My 5th day in the Hospital

I got up from bed at 7.30am this morning. I managed to have some sleep for last night, but I still got coughing on and off. I felt like there was phlegm in my throat but I couldn’t spit it out. This was due to I was too weak to cough it out. L

The nurse came to check my blood pressure and body temperature. Luckily my fever had subsided as I got it last night. By 8am the breakfast was served, i.e. Fried curry noodle with a cup of Milo. I took a little of the noodle due to hungry as it was very spicy and luckily it was not so much Malay taste. After the breakfast, the nurse gave me medicines.

By 10.30am, the doctors came to examine me. I did not require to carry out the bronchoscopy procedure for my stomach anymore due to I have no more black stool and my blood test results were all good. So, the doctors needed me to stay for few days more for further examination/investigation due to I was having fever every nights. They were saying it might be the infection. So the doctor told me that I probably could go home only by 2/2/11, that’s the Chinese New Year Eve! LLL I was so sad when I heard it! L The doctors left my room after they done with the examined.

By 11.45am, the lunch was served. It was curry chicken with white rice and with some vegetables. The fruit is melon. In the afternoon, there were 2 trainee students came to take my blood for the blood test again. After that, they listened to my heart-beating and asking me about my condition. They seemed like so interested in my case. However, I was sorry to say that I would not want to be the guinea pig for you all! I said this in my heart! :P

After my lunch, I was taking some rest. In between I was surfing online to read news for a short while. By 5.15pm, the doctors came to see me again. They told me that they would change my antibiotic to another type of antibiotic with immediate effect. But I could not recall the name of the new antibiotic now. Anyway, I have to take it 3 times per day. The reason for changing the antibiotic was I kept on having fever (quite high temperature) at night’s time. Hopefully with the new antibiotic, I would not have fever anymore. After the doctor informed to me, they left, and then the nurse gave me the new antibiotic. So my next round would be at around 10.30pm.

By 6pm, the dinner was served. The food was grilled chicken with black pepper sauce, with pasta, and the fruit was watermelon. I just took some of the chicken as my mother had brought me some food to eat.

Well, after dinner, I started to rest and start to blog about this. Hopefully with the new antibiotic, I won’t get fever again by tonight and feel better and do not cough so much again and then can be discharged at soonest possible. Please pray for me, people!

My 4th Day in the Hospital

Today is the 4^th day that I am in the hospital. I did not get a good sleep for last night due to I was kept on coughing and also the patient in the next door was kept on shouting and screaming throughout the night. I think I only managed to have about 3 hours of sleep maximum for last night.

The houseman doctor came to take my blood for the Full Blood Count test at 7.40am. About 10 minutes she was done and left. I was then got up from bed and did my brush-up. The breakfast was delivered to me by 8am. It was a cup of Milo, 5 pieces of plain bread with the butter and strawberry jam, and a boiled egg. I took 2 pieces of bread applied with the butter, finished the egg and drank few sips of the Milo.

Then I was informed by the nurse to take my medicines. So, I was waiting for the doctor to come. By 11am, my doctor came to examine me. She listened to my chest, and told me to provide the sample of my urine for the Urine Feme test again. According to her, if all the tests went well, I could go back home soon.

After she examined me, the doctor left. Again I was alone in my room.  So, I was taking a short nap. Around 11.45am, my elder sister and my niece came to visit me. I was so glad to see them, especially my niece. Well, they stayed for about 2 hours and then left.

My lunch was served, but the food was not tasted well. I could not take it. Luckily my mother brought me home cooked-food, and then I managed to eat something. After my lunch, I was surfing net for a short while and then taking a short nap again as I did not have a good sleep in last night. But I was still coughing whenever I was lying down. I told my doctor about it, she said it is normal, so I was advised to sleep in a higher position, i.e. not lying so low on the bed.

By 6pm, my dinner was served. It was grilled chicken with black pepper sauce, with mayonnaise, and salad and fried potato chips. The grilled chicken was tasted fine for this time so I managed to eat some of it. After my dinner, I just did some newspaper readings.  

As today is Sunday, there are not many doctors around, and this is what I did for the day. So I just have some rest and wait for my scope for tomorrow.

Oh My God, I’m Admitted!!! :(

Gosh, I’ve admitted in the hospital on last Thursday night due to coughing out blood too series. I started to cough out blood since last Tuesday morning, for about 3 times. Then I returned to see my chest specialist on Wednesday to inform about my condition. The chest specialist told me not to not worry as it was the bacteria from my lung, if coughed out, it would be better. Well, I also thought so as I felt much better after I coughed out the blood, but I would feel chilling after that for a while. The symptoms are I was having itchy for the throat and then followed by breathing very ‘horsley’, and then started to cough harshly before I coughed out the blood.

