Inspiration

25th December, a day of festivities, a day of presents and turkeys…of mistletoes and chestnuts, a day of hope and joy.

Haha, in a way i feel that this past year has been a miracle of sorts, and i was astonished by another that happened on Christmas eve…and i do believe that it’s by God’s grace and blessings that all these have come about.

A year ago, on Christmas day , Sage Tan was born.  Originally expected to be born around dec 28th or so, i was hoping quite hard for this bundle of joy to be born on Christmas itself, that i took a bus down from Sitiawan, reaching Singapore in the wee hours of Christmas morning. And lo and behold, Sage was born through natural birth on Christmas Day at 10am.

All was well, and nothing seemed amiss…until the parents realised some abnormalities in the baby, about two weeks after he was born. Sage would sleep…endlessly and nto wake up and feed…in the end, he was brought to the hospital, but after a few days in hospital, the doctors couldn’t diagnose it…finally, after being transferred to the university hospital, the specialist diagnosed it as MSUD (Maple Syrup Urine Disease)

MSUD is quite a rare condition…that afflicts very few ppl in the world. In Singapore, there are only 2 known cases of MSUD, and the prognosis for it is not good. Normally if diagnosed later than 1 week old, or if undiagnosed, there is a possibility of death. The 1st month would be critical. The 1st year crucial. MSUD is a condition whereby  the body isn’t able to break down certain proteins in food. Protein is needed for everyday growth, but having too much of it causes toxicity in the body which leads to brain damage. So too little protein, the baby doesn’t grow, too much the baby gets brain damage

The baby required special formulas which were nto available in the country..i really can’t explain what happened, the endless hours of walking around feeling helpless as we were not able to get the formulas…and the problems that ensued. Things really did seemed hopeless at the moment. All i could remember was spending a lot of time in the PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit), seeing Sage connected to so many machines. At one time a respirator would be connected to him and his breathing assisted. Similarly, i’ve never seen so many adults despair…and cry…there really wasn’t much that could be done on our part , except perhaps to see him there degenerating day by day.

However, miraculously, a few days after being admitted to the hospital, we were able to locate the formula in KL…and made a mad dash down to KL to retrive it. It was truly a miracle as if we weren’t able to obtain the formula any sooner, conditions would have deteriorated to a much worser condition.

That wasn’t the only such incident that happened…along the way, many more obstacles crept up…tests couldn’t be done, facilities insufficient that again left us hopeless..and yet, when each one of those obstacles came up, somehow, a solution wasn’t far behind..really thank God for that…

and so obstacles came and went….and yesterday, he celebrated his 1st birthday. A truly momentous occasion…with family members all around, and christmas presents under the tree…oh sorry make thjat birthday presents under the tree…now, he’s an active 1 year old…a bit on the ‘prosperous’ side with the most adorable smile ever. We’re not completley out of the woods however, his diet still has to be closely monitored, developmental wise, he’s slightly lagging and we have no inclination as to the extent of damage to brain development. But all in all, things are looking bright for him and for the future

talkin bout miracles…

another small miracle happened on Christmas eve this year…we went down to kl to pick up some of our little cousins for sage’s birthday party in singapore on Christmas eve….only when we reached JB, did we find out from their mother that their passports were left in KLand thus we couldn’t enter into Singapore…so it was a moment of despair as the 2 little kids ( 5 n 2 years old) coudln’t visit their cousin in Singapore. However, miraculously, that night, they foudn out that their neighbour in KL was enroute to Singapore on Christmas day, and thus the passports were passed to them to pass to us in JB…and we all made it to Singapore in time for the party on Christmas day

although to others, these might not seem like big or major events, to me it’s quite substantial…as it really feels that there are higher powers up there looking down on us, and giving us a hand whenever and wherever.

To one and all, merry christmas, may there be peace and goodwill to all man

Sage with his family at 1 years old

Sage at about 7 months old

Hospital Days, that’s Sage in the baby cot under a warmer