A final pre-op conversation with my father

My father's bypass surgery is finally scheduled for next Monday. He will be admitted to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Hospital on Saturday for pre-operative procedures, with the surgery planned for Monday morning.

We've already started taking pre-operative precautions at home. For the past 10-15 days, my dad has been strictly avoiding salt and sugar. His current diet consists of boiled eggs for breakfast, boiled chicken for lunch, and lentils for dinner. This regimen has helped bring his blood pressure and diabetes under control.

We're particularly worried about my father's blood pressure and diabetes. Although he is diabetic, cutting out sugar completely has helped him manage his glucose levels.

There's an unspoken tension at home, even though we're not openly discussing it. Everyone seems stressed in their own way. My mom, in particular, is constantly on edge, spending most of her time praying and often getting irritated with her sons.

My eldest brother, who is currently abroad, is understandably anxious. Not only is our father scheduled for bypass surgery, but his newborn son was recently hospitalized as well. To add to the stress, his flight to Pakistan, originally planned for Thursday, has been delayed until Sunday, meaning he won't arrive until 4 a.m. on the day of the surgery.

As for me, I've been dealing with a severe throat infection and high fever. I'm still in recovery, but the pain is intense. Despite being on multiple medications, including antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and oral gels, the swelling hasn't gone down. To top it off, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure last night.

This morning, my dad called me into his room. "Come here, Huzaifa, sit with me," he said, leaving me to wonder what this was about. As I sat down, he calmly asked, "What's your plan?"

"Plan about what?" I replied.

"The future," he looked at me intently. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind at that moment. Why was he asking me this all of a sudden? Was this "the talk"?

"I plan to continue working at my clinic," I answered.

"And marriage?" he asked. "What have you thought about that?"

"I haven't really given marriage much thought right now, Baba," I responded.

"Look, Huzaifa," he continued, "if things go well this weekend, I intend to see you married within a year, inshaAllah. What are your plans for moving to the UK and taking the Overseas Registration Exam?"

"I've started preparing for it, but right now, I have too much on my plate. I don't think I'll be able to take the exam in 2025. At the moment, I'm not even thinking about all of that. Your surgery is my top priority right now."

"Eight out of ten bypass surgeries are successful," my father said, quoting the head of the Cardio Ward, Dr. Ahsan, who had assured him confidently. "I don't want to talk about this, but I want my sons to be prepared for whatever comes next," he continued, with no trace of sadness in his eyes. "I want to know what your plans are if I'm not here."

I stayed silent for at least a minute before replying, "Moving out of the country isn't at the top of my list. Even though all of you know it's always been a dream of mine, right now I plan to run the clinic alongside my brother. And even if he moves out, I'll manage it on my own."

I returned to my room and deeply pondered the conversation I had just had with my father. Though there was nothing particularly unusual or special about it, it carried a sense of finality—a feeling that "this is it." "This is where we decide what to do if things go south." I never wanted to have this conversation with my father. I'm sure none of us do.

At the moment, my aunt, his elder sister, is staying with us. He seems more at ease in her company, and right now, they're sitting together, cutting vegetables.

As I sit here, watching my cat beg for food, completely indifferent to everything happening in the house, I sometimes wonder—do cats sense what's going on around them? Are they truly unaware of the situations, or do they just choose to ignore them?