So I did not cough out blood again after I seen my chest specialist as I also did not take any medication for the bleeding or chest. The doctor told me if I got any problems again, I may went back to see him on Friday. So, on Thursday morning, I did cough out blood again for 2 times, not much this time. I saw the blood was in dark red colored and with the combination of phlegm I think. I even got the mucus with blood when I sneezed. After that, I was feeling good for the whole day. However, around 8.30pm on the day, when I was talking to my mother, I suddenly felt that I got phlegm and would like to cough out, so I rushed to the toilet to spit out. Gosh, it was dark-red colored blood again, this time was so much as compared to the first few times. I was become so weak and told my mum to hold me as I was afraid that I would fall down and then I was having difficulty in breathing and I felt chilling and shivering so much, even my teeth were shaking. I put on clothes to keep warm and my niece said I looked so pale at that time. I was suffered so much. Finally, my family sent to me to the UMMC for the treatment as all my medical records are there.

I was admitted through the Accident and Emergency Trauma Unit; I was waited for some time to be my turn. After that, I was lying on the bed in the ward of the Emergency Unit for about 15 hours then only I managed to transfer to the patient ward. I reached there at about 10pm of 27/1/2011 and then transferred to the patient ward at 4pm of 28/1/2011. I could not sleep well in the ward of ER due to I was suffering so much, I was kept on coughing and nausea. In between, there were doctors came to examine me and then told me to do Full Blood Count, Chest X-ray, urine and feces tests.

The doctor then gave me antibiotic for my chest. After the doctors read my test results, they suspected it was my stomach problem to cause the coughing out blood instead of my chest problem. The reason was I was history for the gastric problem. So I was required to do the procedure of the bronchoscopy on next Monday. I could not do in on these two days due to there was no service for it on the weekend.

So, now I am in the ward, waiting patiently for my Monday test and also having my medications for the moment for my chest and stomach. I really wish that I would be alright as the CNY is approaching soon. I do not wish to have my CNY celebration in the hospital! L So, wish me luck and pray for me my friends!

Little MJ Dancers

I went to see the dancing performance show of a dancing school in last Sunday. It is the dancing school that my niece is learning the hip-hop dance. This is the third time that the school is having the dance performance show. I guess its intentions are to let the dancers to have the performance courage and also to do promotion of the dancing school!

Anyway, my niece is having the performance again. This time, the little dancers are dressed in black and white clothes, and wearing with a hat. They are dancing with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson’s song “Bad”. The little MJ dancers are in a group of 7, with 6 girls and 1 boy. All of them are enjoying very much for the performance, even the audience like their performance too. I just feel happy for them.

Besides the hip-hop dance performance, there are other dance performances. They are ballet dance, jazz, Latin and jive. All the children performers did well for their performance. Personally, I like the ballet dancers as all the 4 girls are very young and they look very adorable especially they dressed as the ‘butterfly’.

After all the children dance performance, the last performance is the belly dance. The belly dancer is the lady teacher of the dancing school and her performance of the belly dance is good. I think she looks sexy for the dancing, and her body movement is so soft. After she is done with the performance, she even invites some of the audience to dance along with her, but the audience are shy to dance with her. Anyway, after watching the belly dancing performance, I feel like I want to learn such dance. But I think I could not shake my body smoothly as my bones are very “hard”. So, I think I can only enjoy watching the performance instead of doing the performance. Haha! :P

Ok, let’s take a look of the photo that I take for the dance performances. Enjoy!!!

How Happy Are You?!

I have read a book pertaining the Happiness during the weekend. It is called "How to Develop Happiness in Daily Living". In the book, there is a small test to measure the Happiness. I found it is interesting and would like to share with you now.

The Satisfaction with Life Scale was devised in 1980 by University of Illinois psychologist Edward Diener, a founding father of happiness research. Since then the scale has been used by researchers around the world.

Read the following 5 statements. Then use a 1 - 7 scale to rate your level of agreement.

1 - 2 --> Not at all true
3 - 5 -- > Moderately true
6 - 7 --> Absolutely true

• In most ways my life is close to my ideal
• The conditions of my life are excellent
• I am satisfied with my life
• So far I have gotten the important things I want in life
• If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.

Total score : ..........

