Penyakit

Lately I have received news about my friends suffering from several illnesses. One lady friend who I have known for 20 years, who's now an American citizen, my age but looks young for her age and has 3 grown up children now has a kidney problem. Her kidneys are functioning at only 26%. She does not need to be hooked up to a dialysis machine yet, but is hoping for a donor. It could either be from her children, her siblings or from a stranger. The problem is her children are just too young, her siblings are living in Malaysia and I believe the waiting list for a kidney is long in America. Any how I hope there's a solution soon.

Another friend, a person who I used to work 'for' and currently working 'with', who's only 30 years old has lymphoma. He's now on a two-year paid leave to cure his cancer. Saw his picture on facebook and he's really skinny. For him it all started with a constant coughing which lasted for months.

When I was in my 30s I used to joke with my same age friends that in a few years all of us will be talking about illnesses that we have and the medicine that we're taking. And further years down the road when all of us would get together I would jokingly say that in the midst of having conversations we'll be falling asleep. Now it seems that the time when we will be comparing illnesses and medicine is going to happen soon. Alhamdulillah, I believe I'm healthy except for the osteoarthritis I'm suffering from on my knees. Luckily, I only need to take medicine when my knees start to hurt.

On a different note, I just discovered a good friend of mine has separated from her husband. Somehow, I saw that coming. Though separation or divorces are not uncommon nowadays what is strange about this friend's situation is that she followed her husband (a Caucasian) who has been posted to a country in Africa. She and the child is living in a different place and the husband and his girlfriend is living in another place. How do you handle that? The thing everyone would say that she should do is to return to Malaysia. The problem is there'll be complication since the child is not at all registered in Malaysia, thus, the child does not and cannot have a Malaysian passport. It is a lesson to learn for any Malaysian woman (or even man) who plans to marry a foreigner and to give birth overseas to register the baby at the Malaysian Consulate when the child is born.