Friday, September 30, 2005
First Mid-Autumn/Mooncake/Tang Lung/Lantern Celebration...Well, apart from the Menjalara Tang-Lung festival that we brought Little Skywalker, together with Loc Kee's family and Milly, my family held a small party of our own to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival along with my youngest brother's 12th birthday two weeks ago.
The family gathering was held at my parent's place. My other younger brother who works in Penang came back with his future-wife, both my younger sisters were back as well. My grandma and grand uncle came down from hometown. It was almost like a CNY Eve reunion dinner kinda feeling. It was also supposed to be a party to send off one of my sister, as she is going to fly to Italy a few days later to start her new job.The birthday boy had invited more than 25 of his friends, but only seven of them managed to make it. I guess it was a family day for most people, so I kinda felt sorry for him. It was his first birthday party ever! Nonetheless, those who came are his best friends, and I don't think we can handle that many 12-year olds running about, knocking off Little Skywalker all over the place :P
My cousin brought along my little nephew, who is a few days older than Little Skywalker. So he is not that lonely with all the teenagers and adults around chit-chatting something that he doesn't understand. They kinda clicked almost instantly and were having the time of their own. Little Skywalker also offered to share all his toys with his new best friend. He would take out his toys one-by-one from the box and hand them over to my nephew and insisted that he have it. Such a kind heart! I would imagine he would shout when other children touche his stuff like all the rest...
Since there were many people around, we need to chain our two dogs near the gate in order not to scare off our guests. Little Skywalker grew very close with the dogs at home. He is not afraid of them at all. In fact, it was the other way round. The dogs are constantly heading the opposite direction as soon as Little Skywalker started to stalk on them. On that evening, he even tried to feed little pieces of dog biscuits to the dogs. J was afraid (as usual) that the dogs might bite off his hand or something. However, his brave and stuntful act impressed everyone that were watching. It was until when he decided to eat the dog food himself that we made him stop!
Inside the house, the birthday boy was busy playing my PS2 with his friends, instead of eating. He was almost reluctant to come out for the cake-cutting thingy. Most of the games they played were car racing in nature. The sound of engines and tyres screeching must be thrilling to children nowadays. OMG! Does that mean we are gonna have more wannabe car racers on our roads in the future? Even Little Skywalker likes the sound of cars running. I guess letting him watch F1 with his parents does have its down side. He paid full attention to the TV screen as the kids were playing the games. Not even his mother could distract him (with food and stuff)!
After the dinner, my brother took out the paper tang-lungs that he bought back all the way from Penang. He even bought a dragon and a fish for Little Skywalker. We put it up near the gate area to 
Little Skywalker did not pay much attention to the bright tang-lungs, instead, he preferred to watch closely on the candles that were burning. He did stop short of touching them when we said "Fire! Hot hot!". With J at his side, he walked around the house holding the fish lantern and swinging around. His rapid swinging movement almost burnt the whole thing out. Watching him playing with it really brought back the old times when I was a kid. I used to play with candles instead of lanterns.
My brother and his future-wife also enjoy the company of Little Skywalker. I guess the little guy will paint a good(?) picture on how tough family life is for them in the future. I can see they like kids a lot looking at the way they hang around Little Skywalker. My future sister-in-law also took Little Skywalker out for a ride in his own little tricycle. They are planning to get married this coming December, and they are going to buy a house in Penang as well to settle down. He works at Intel, and wants to stay nearby his workplace. Anyone has any idea on good housing areas in Penang? Please contact me...
The party ended with the usual cake-cutting ceremony by the birthday boy. As usual, Little Skywalker wanted to steal the lime light at every given opportunity. He even learnt how to sing "Happy Birthday" just for the sake getting everyone's attention. He even wanted to cut the cake (that he chose) on behalf of my brother. We had no choice but to let him pose at cutting the cake before we eat it. He gets a kick every time he cuts a cake for reasons only known to him. I bet he can't wait to grow up.Well.. there you go son... your first Mid-Autumn/Mooncake/Tang-lung/Latern festival (why can't they make up their mind)!
We just hope you won't burn down the house during the next one :P
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Thursday, September 29, 2005
Rumours... Rumours...I have just received unconfirmed but reliable sources that Minitry of Health (MOH) building block E7 at Putrajaya was on fire this morning!! A day before Budget 2006!!
Was it arson or sabotage?? :P
Remember... you heard it first here!!
Updated: The block on fire was the minister's block and tenth floor. Source of fire still unknown and awaiting for CSI Malaysia team. The affected building is still closed by police.
A very
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/29/2005 11:27:00 AM :: and invited 8 Blah(s):
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The Return Of Skywalker
The following piece is contributed by J...
When I reach home little Luke Skywalker is having his porridge dinner. I expected him to run to me and give me a big hug or ask to be breastfeed like he always when he see me reach home from work. However, he didn’t!! He didn’t call me, didn’t ask for breast milk and he refuses my hug!! He was mumbling something (I blame Jason for this), accompanied by some "fake" laugh and kept looking for toys and insisted that I play with his toys!!
