A Reminder on Valentine's Day

Look, I haven't always been too fond of Valentine’s Day. In my view, it is just a ‘Hallmark Holiday’ which was created to increase sales. If I loved my wife and the monkies every single day throughout the year, every day is Valentine's Day, no?

I was wrong.

Even if I treated every day of the year like Valentine’s Day, the day gives me another opportunity to show my wife and kids love. Especially after the events in the past 2 months.

It all began when we just returned from Cebu in early December. The wifey was feeling nauseous, had extreme stomach pains and suffered a loss of appetite. The symptoms went on and off during the next one month and it all culminated on a Sunday in mid-January when there was blood in her stool.

Obviously, alarm bells rang in our heads and we were down to the A&E department in Alexandra Hospital in a flash. If I may digress, the A&E at AH is totally non-crowded and we were attended to in less than 30 minutes. Anyway, we saw the doctor and an initial diagnosis was peptic ulcers in the stomach. But since there was blood in the stools, an endoscopy was scheduled in early February to be safe.

Naturally, we could not really sleep well in the next few nights after that so we decided that we could not wait for the scheduled endoscopy at the hospital. We went to a gastroenterologist in private practice and she did the scope then and there.

The result was negative. Nothing was wrong with her stomach, which was a relief but it still did not offer us answers to the nauseous feeling, and burning sensation in her stomach and upper chest areas. By now, the wifey had lost close to 5kg due to the loss of appetite. The burning sensation kept her up all night - she could not sleep a wink, and frankly neither could I.

It got really worrying, and also frustrating as we could not pinpoint the exact reason of the symptoms she had been experiencing. By late January, we turned to a TCM practitioner and she started her daily acupuncture sessions.

I don't know if it was the result of the acupuncture but we finally saw signs of improvement. Her appetite slowly returned, she could sleep better at night and more importantly, my old Sharon was back.

We never really found out the real reason behind the wifey's symptoms. It could have been a really bad case of reflux or due to the lining of her stomach but I am just glad she is recovering well - and in time for CNY too!

I simply cannot imagine life without her, and how our monkies would have turned out to be if she was not always there for them, I count myself a lucky man that I ended up with someone who not only tolerates my temper and impatience, but also someone who I really want to be perfect for.

So yes, I may not really need a 'Valentine's Day' celebration since every day of mine is spent dedicated to caring, loving, and supporting her. But it really doesn't hurt to have such a day to remind her (and myself) how much I love her and the kids, how much they love me and that I will always remember this: cherish them more than anything else in my life.

I love you, Sharon.