Scoring :

•  31 to 35 - you are extremely satisfied with your life
•  26 to 30 - very satisfied
•  21 to 25 - slightly satisfied
•  20          - neutral point
• 15 to 19 - slightly dissatisfied
• 10 to 14 - dissatisfied
• 5   to 9   - extremely dissatisfied

Well, I tried for the test, and I scored 20, for neutral point. Guess that I have to do something to develop more happiness in my life! :) So, how you, what is your score?!

Anyway, no matter what your score is, I think we should live happily!!! Cheers!!! :)

Chinese New Year Shopping Spree

The Chinese New Year Golden Rabbit Year is approaching in less than 2 weeks time. I believe all the Chinese are busy for the preparation of the CNY by cleaning the houses, decorating for the houses and shopping spree. Well, I am one of them too.

I went to the KLCC for the CNY shopping spree yesterday. Well, the KLCC also has its CNY decorations, it is with pink color. I think it is simple and nice. Many people are taking pictures of its decorations, I even saw the Malays are taking picture of it. This truly means Malaysia is a multi-culture country!!!

Anyway, my family and I managed to buy some new clothes, shoes, fruits (ie. mandarin oranges, kiwis), cookies, etc.. Boy, we  have spent so much for the CNY celebration every year. But I guess most of the Chinese will do the same as us as CNY is the major Chinese festive season for us.

After we done the shopping at KLCC, we then headed to another shopping complex, The Curve. The reason was that my sister wanted to buy her clothe from one of the outlets there. Again, we shopped there for sometime.

By the time I reached home, I was so tired as I even have backaching. I think I had walked too much and carried too many bags and caused the aching! :( But I still enjoyed the shopping spree as it is the atmosphere the coming CNY!!!

So, have you started your CNY preparations yet?! :P

Happy Thaipusam and Happy Holiday!!!

Tomorrow is the Thaipusam day, thus it is the public holiday for us. Thaipusam (Tamil: தைப்பூசம், Taippūcam ) is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (January/February). It is celebrated not only in countries where the Tamil community constitutes a majority, but also in countries where the Tamil community is a minority, such as Singapore and Malaysia. The word Thaipusam is derived from the month name Thai and Pusam, which refers to a star that is at its highest point during the festival. The festival commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a vel (spear) so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman. There is a misconception among people that Thaipusam marks Murugan's birthday; however, it is believed that Vaikhasi Vishakam, which falls in the Vaikhasi month (May/June), is Murugan's birthday.

Devotees prepare for the celebration by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting approx-48 days before Thaipusam. Kavadi-bearers have to perform elaborate ceremonies at the time of assuming the kavadi and at the time of offering it to Murugan. The kavadi-bearer observes celibacy and take only pure, Satvik food, once a day, while continuously thinking of God.

On the day of the festival, devotees will shave their heads and undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of kavadi (burdens). At its simplest this may entail carrying a pot of milk, but mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers is also common.

The simplest kavadi is a semicircular decorated canopy supported by a wooden rod that is carried on the shoulders, to the temple. In addition, some have a small spear through their tongue, or a spear through the cheeks. The spear pierced through his tongue or cheeks reminds him constantly of Lord Murugan. It also prevents him from speaking and gives great power of endurance. Other types of kavadi involve hooks stuck into the back and either pulled by another walking behind or being hung from a decorated bullock cart or more recently a tractor, with the point of incisions of the hooks varying the level of pain.


The temple at Batu Caves, near Kuala Lumpur, often attracts over one million devotees and tens of thousands of tourists. The procession to the caves starts at the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur in the heart of the city and proceeds for 15 kilometers to the caves, an 8-hour journey culminating in a flight of 272 steps to the top. Every year, this festive celebration attracts hundreds of tourists to see such magnificent or amazing event. Thus, I could foresee that there would be many people crowded at the Batu Caves again for tomorrow.

So, it is the holiday tomorrow. I am wishing all the Hindu friends to have Happy Thaipusam and others to have a Happy Holiday!!!

生命没有如果 / Make Each Day Count

I have read a book in last year, and the author is a consultant urologist named Dr. George Lee 李永业. Dr. George Lee is a Malaysian who has been living in the UK for more than 20 years and then finally returned to Malaysia for his job.

In his book, <生命没有如果 / Make Each Day Count>, it contains the stories of his childhood life, his life as a student and doctor in UK, and his love towards his parents and children. Since he is a doctor, he also includes some of his stories about his work towards the patients. From his book, it is known that Dr. George Lee is treated his patients very well. He loves his family very much. Overall, I think he is a doctor with heart.