Then, he danced a bit when I turned on the toy’s music for him. So I played with him while he continues eating his porridge. When egghead comes back, Little Skywalker also gave him the same routine - keep handing toys to egghead and making fake/nervous laugh (maybe to cover up his emotion??). It’s only after around 20 minutes playing with him only he give egghead a hug and call him daddy. But he still didn’t ask for breast milk. Maybe he already "forgotten" about breast milk? Maybe he is ready to be wean off already?? I felt kind of lost and disappointed. I guess I’m the one who's not ready to give up breastfeeding!It was after a while in the car while we headed back to our house he asked for breast milk. I actually felt important again. What a relief! I am needed again...
Back at home, I put him down on his small mattress that he uses for his evening nap. He lie down there for a while, watching TV, rolling here and there, as well as busy talking into his father's handphone. After a while, he took out his toys to play with them and then followed me everyway I go. After he wake up from his evening nap, I stop the house chores and accompanied him. We actually spent the rest of the evening breastfeeding. I guess he misses his breast milk after all.Yeah, the little guy still remembers his house and his toys, and most importantly, his parents.
Phew!
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/29/2005 08:42:00 AM :: and invited 12 Blah(s):
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
The Answer About FoodSorry to keep everyone waiting. The moment of truth has finally arrived!!
FYI, the picture shown earlier was after the said food item has been "mistakenly" placed into the microwave to reheat by J. Now, you can see below the same food item which has NOT gone through the microwave reheat procedure.
(Drum rolling)........ Tada!!
So as you can see from the picture above, the said food item is a small MOONCAKE!!Due to J's mistake, the egg-yolk within the mooncake kinda "exploded" after undergoing extreme heat inside the microwave, thereby creating the ultimate illusion. Note that J did not even cut the mooncake into half before she place it inside the microwave. When I first saw it, I thought it was a bad cookie or something, with worms infested inside. And twinsmom, FYI, I did not eat any of it because I was so turned off by the scary looks (like you said 卖相) of it. Only J finished the whole thing.
So based on all the guessing entries, NON of you all came even close!! The closest guess was Milly's "seem like outside that layer is egg wor...". Well, she got the egg part right, but it was inside the "thing".
Thank you for your patience and entries.
I will hold another one next time... maybe next time will be an easier one :P
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/28/2005 07:35:00 AM :: and invited 12 Blah(s):
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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Something About Food...Since everyone has been blogging about food lately, I will do something similar.
Can anyone guess what food is shown at the picture below? (click on photo to view larger picture)
The food shown is perfectly edible since J ate it yesterday night. The answer will be announced tommorow with graphical narration :Pp/s: I know this post is lame, but I am really out of inspiration to write anything with Little Skywalker at Genting and all...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/27/2005 09:25:00 AM :: and invited 7 Blah(s):
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Monday, September 26, 2005
The Longest Separation...Little Skywalker will be headed to Genting for the third time today, but this time not with his parents (sob). He will be away with his grandparents from today till Wednesday since his parents do not have enough leave to accommodate his desire for fun anymore. Anyway, we did took him out for a fun weekend at two shopping malls (one more than usual) the last two days and paid extra attention to him so that he will miss us more when he is in Genting. I think J cried a little yesterday night before she slept because of this :P
Since his birth, he has been to Kepong Jusco for countless times already. However, last Saturday was the first time he went to play at the children "playground". We did not allowed him to go in previously because we were afraid that he is too young and may get knocked over by other older kids. We only allow him to sit on those coins rides and the merry-go-round which he loves so much. Now that he is close to 15 months old, we decided to let him have a go and see how it goes.
We bought his RM2 ticket for 20 minutes and proceeded to the "playground". He was all excited and wanted to go in even before we took off his shoes. J accompanied him and I followed in later when I found that I was allowed to do so. J took him to the "pool" with lots of plastic balls in it and let him "go nuts". We wanted to get ourselves one of this since long ago but decided not to because we cannot afford to buy enough balls for him to "soak" himself in. We bought him a XXL sized inflatable pool instead while we shoulder the extra water bill.
J and I never had any experience playing in this type of "pool" while we were kids. So you can imagine how happy we are knowing our son is having the time of his life doing something his parents who are too embarrassed to do now. Little Skywalker enjoyed his mother repeatedly picking him up and "throwing" him into the pool of balls. He just laugh and laugh loudly like the rest of the kids. Me, on the other hand, was busy snapping photos of After a few shots, I got "hand-signaled" by a Jusco staff suddenly asking me to stop "shooting". It seems cameras are not allowed in the entire children theme park at Jusco. I was obviously annoyed and surprised by this because I was snapping photos since the first time we brought Little Skywalker here, I have photos of him on the merry-go-round, car rides, train rides etc. and never did anyone stop me from doing that. Soon after I stop "shooting", another mum (in the ball-pool) told me and J that she also got the same warning last time and began to go around the system. She taught me to stop using flash and take the photos inside the pool because there is a layer of cloth which separates it from the staff's eyes.
