Description

After suffering strokes, general practitioner, Dr Idayu Maarof, underwent major surgery to remove a heart-valve tumour that was believed to have caused the strokes. She recounted her experience in the book, The Doctor is Sick. Unfortunately, what seemed to be the end of a journey was only the beginning of an even more arduous one. Her symptoms evolved to multiple episodes of daily seizures. To control the seizures, she was put in a medically induced coma. A mysterious brain lesion became the prime suspect, but no one was certain. She later underwent two surgeries to remove what appeared to be a brain tumour. The daily struggle with seizures and of being ill with changing symptoms and diagnoses became a physically and mentally exhausting process of not dying, but hardly living what could be called a life. Dr Idayu Maarof contextually concludes how a sequence of events and decisions led to a particular consequence. This is not an account about being ill. This is a story of acceptance, gratitude and the struggle for a life worth living.