few minutes after they arrived, it was a smooth ride, and the road was quite empty despite the fact that it was rush hour. I was shocked, the reality was much worse than I imagined. He was on bed, helplessly the way I had imagined but he was too weak to move, pale and with the lips turned blue, his eyes were opened and this empty stare really made me cry (yes, I cried). I might look tough but deep down inside I was breaking down, I tried hard not to look worry so that I could cheer her up but it was useless, I cried anyway. To be honest, I used to sneak out from the physician’s room whenever one of the sons got sick and had to be injected, I just couldn’t stand seeing them in pain and I feel grateful that my wife never forces me to stick around. That night, I was going to sneak out when the emergency nurse said that Ariq should have his medication through infusion as first aid treatment. There was a battle in my mind whether I’d better stay or leave but then I decided to stay. The thought of losing him haunted me; I just stood in the corner watching the nurse preparing the solution and needle. When she inserted the needle, I thought he was going to cry but then I was wrong, he was also too weak to cry, he didn’t even grin in pain.

The infusion needle

That night I didn’t sleep at all, I stood by the bed watching over our precious Ariq just in case his condition deteriorated, I could not stop thinking the worst scenario. This over imagination tortured me, this was worsened by the sight of my wife sobbing, caressing his forehead, and endlessly mumbling her prayers for his recovery. I remember telling her (forcing her to be exact) to sleep it off. I just thought it would be better if I was alone for I needed some time alone to clear my mind.

Few hours after being transferred from Emergency Room

Baraka: The affectionate second son

That was when I remembered Baraka our second son, I didn’t even think about who took care of him during our stay at the hospital. Luckily the nanny hadn’t gone home so she was able to babysit for us. She said that Baraka slept very late that night, he was also restless, and he kept asking “Kakak mana?” and said that he wanted to see his brother. Baraka, then aged 2,5 years, understands his brother’s disability and we’re grateful for this even though they sometimes fight over much of anything like books or toys, they love each other and they even sleep hugging one another and that is so sweet.

The two loving brothers

At about 3 am, Ariq woke up and he was amazed to see the infusion on his hand, he said “Kakak mau pulang” and thank God, that sparkling eyes, the lively stare were back in business, I was so happy so I woke her up and what happened after that was amusing, we both spent hours, struggling to do anything we could to prevent him from pulling his infusion and this went on until dawn when he finally fell back to sleep. In the morning, if I’m not mistaken, the on duty nurse took some blood sample and said, upon seeing that Ariq seemed well already, that Dr. Irawan (Ariq’s neurologist) would probably let him go home that day. She was right, the doctor dropped by, examining the blood test result and told us that he could go home. From that moment, triggered by the doctor’s question “Kakak mau pulang ya? Boleh kok, sudah sembuh”, Ariq was restless, he kept on saying that he wanted to go home. The doctor then asked the on duty nurse to unplug the infusion bottle set, leaving only the needle attached for final medication before going home.

The day after

Ariq having his lunch before going home:

The infusion needle was still attached for his final medication

 

The day Ariq was hospitalized had been the most tensed 24 hours of our life. Although both of us are aware that God ‘hand-picked’ us to care for him with all of his being special needs, we keep on praying for patience,  wisdom to accept all of these wholeheartedly and also the strength to carry on . Hopefully you stay with us til the end our beloved son.

Our family portraits:

Eid ul-Fitr 2009

Family lunch

The fun-loving family somewhere in Cinere hillside

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convulsion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seizure