Anyway, I stopped taking photos and continue watching our son having the time of his life in his new found game. I also found out that the children playground was a very dangerous place, especially for adults who is standing still (like me) while watching their children enjoying themselves. I got ran into, stepped on, slapped on (maybe this was an exaggeration) a few times throughout my 20 minutes "stay". I just wonder what would happen to Little Skywalker if we left him alone with the other "crazy kids" around.
We went on to the Toy City store to have a look at the expensive toys that were on sale there. We bought a barking dog and a train set for our son from this store on previous occasion. All the stuff here were quite expensive if you ask me. I wonder if anyone could afford such pricey toys for their children. It's not like we live at Bandar Utama or something, we're just middle-class "makan gaji orang" people who can only afford cheap stuff. Maybe they had their business plan screw-up already, since I did not see many people in the shop.Since we are not that rich, we put Little Skywalker on a plastic rocking horse that he liked so much when I brought him to Selayang Hospital last week. As you can see, the price tag (RM179!!) is way beyond our reach. Maybe we will find a cheaper one that is made out of wood or rotan for him later at pasar malam. I am sure he will not notice the difference :P
By the way, Little Skywalker and I also witness some "fire-playing-dudes" that was performing in conjunction with Jusco anniversary. J missed most of it because she was still eating at the Chicken Rice Shop while I brought our son out to have a stroll. I put Little Skywalker standing on a bench and he started dancing to the music that was playing during the fire performance. Those people nearby us were witnessing all these and smiling all the way. I guess our son is a big entertainer after all as he stole the spotlight!
Oh yeah! We also bought Little Skywalker a water bottle that has a straw to suck on, similar to the kind which Loc Kee's Sweet Sweet is having. Little Skywalker almost "robbed" Sweet Sweet's water bottle for himself the last time they met. So now he doesn’t have to be jealous of Sweet Sweet's bottle already when they meet next time. He will be able to show-off his new stuff already, making his kiasu parents proud as well (*LOL) :PGeee... I think I am rambling too much already. Must be the thought of missing Little Skywalker for the next three days that is getting to me :(
It's really hard to miss someone, especially your child...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/26/2005 10:46:00 AM :: and invited 8 Blah(s):
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Friday, September 23, 2005
Genting... Here He Goes Again!!Just got an update from my parents, who took Little Skywalker for his follow up examinations at Selayang Hospital. Good news!! The doctor said he is in good health, the rashes thing is quite normal and it will eventually wear off by itself.
And do you know what this means to my parents??
Surprise!! It means that they most probably would be able to bring Little Skywalker to Awana, Genting coming Monday! This is of course subjected to Little Skywalker make a complete recovery and resumes his normal appetite by this weekend. Otherwise, it may not be wise for him to be so far from a hospital.This Genting trip (his third) was planned a few weeks ago when my parents got an invitation from their neighbours behind, who also happen to be grandparents to a girl (Joana) who is a few days older than Little Skywalker. They play together all the time at the playground. Anyway, the trip is all paid for already, hence the two grandparents couple will be bring their grandchild for a two nights stay. Hopefully this will all goes well.
J is still having second thoughts of being away from Little Skywalker for that long. She is worried that maybe Little Skywalker getting sick is a sign that we should not let him go. She is also worried that my parents may not be able to follow the foot steps of our hyperactive and "love to walk on his own" son. She say these thoughts started to haunt her since the question of the trip pops up back then.For me, hmmmm... I am sure my parents will be able to handle the little guy. On the other hand, we, as parents should learn to let go once in a while. I know is bad timing and all, with his fever. But I guess this is a good chance for us to learn. I hope Little Skywalker will be able to sleep alone in his own room soon and starts to learn about independence. Otherwise, we might need to put spy-cam everywhere just to keep an eye on him all the time.
What do you think??
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/23/2005 04:53:00 PM :: and invited 7 Blah(s):
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Roseola On The Cards??
I would like to thank mumsgather and mama2jojo for alerting me that Little Skywalker might be having a measles-like condition called Roseola. I went over to Wikipedia to have a better understanding of the condition and its symptoms.
According to Wikipedia, Roseola or baby measles "is a benign disease of children, generally under two years old, whose manifestations are usually limited to a transient rash ("exanthum") that occurs following a fever of about three day's duration" and "Typically the disease affects a child between 6 months and 3 years of age, and begins with a sudden high fever of 102-104 degrees Fahrenheit (39-40 degrees Celsius)".