I get to know Dr. George from his articles that published on the local Chinese newspapers. When I read his articles, I found his article is touching and warm, and sometimes quite funny too. For me, I think he is a writer that always expresses his own feelings through his articles. Moreover, I found out that Dr. George Lee looks like a Hong Kong actor, and all his fans agree too! Haha!

So, when I knew that Dr. Lee has published his first book last year, I managed to get one. Now I would like to share it with others, thus I would like to sell out the book as I know that some of his fans are having problems in getting the book. I would like to sell in RM20.00 (excluding the postage fees). Well, if anyone is interested to buy, you may drop me a line.

See ya!

My Pen-Pal

Pen-pal or penfriend is the person who regularly writes to each other via postal mail. I think it is very rare people to have pen-pal nowadays as the exchange emails is much faster than postal mail.

Well, I used to have a few pen-pals during my high school days, they are from Sweden, Australia, Canada and France. The reasons for me to have foreign pen-pals are that I like to meet friends all over the world, to learn about their countries and lifestyles and to make friendships. Moreover, by writing in a foreign language, it could help me to improve my English language.   

The time in exchanging letters with those pen-pals was fun. We used to write about our interests, lifestyles, cultures and country information. We even exchanged our photo with each other. All my pen-pals are ladies and we are in same age. We also were sending Christmas cards during the festive season. It was really fun. We’ve been exchanging letters for many years.

However, I have lost contact with them one by one after we graduated from high school. This might due to each of us were busy for our studies and have lesser time or patience to write to each other anymore. Since then, I did not hear from them. However, there is only one that I am still contacting as at nowadays, my Canadian pen-pal. After we did not write to each other, we started to exchange emails instead. But in between we also have stopped for sometime to contact each other.

Well, my Canadian pen-pal has married with a son already and of course she has sent me her family photo before. I know she is happy with her life now. We only exchanged email once a while to talk about our recent life. To my surprised, I received her Christmas card yesterday via post. Although the card is late to me, I feel happy as she said that it has been ages for us to write to each other in pen instead of by typing on the keyboard. I do very agree with her as when I received the physical copy, I have the feeling that it is ‘warm’ for the letter and I have made my mind that I would start to write to her again by sending the postal mail. I think we would have the fun that we used to have and to keep our friendship, and this is the actual meaning of pen-pal. I wish that our friendship with each other will last forever.

11.1.11

Today is 11.1.11. Another day with the special date. Guess many people would do something special on this day again. As for me, I just think this date is special as it consists with all the numbers of '1'. Anyway, it is just a normal day for me.

The weather in Selangor is not so good lately as it is hazy sometimes and raining almost everyday. I think this kind of weather would make people to fall sick easily. Anyway, I advice all the people to drink more water and do take care of health.

As the Chinese New Year is approaching soon, I believe many families are started to do the cleaning of the houses now. But with this kind of weather, it is difficult to do dry out after the washings, eg. for the window curtains, bedsheets, etc..

Well, I wish that the weather will become good with blue clear sky and with good fresh air and breeze.

Attacked by the Dogs

There is a sad news that an Irish tourist had mauled to death by the dogs in Teluk Bahang, Penang yesterday. When I read such news, I was shocked by it. I know that the dogs would attack their 'enemy' when they are starving, or protecting their loved ones. But when I read the news that 2 dogs were attacking the man and bitten him to death and I think it is scary.

I know many people like dogs very much. They can play with them and some even let the dog sleep in the same room with them. Personally, I am very afraid of dogs and cats since my very young age. Yes, I still afraid of those now. This is due to I have some scary experiences with those animals when I was around age 4 or 5.

I recalled that I went to visit my grandmother who was living in a village, there were many stray dogs around that area. So, on that day, my cousin and I went to the nearby store to buy candies. The store was only about 10 houses away from my grandmother's house. When we were walking back home, there were 3 stray dogs were following us and then started to sniff us. As I am afraid of dog, when the dog was approaching me, I was so frightened and then started to run. Guess what, the dogs were started to chase us. So, my cousin and I were running very fast back to our grandmother's house. Luckily the dogs stopped follow us go inside the house once we reached my grandmother's house. But I was already scared to death and crying very much! :(

Another incident was happened in my uncle's house. My uncle was having a cat (quite big) in his house. My family and I used to visit my uncle and his family every weekend when I was young. So, that was the day. I was sitting together with my family and my uncle's family in the living room. I was sitting on one of the sofa, I still recalled that my mother was sitting next to me. So, my uncle's cat was coming its way to the living room from the kitchen and I saw it coming. Then suddenly the cat was jumped up to my sofa and starring at me and meowed. Oh my God, there were so many people were sitting there and this stupid cat had picked on me. Again, I was scared like hell and started to cry out. I remembered that one of my cousin quickly took the cat away but it was too late as I was frightened as being 'attacked' by it already. Guess what?! I had fall sick on that night after this scary incident. Since then, every time when I visited my uncle, he would put the cat in the cage as he knew that I was afraid of the cat.

