24th August: Dad is coming under the knife to clear the obstructive growth in the colon.
10th September: Mom is getting her ovaries removed for insidious growth that has increased in size two fold since last year.
Right now: can a neuro surgeon please remove this growth right in the centre of my brain known as "nagging annoyance"?
UPDATE 7 Sep, two weeks later
My dad has made a fast recovery since two weeks ago, got discharged in less than five days, and is recuperating at home. The thing is, the tumorous portion of his colon got chopped off - it is cancer, and it is Stage 4, because it has sprinkled to his liver and abdomen. Chemotheraphy to keep him going for a few more years. 6 to 9 months if not. But all in all, my dad's in good spirits. He wasn't having a good time in hospital, but God paid him a visit on the night he returned home, and has been highly encouraged to make the most of life. Nothing beats assurance from The One who makes things happen.
Come monday, it is my mum'sturn.
UPDATE 19 Sep, over a week past my mother's operation
Thank God. Only three holes poked into my mother to remove the cyst at the ovaries and fibroid at the womb. Somehow they were joined together so the surgeons took the whole lot out. Her womb's preserved; no cancer detected. By the next day she was already fit to be discharged. My parents are recovering steadily, but....
even though my company has been kind enough to grant me leave for that week, and to work from home for awhile after that, I probably couldn't have "left" the current project I am working on at a worst period. Being the technical lead, there were (and still are) many things I needed to cover but the turn of events just wrecks everything. A search was quickly mounted to get somebody to take up some of my duties. I quote "left" and I state "some duties" because the truth we all know is I cannot detach myself 100% from the project. Back then it was only our PM and myself who had been interfacing with the customers. And our PM quit half way. So there is terrible gap between the new members of the team and the customers, whom they have not met. I have tried to build a bridge to join the two parties together, but in such short notice all I could muster was a shaky vine construction and pray it does not break under the weight of people walking over.
Working remotely from home has been tough. Much tougher than I estimated. I am torn between balancing project and family time and duties, but the major issue I realise is the extremely difficulty in communicating develoment and programming ideas remotely via IM or phone. A tech lead cannot be working remotely from home and expecting things to progress according to his plan; from a team he does not meet face-to-face for hardcore discussions. Ouch. It has been painful and frustrating. But this is life, I guess.