Well, this describe pretty well of Little Skywalker's condition for the past one week. Since his fever subsided, he began showing red rashes all over his body now, including his face. You may also want to read about mumsgather's experience with her child. My colleague, who just had his second son, also told me about the same experience he had with his eldest son about the same age as my son now. Gee.. I guess everyone has had it before? Why didn't my mum knew about this? Maybe all her children are immune?Anyway, I already told J and my mum about this thanks to my online friends. They will enquire (not tell, can't stress this more) the doctor about this when Little Skywalker goes for his follow-up appointment later this afternoon. Maybe the doctor would have known about this if my mum didn't influence her into thinking it was viral/bacteria attack during the last appointment. Maybe she ought to read my guideline about being a responsible patient. She even suggested which urine and blood test to order!
Meanwhile, J is still suspecting that our son's condition might have been caused by drinking milk powder that has been left open for far too long. FYI, we have been trying slowly to get Little Skywalker off breastfeeding. Hence, my mum mixes some milk powder with J's breast milk in his daily feeding. Due to low consumption, those S26 milk powder can last up to a few months. I wonder if it is true. Anyway, we will be getting new stock of milk powder for Little Skywalker this weekend, just in case :P
Have to wait again until Little Skywalker finished his appointment to know the outcome...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/23/2005 11:27:00 AM :: and invited 2 Blah(s):
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阅读小扎 (我我/meme 2)
真不好彩, 被土阿妈/宁霄/Maria aunty点名了!
更糟糕的是这次的"我我"(meme) 牵涉了我阅读过的书本及必须以华语书写, 真的是考倒我了. 不过, 我还是得尽力而为, 毕竟被土阿妈点名还是我的荣誉 :P
(一) 自家书架上的藏书数量
自此结婚, 搬家, 生小孩之后, 蛋头我并没有怎样阅读过. 我很多的收藏品都留在我父母的家. 至今, 包括漫画在内, 我应该还有40-50本书吧. 没办法, 书贵嘛! 全副身家都摆在"小天上步行者"身上和他的未来大计了...
(二) 现正在看或想看的书
随着科技的进步和物价的上涨, 我已经很少买书来看. 不过, 如果有机会让我找到在线或"翻版"的书籍的话, 我最想阅读的都是刘庸, Scott Adams (Dilbert的作者) 的作品和北条丝的漫画, 因为他们的作品都充满了哲学及人生道理.
(三) 最后买的一本书
最后买的应该有两本一起. 它们是 Scott Adams 的 "God's Debris: A Thought Experiment" 和 "Religion War". 这两本书是在本地市场都买不到的书, 可能是因为内容牵涉到某某宗教的争议性吧. 可能是我的固执心态吧, 我是托身在"花旗国"的老婆弟弟买的, 然后经由我老弟冒着被海关检举的危险带回来的. 所以它们可大有来头了!
(四) 你最喜欢的
我想不到第五位 :P
- 刘庸
- Scott Adams
- 北条丝 (漫画家)
- 鸟山名 (漫画家)
- 我不是教你诈 (1-4集) - 刘庸
- 冷眼看人生 - 刘庸
- God's Debris: A Thought Experiment - Scott Adams
- Religion War - Scott Adams
- 城市猎人 - 北条丝 (漫画)
认识不多写过华语的"不落客", 尽力而为吧! 外语书写也不要紧...
Phew! 终於写完了! 咒语应该化解了吧... 我会报仇的, 土阿妈!! (*念咒语...)
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/23/2005 10:40:00 AM :: and invited 6 Blah(s):
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About Urine and Rashes
Yesterday, I blogged about Little Skywalker's blood test result showing no signs of abnormality. His urine test on the other hand, shows signs of possible bacteria or viral infection. All his tests were previously done in Selayang Hospital. My mum asked me to do another urine test for him at Kuala Lumpur General Hospital yesterday morning to get a second opinion. Hence, we woke him up early in the morning and ask him to pee into a container. He happily did so and went back to sleep after that.The full results of the second urine test show no obvious signs of contaminations except for some dirt that may have resulted from a non-sterilize sample taking procedure - my mum did not washed Little Skywalker's (*cough) birdie and her own hands properly before collecting his precious urine.
Little Skywalker has been developing rashes throughout his body and face since his fever went off. His rashes can be seen all over his body now. The rashes do not seem to be itchy for him because he did not asked anyone to scratch for him. Little Skywalker is a very clever boy. Whenever he got bitten by mosquitoes and started to get itchy, he would try to scratch a little bit by himself while calling for help from others, namely his dad. I usually put him lying down on a pillow while scratching him with my well-kept finger nails. You could actually see him enjoying the sensation of being scratch when he moans.Little Skywalker has not much appetite for the past few days, but he still drinks a lot of water. We can see that he has lost quite an amount of body weight already. He is still quite restless, but he manage to sleep very well throughout the night, probably due to his body being tired after fighting the virus for a whole day. My mum actually said he is so tired and hungry sometimes he don't even have the strength to stand and walk properly. We really felt so helpless and pity for the poor little fella :(
Since we could not identify the causes of his rashes, our pediatrician from JB suggested that he take another urine test today to verify any changes in his body. So we did another sample collection and I pass those samples to one of my friend working in the lab to repeat the test. While waiting for the results, I decided to blog about this and put up some photos that might throw your appetite out the window :P
Patience is a virtue.... waiting... waiting... and waiting...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/23/2005 09:01:00 AM :: and invited 4 Blah(s):
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Tips On When And How To "See Doctor"Update on Little Skywalker status:
Back to the topic of the day...Our son's blood test result came back showing no signs of abnormality. So I guess he is off dengue fever (Phew!). His urine test at Selayang Hospital however, tested Ketone positive (which indicated possibility of bacteria or virus infection). Further culture and sensitivity (C&S) showed no signs of bacteria and viruses. So that was another load off.
