STAYING POSITIVE

How well do you manage illness? Especially if it happens to a close family member?

My husband suddenly had severe pain last year. So, off we went to a private hospital, did all the tests and as soon as the doctor confirmed the illness he went through a procedure that cost a bomb.

Nevertheless, we were happy and thought that was the end of his pain...

The pain came back in a matter of 3 days and we went in again for tests and he again had to go through another session. Did all the pain go away? No .

There after for about a month my husband had to endure a lot of pain, sometimes he could not even get a blink of sleep. Then I decided to go for a second and a third opinion. We finally found the problem and he went through a major operation and was hospitalised for quite some time.

During those trying time, I really learnt the meaning of staying positive. The whole family's life was centred around school/office, hospital and home ( just to sleep - my eldest child had to sleep on the couch to accompany his father in the ward). I had to become a mother and father to my kids, run errants, do the household chores, help my kids with homeworks etc, etc. I still have to work and carry out my responsibilities as head of a department ( many times working from the hospital) and most of all I had to stay positive for the sake of my husband and kids.

I was faced with a lot of uncertainties during those months. The doctors had to do many tests to determine the cause of the illness - right to the possibility of whether it was cancerous. Any possibilites of a disease mentioned by the doctor would send me running to my laptop to surf for information. I wanted to know everything about it as well as how we ( meaning husband, myself and kids) must prepare for any eventualities.

There was also the time when I had to become a motivator to my husband who was wallowing in self-pity, feeling very sad and depressed.

The love and support from family and friends had helped me cope. Oh yeah... and a lot of prayers too! There really was a lot to deal with... how our life will change, how much it was going to cost and so on.

I am also thankful that my husband is a strong-willed person.

After being discharged from the hospital, he quickly realised that he had to learn to live with his condition. He was soon driving the car again . There are times when he feels tired, but these " bad days" are few. He usually can carry on with his everyday activities.

His positive attitude is quite remarkable - examplary even.

Because we had taken pains to find out all about his conditions and stayed positive, my husband has managed to live a normal life... so do the kids and me - a career woman.

WOMEN IN SENIOR MANAGEMENT

Today is International Women's Day.

Have we, women, achieved much?

Not really said 2 articles that I read today.

One article in the NST which quoted the 2007 Grant Thornton International Business Report said that " Malaysia did not do well in terms of the number of women in senior positions in individual companies. On average, only 23 per cent of the senior management positions in Medium to Large Enterprises(MLEs) here are held by women". The Philippines is the only country where women have parity with men in senior positions. The Grant Thornton International Business Report is an annual survey of privately-owned MLEs in 32 countries.

Another key findings was that 38 per cent of businesses worldwide did not have ANY women in senior management.

Yahoo News quoted a report by the ILO ( International Labour Organization) that women are virtually paid less than their male counterparts - there remained sizeable gaps in their status, job security and pay. The report also said that the female share of overall global employment is still at 40 percent, the same as at a decade ago. Many women are employed in sectors where they have less bargaining power and less possibility to improve their economic situation.