One Moment, and Everything Changes

 

One Moment, And Everything Changes

We tend to think that our life unfolds in slow, steady chapters — years of plans, habits built one day at a time, milestones we see coming to fruition. But more often than not, it comes down to this: one call, one diagnosis, one decision, or one action. Just one, and everything changes.

About 3 years ago, my life was moving along its familiar path — until one moment, 27 months ago, rewrote my entire story. That was when I received news of my liver failure. In an instant, all the ordinary worries and my hopes of daily life faded away, to be replaced by one urgent and painful question and uncertainty: What matters most now?

Three months later came the decision that gave me a second chance: a great doctor and her team of doctors, a call from SGH at 3 a.m. in the morning, and a liver transplant. That single procedure, and the courage and generosity of those who made it possible (the family of the deceased donor), opened a new chapter — but it was not the end of the journey. Ten months ago, another blow arrived: my body rejecting the new liver. A liver biopsy. Once again, everything shifted. Every choice, every dose, every consultation became critical.

The medication that saved my transplanted liver brought its own hard truth: it led to my chronic kidney disease, now at stage 3b. Then, just as I was finding my footing again, my bile duct constriction surface, and my consistent gradual weight loss of 1 kg per month. A sudden alarm. CT scan of full body, colonoscopy, thyroid function test, ultrasound of thyroid, and a diagnosis: 3.1 cm Level 5 solid nodule in my left thyroid. Prognosis: thyroid cancer.

Each time, it was never a slow, predictable turn. It was a single moment — a test result, a doctor’s voice, a choice to keep going — that divided life into before and after.

I share this not to talk only of the constant adjustment and struggle, but of what these sudden turns teach us: that is, we hold far less control over the timeline than we imagine. What we can choose is how we walk through the changes. We can choose gratitude for every day we are given, care for the body that carries us, and love for the people who stand beside us through every "one moment" that comes our way.

Life does not always follow the script we write. But in every twist, in every new diagnosis, and every hard-won reprieve, there is still a life and story worth living — one day, one choice, one breath at a time.