His fever was completely gone by yesterday morning. One last thing left is some red spots of rashes are seen on part of his face and hands. We hope that they will wear off eventually by themselves.
Little Skywalker is due for another follow-up on Friday.
Background:
My mum as a retired nurse, she gave me a lot of ideas on how to deal with illness. She take our blood (at home) for testing at least twice a year when I was very young, so seeing blood is nothing to me. I am also used to watching video on medical procedures including surgery and other ugly stuff. I work in a big hospital, so I am surrounded by either doctors or nurses. However, the tips I am about to provide are based on my experience and also some stuff I read in the office.
I would like to provide a few guidelines on when and how to "see doctor". As you might have known, my son has been suffering from persistent high fever since last Sunday. Both J and I went through hell taking care and worrying about his health. After going through it, I felt like writing some guidelines to serve as reminder to both myself and you.
Firstly, fever is a very common symptom for many, many kinds of disease, especially in children. Chicken pox, measles, dengue, flu etc. normally show fever as obvious symptoms. Panadol (PCM) is a common drug found in everyone's home and we use it to treat fever (also headache, amnesia, suicide etc.) ourselves without even going to the clinic most of the time. However, we need to be extra careful when it comes to fever with toddlers. As you might have known, PCM for toddlers are in syrup form. We should understand the correct dosage before feeding them to our children. Or else, the consequences might be dire!!
Fever can originate from virus or bacteria infections. This kind of (high and persistent) fever will normally last for 2-3 days. If the fever does not subside after 3 days, you should bring your child to a doctor (at best pediatrician). Bringing a child to a doctor on the first or second day might not help a lot as doctors will only prescribe PCM and antibiotics (not recommended for small children). Antibiotics are commonly used to treat viral fever.
It is better to bring your child to a hospital instead of a clinic if the fever is high and persistent. The main reason is that hospitals are well equipped and some even have labs. Doctors at hospital will be able to order urine and blood test for the child if needed. The results can be known faster compare to small clinics who need to send out specimens to private labs. Furthermore, all lab tests in government hospital are paid for by you and me. So, why are you paying more to private practice?? (No offence to private practitioners)
Next, we move on to "How to see doctor". I have seen many people who go to a doctor and telling the doctor what kind of disease they are having. Unless they learned it from past history or another doctor's diagnosis, I really wonder how they managed to make their own conclusions. I always thought that as patient, we should explain only the symptoms of our illness eg. "my body temperature is rising and I feel cold", "my head hurts", "I have running nose non-stop", "I have red spots on my body". Instead, they went "I think I have dengue", "Is it bird flu? SARS?", "I think I have liver/kidney failure", "I am suicidal".
By telling exactly what you "think" you have, you are taking away the responsibilities of the doctor. You go to a doctor for a DIAGNOSIS! Meaning you want them to tell you your illness, not the other way round. For our part, we only need to describe which part of our body is not feeling well, allergies, past medical history, family medical history etc. We PAY doctors to do their jobs, not to listen to our "smart-ass" self-diagnosis. Otherwise, we might end up influencing them into getting the wrong diagnosis or medications!
This is especially true when you are consulting young (trainee) doctors. They are at a learning process and some of them may tend to avoid their own responsibilities when they think you know better.
Do anyone of your watch the TV series "House"? If you had observed, doctors actually record every symptoms of their patients (no matter how small it is) in order to reach a diagnosis. If a patient tries to hide their symptoms, medical history, drug addictions, allergies etc. The patient might end up killing himself while the doctor takes the blame. Is it fair?
In a nut shell, doctors have their responsibilities to make proper diagnosis and prescribe proper treatment for their patients. As responsible patients, we have our responsibility of revealing everything about our health and medical history to the doctors during a consultation. Remember! All doctors are not allowed to reveal your medical data to anyone (including your spouse or for research purposes) without you written agreement. This is what we call "Doctor-Patient Confidentiality". However, it's their job to report to Ministry of Health for various contagious diseases. Other than that, their lips are supposed to be sealed. Else, sue them!