So, those are my scary experiences for the dogs and cats. I am still afraid of them now whenever those animals get nearby me but I would try to stay calm and not to have any big movements. I would try to avoid to go near to those animals. Anyway, I wish that those scary experience would not happen again and the animals would not hurt the humans again.

Deputy Class Monitor

The new school year has commenced for a week already. I guess all the students have got used to the school life now and so are the parents for busy sending and fetching their children to and from school.

My niece is in Standard 5 this year. Well, she has been appointed as the Deputy Monitor for her class in last Friday. She came back home by wearing a red necktie and showing it to us. I was thinking that she has been appointed as the librarian. Then she was telling us that she has been appointed as the Deputy Monitor and the Class Monitor is a good-looking boy! She is very happy for it. My family and I also can see that my niece is very happy for her post in the class. Guess what, she was humming songs for the whole day. I bet my niece must be very, very happy! Haha!

Besides feeling happy for my niece, I also told her that she must be having responsibility for her role. I explained to her that being a Deputy Monitor is not an easy nor too difficult role, she must be clear for her role. I really hope that she would know the the responsibility of it. Anyway, I wish that she will become a more responsible and better student by such 'training' and wish she would enjoy her school days!!! Ganbattei my lovely niece!!!

MY CHEST CT SCAN RESULTS

I got my chest CT scan results on Wednesday from my chest doctor. Well, the result is not good and is not too bad either.  From the CT scan, my right lung has already been ‘injured’ with the scars from my TB sickness. According to the doctor, I would have phlegm and it is advisable to cough it out in the morning. If the phlegm is much and I could not cough it out, then I would need to take medications. Since, I do not have much phlegm at the moment, so medicine is not needed for me.

The findings of my chest CT scan is as followed:-

Multiple thin walls of varying sizes are noted in the upper right lobe with communication with the bronchial tree seen in the larger cavities. There is associated pleural thickening and volume loss. Multiple granulomas are noted within the upper right lobe. Localised traction bronchiectasis are noted in the right upper lobe.

According to the doctor, my chance of relapse of the TB is higher than others as my lung has already injured. Thus I have to take good care of my health now.  Frankly speaking, I feel sad after getting my results, but it is the reality for me. Guess I really have to take good care of my health now I would like to stay healthy.

Nervous for my Chest CT Scan Results

So, it is the new year of 2011! How did you welcome Yr.2011? Are you still in the new year mood?! I am not in the new year mood anymore.

As blogged in my previous post, I have done my chest CT scan in last Tuesday. So, I will have my result in tomorrow. I am nervous for it. I wish the result is good and not otherwise.

I started to get nervous since this morning. I tried to stay calm as I would not let my family notice it. Anyway, I still have to wait for few hours more for it! :( It really is 'killing' me, I guess!

Anyway, I wish the result would be alright and I am looking forward for it. I guess I have to think positive instead of negative as it would affect my health. So, wish me luck for tomorrow! :)

Happy 2011!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Yr.2011 is here.  Let's start with a brand new chapter of life. I have been receiving many SMS new year greetings and one of them I like it very much. I would like to share with you.

" Like birds, let us leave behind what we don't need to carry,
   GRUDGES, SADNESS, PAIN, FEAR, and REGRETS...
   Life is Beautiful, ENJOY it!!! 
   HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!!! "

So, how was your new year celebration? Did you enjoy it with your family, friends or love ones?! Well, for me, I went to the Alamanda Shopping Complex at Cyberjaya for shopping on the new year eve evening after my dinner. Then I went to see the fireworks displays with my family at  my nearby housing areas while the clock was struck at 0.00. It was about 15 minutes of the fireworks displayed and it was beautiful. We could see the fireworks from different locations, eg. Bandar Sunway, KLCC. Everybody were enjoying it very much, especially the children. Most of the children were shouted "Wow!" whenever there was a big fireworks. Haha! I think they are cute!!! :)

Anyway, after long weekend, everyone has to start working, schooling for tomorrow. I am wishing everybody to have a good week ahead. Make sure you do not have Monday Blues!!! Happy New Year again! Cheers!!!