If there would be one Chinese New Year in her whole adult life that she would never forget, the Year of the Horse would be it.
Because far from it being celebrated jovially with relatives and friends paying visits, far from the house being filled with Lunar New Year decor and far from the usual plastic jars of Chinese New Year goodies and bak kwa on the glass dining table, this was one with endured with frantic denial, resentful discussion, adult diapers, prune juice and an emergency trip to the nearest hospital.
One of the effects post-stroke was that some of her muscles, including those required for defecation, were weakened. Not only was it difficult for her to get used to go to the toilet, she was also having difficulty passing motion. In anticipation of such a situation, the hospital had prescribed her an oral solution to help soften the stools, but Miss Brown drank it once- and found it so awful tasting she refused to take it further.
Either that, or she took a much lesser dose than she was supposed to- a fact that only her immediate caregivers knew, but not her primary ones.
How many days it went on, perhaps two or three, but by the time Chinese New Year Eve rolled around, she was in great discomfort from all the faeces accumulated in her system. Her intestines felt awful, her stomach felt awful and it was very disturbing.
Late Chinese New Year Eve, she got so uncomfortable and distressed that her immediate caregivers staying with her assumed that the source of the discomfort was likely constipation- and since one good way to solve the issue of constipation was consuming prune juice- off one caregiver went to the nearby supermarket to get the juice.
Miss Brown drank one whole cup.
However, to her horror, instead of easing the discomfort and solving the problem, activated the digestive system and discomfort became sharp, shooting pains.
Not knowing what else to do, her immediate caregivers bundled her into the car and drove her to the nearest hospital. Along the way they rang her primary caregiver, told him the situation and he arrived at the hospital to find that they were already doing an enema for her. Only there and then was it revealed what the cause of the condition was.
It was the first day of the Chinese New Year.
She was discharged around dawn, and she went back home, tired, exhausted, with a diaper on her, a bagful of medicine, and an extra diaper. For hours on the first day, she slept. Her immediate caregivers were with her. So were her primary caregivers. Around mid-afternoon she woke. Finding that she had defecated, there was a need for a diaper change. Her immediate caregiver changed one for her. But it was also discovered that the poo had somehow flowed out of the diaper and into the mattress.
It was all very embarrassing, and all very confusing.
One caregiver wanted her to move to another mattress so they could clean this one and wash it. Another felt it was better to wait until her condition fully cleared before cleaning out the mattress. Still another felt that this extra adult diaper was not enough and it being the first day of Chinese New Year, every store would be closed and so they'd better drive out to Mustafa to get some.
Everyone talked.
Everyone spoke.
All at the same time.
And there she was, still dazed, still tired, still exhausted, still uncomfortable, still with the diaper on!
Eventually, even though one caregiver huffed and stomped out of her bedroom back to her own, saying that "you(sic) do whatever you want", someone did make the decision for her.
She didn't need any more diapers after all- the hours were calculated carefully- and by early evening, they somehow managed to wrestle the mattress down to the carpark anyway..