As you can see, for a doctor to do his job well, we need to play our "patient" part well. So just be a patient and stop playing doctor!
In the end of the day, we are ultimately responsible for our health...
Disclaimer: Whatever you "thought" you have just read above is a result of your own hallucinations only. Hence, I am NOT responsible for putting up a white blank space on one of my post. Don't blame me for anything because you are imagining this disclaimer as you read. If you ever need any real advise on medicines, ask a real doctor :P
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/22/2005 02:42:00 PM :: and invited 3 Blah(s):
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Hail Amazon.ca !!
Do you remember the TV series "Mind Your Language" that was once shown on local television?
It was a very popular UK sitcom featuring Barry Evans as Jeremy Brown, the eager teacher of an English evening class for adult foreigners. Mostly derived from the language barrier, the outlandish comedy that ensues was a constant source of hysterical laughter that was beloved by over 17 million viewers and became one of Britain's longest running, most successful TV shows.I was hooked on the series since I was a kid when my father's friend loan me his mini VHS tape on "Mind Your Language". His tapes needed to be played on a
Few months back, I had the sudden urge of watching the series all over again, only to find out the bitter truth on what happen to those mini VHS tapes. Hence, I thought of buying them from either UK or Australia. As usual, I went online and search the Internet upside down only to find out that DVDs from UK or Australia might not be compatible with my player at home (Region 2). And they cost over RM200 for a complete set. I almost gave up on my hunt until I stumbled over the item at Amazon.ca (Amazon at Canada). They offered Region 1 disc, which was not only compatible with my player but it only cost about RM110 per set.
After getting the green light from I told my father's friend about my latest collection. He got interested and asked me to order the same for him the next day (13th June). His item was due to arrive between July 27th - Aug 11. I had the order delivered to my parents' place since they are always at home (taking care of Little Skywalker). I did not bother to check on his order (half his fault as he did not bother to remind me as well) until last week (13th Sept). I was surprised that he has yet to receive his package.
I wrote the following
The next day, I received a reply (15th Sept):ORDER NUMBER: xxx-yyyyyyy-zzz
COMMENTS: In reference to my order, I have not
received the package although the estimated date of delivery is between Jul 27
2005 - Aug 11 2005.
Kindly enlighten me on this.
Thank you.
I did as being told in the email to confirm my address. Within the same day, I received another email from Amazon.ca:Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.ca.
I apologize that you have not yet received your order. It does appear that this package is lost. Please accept our sincere apologies for this inconvenience.
We do want to make sure you receive the items you ordered. Before we can proceed, please verify the shipping address for this order, in case this is the reason for the missing shipment.
The shipping address we have for this order is:
[Egghead's Name]
[Address of My Palace, which is next to Istana Negara]
Malaysia
To confirm this address or provide us with a new one, please click the link at the
bottom of this message....
Greetings from Amazon.ca.
Thanks for writing back to us confirming the shipping address of this order
(#xxx-yyyyyyy-zzz). The package appears to be lost.
Please accept our sincere apologies for this inconvenience.
I placed a new order for the item. There will be no charge for this replacement. Here are the details of the new order:
Order Number : aaa-bbbbbbb-ccc
Shipping Speed : Expedited International Shipping
Estimated Delivery Date: 23 September - 04 October, 2005
If the estimated delivery date above is unacceptable, and you would prefer to cancel
the replacement order and receive a refund for the original shipment, please let
us know by visiting the following URL...
Cool! They actually upgraded my previous I wish to take this opportunity to thank James W. and Vikas of Amazon.ca Customer Service who handled my complaint with such great efficiency and professionalism. I also hope that our local Post Malaysia and any other local companies for that matter, can take a cue from Amazon.ca in their customer relationship management. Personally, I had a few incidences of "cheque being lost in delivery" even though it was mailed through registered mail.
Thanks again Amazon.ca! I look forward to my next purchase!
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/22/2005 09:53:00 AM :: and invited 8 Blah(s):
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
War On Blood-Suckers!!
*War trumpet blowing in the background!!Since the question on whether Little Skywalker had contracted dengue fever two days ago, J and I decided to declare an all-out war against all the "blood-suckers" in our house. I usually don't kill them directly out of sympathy for all living beings (unlike J, clapping her hands whenever she
I started spraying our bedroom with mosquitoes repellent in the evening. J doesn't like the smell, hence we did not do it before. I bought that bottle of "Shieldtox" (or whatever) since we moved in about three years ago, and yet, the bottle is still half full. Can you imagine that? She complained every time I wanted to spray some in our bedroom. I guess she prefer to fight them in a more "manly" mano-a-mano style.
Since our living room is too big for the mosquitoes repellent to work without killing the whole familiy, we went ahead and got us one of those electric racket thingy. It costs us RM9 with the batteries. As soon as we reached home yesterday, I managed to ZAP at least 4-5 mosquitoes in the living room alone. I read that mosquitoes are very active during warm and rainy season. I guess now is one of them...Our house is more or less fully protected with mosquito nets on every window upstairs due to the farsightedness of the previous owners. We are now left with what to do downstairs.
Suggestions, anyone?
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/21/2005 02:30:00 PM :: and invited 4 Blah(s):
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Sushi King At Selayang Hospital??
As I mentioned in my previous post, J and I decided to bring Little Skywalker to Selayang Hospital for a thorough check-up as advised by our pediatrician (who live in JB). We fear that our son might have kena dengue fever of some sort. The following is a detail account of the hospital visit...
J could not make it for the doctor's appointment because her boss was not in a good mood, and also she is already late for work yesterday. My parents brought Little Skywalker to the hospital at 2pm while I arrive 20 minutes later from my workplace. The nurses called out Little Skywalker's name the moment I arrived (what a perfect timing as I hate all the waiting and waiting). I carry the little fella (who still has quite a bit of temperature) into the consultation room together with my mum.
The doctor asked if he had any cough or running nose the past few days, which he didn't. He didn't had any rashes or red spots on his body as well, which suggest he is not having measles or chicken pox. The doctor checked his throat as well as his ears for any infections but couldn't found any either. Hence, the doctor could not positively diagnose our son for any specific illness but persistent fever itself. She also pointed out that the possibility of him contracting dengue is very low as he did not show much of dengue's symptoms. But just to be sure, she ordered a urine and blood test.After the consultation, we proceeded to take Little Skywalker's urine sample (or 童子尿) and later proceeded to the procedure room to take his blood. That was the same room we went to the last time I came with Little Skywalker for one of his immunization shot when he was about 6-months old. He was cool about it then. However, he was terrified as soon as we enter the room this time round. I guess he still remembers the horrific experience of having his blood taken the last time he was here. One of the younger nurses poked his meaty hands and legs all over and couldn't find the right spot to draw blood.
Since he was crying already, I didn't want his blood taken immediately. I put him on one of those rocking wooden-horse toys that was in the procedure room. Hmmm... I guess toddlers do cry a lot in that room. After few minutes on it, Little Skywalker stopped crying and I decided it was time to do it. My mum held him tightly in the correct way since she was trained to do so, while I held his legs from kicking. He started crying and yelling violently as though he knew what was coming! The whole process lasted a few minutes, but it was like a whole lifetime for me as I see his blood flowing out slowly from his arm into the syringe. The sound of his yelling can be heard all over the hospital I guess.
After the needle is taken off, Little Skywalker immediately reached out his hands for me, as if asking me to save him from his "evil" grandmother. I took him into my arms immediately while my mum applied pressure to the spot where his blood was taken. The good thing is, he was already sweating all over after all the crying, yelling and struggling. That helps a lot in bringing down his feverish temperature.
We came out from the procedure room and I brought him around to look at some toys in order to calm him down while my parents proceeded to the pharmacy to get his medications (PCM and multi-vitamins). To their horror, they got a number "3267" while the current number was "3201" as printed. My father started the waiting process while my mum went to get a hold of some dressing kits for my father (he accidentally cut his finger while cooking). Meanwhile, I played the "singing human cradle" again and nurse the little guy to sleep. He slept within 15 minutes while listening to "You are my sun shine" sung softly by yours truly repeatedly.
After half an hour, my parents decided to bring Little Skywalker home first as he was already asleep. I will stay behind to wait for the "calling" for my number. Can you believe it? It took a total of 90 minutes for my number to be called!! It's worse than KL General Hospital where there are even more patients. I seriously doubt the efficiency of the pharmacy staff in Selayang Hospital. They actually copied Sushi King's conveyor belt idea for delivering the medicines from the storage room to the pharmacists at the counter. Little do they know, the slow moving machine was slowing down the entire department, not to mention the obviously understaffed workforce who are working behind the scene.It was almost 5pm already when I got the medicines and headed home.
Our son's fever actually came down and maintained low after the hospital visit. His temperature reading was below 38 degrees for the entire evening. His appetite had improved but he looked quite tired. I guess it must be the recovery process that is tiring to him. We try to nurse him to rest and sleep so his body can fight stronger, but he only managed to sleep around 10pm. Fortunately, he slept like a log throughout the whole night. J
His fever was almost gone when we woke up in the morning. He did not even cried when we left him at my parents' place. We hope he will be fully recovered by the end of the day.
J and I also wish to take this chance to thank everyone for their well-wishes and prayers throughout these few days. The least we could do is to share our experience with everyone, hopefully it will serve as a guide on "what-to-do-if-it-were-to-happen-to-me" later.
p/s: J told my parents to bring along Little Skywalker to the pharmacy next time as we would be given a faster treatment when they see the baby. Useful tips for all parents who will be visiting Selayang Hospital in the future.
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/21/2005 09:37:00 AM :: and invited 7 Blah(s):
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Is It Dengue?"Could it be dengue fever?"
That was the question J and I asked our pediatrician through the phone. Unfortunately, she couldn't provide a convincing diagnosis. However, we are advised to bring Little Skywalker for a blood test (to determine whether is dengue) and urine test (to determine any infection) at Hospital Selayang if his fever is still persistent.
Little Skywalker had a very good night sleep since yesterday night, until J woke him up at 5am for his medication. His fever was still persistent and was over 39 degrees. He had no rashes on his body, which is a good sign, but he is becoming more and more restless. Sometimes, he would yell violently while crying, and there was nothing we could do to calm him down. Listening to him suffering really broke our hearts. We tried to distract him with stuff and waited for him to stop shouting before we could talk to him.His temperature went down quickly around 7am this morning after his medication because he has been sweating quite a bit in his sleep. Maybe whatever that is causing his illness knew they will be facing some strong resistance once we were at the hospital today, hence retreated? I certainly hope so. We wanted to bring him to the hospital first thing in the morning, but my mother managed to get a hold of the doctor (who treated our son while he was in NICU) through the phone and got us an appointment at 2pm. She promised to give Little Skywalker a full physical as well as a thorough blood test to determine the cause of his persistent fever.
Meanwhile, we left Little Skywalker at my parents' and went back to work. We will be meeting up with my parents at the hospital later.
Until then, just keeping our fingers crossed and pray hard...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/20/2005 10:30:00 AM :: and invited 9 Blah(s):
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Monday, September 19, 2005
First Language Discriminative PostSharing something light from a forwarded email, 新时代灯谜?
(highlight to see answers, thanks Willwolf for the tips!)
什么桶子永远装不满?
答案: 马桶
什么情况下 2大於5, 5大於0, 0大於2 呢?
答案: 剪刀, 石头, 布
从以下的数学猜成语
7 除于 2
答案: 不三不四
从以下的数学猜成语
2468
答案: 无独有偶
什么东西看不到却可以摸到, 万一摸不到会把人吓一跳?
答案: 脉搏
狼来了! (猜水果名)
答案: 杨桃 (羊逃)
花木兰在军营待那么久, 为什么都没被人发现?
答案: 木兰无长兄 (胸)
哪个数字最懒惰? 哪个数字最勤快?
答案: "一"不做, "二"不休
键盘中哪一个按键最帅气?
答案: F4
第十一本书 (猜一成语)
答案: 不可思议 (Book11)
什么东西, 买的人知道, 卖的人也知道, 只有用的人不知道?
答案: 棺材
阿拉丁有几个哥哥?
答案: 三个 (阿拉甲,阿拉乙,阿拉丙)
如果吴宗宪打篮球, 应该由谁来防守他呢?
答案: 慈母, 因为慈母守宗宪贤(手中线)
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/19/2005 02:44:00 PM :: and invited 3 Blah(s):
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You Are My Sunshine...
Remember this song that our parents sang to us when we were kids?
You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.
When I sang over 50 times to Little Skywalker while trying to nurse the sick (fever of over 39 degrees since Saturday midnight) and restless little guy to sleep, it meant more or less like this:
You Are My Baby
My only baby.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
(God) please don't take my baby away.
There were just so much thoughts going up my head, most of them are plain paranoia, others were just plain stupid. J and I were so worried, we kept tapping his body with water, hoping to put the "fire" out. He couldn't sleep and was restless as he cried all night, sometimes even violently. I act as a "musical cradle" to him for almost half an hour before he started to calm down and close his eyes.
Throughout the night, both of us did not get much sleep. J woke up and measured our son's temperature and it was over 39 degrees again. We continued tap his body with water, and feeding him medicine every four hours as advised by our pediatrician, who was kind enough to pick up our call even though she lives in JB and it was late into the night.This morning, we could hardly wake up due to the stress whole night long. Little Skywalker's temperature came down quite a bit, but there is still a bit of heat on his forehead. We decided not to bring him to the clinic first, and continue to monitor his fever for another day. Although some may argue is due to his teething condition, but this time his fever was higher than the last one and it stretches for more than 24 hours.
For me, I just hope that all his teeth can pop out at one time and get it over with. Or else, his parents will be admitted into the hospital before half his teeth are out!
May the force be with Little Skywalker...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/19/2005 10:25:00 AM :: and invited 7 Blah(s):
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Friday, September 16, 2005
The Birth of Little "Skywalker" - Ep 8 - The ResolveSlightly more than a year ago in a hospital not that far away....
The two days when J and our son stayed in the hospital really brought resolve to our misery for the past few days. We remembered how to smile and laugh instead of crying and giving everyone a fake smile every time they asked how is our son doing. J was the happiest mom in the world as she made up the time we lost for the past few days to spend with our son. The hospital almost became a second home to me as most of my time were spent there instead of my house.
Our son was quite active already after the drug effects wore off. However, he still needs to take his medication to control his fits for the next three months. But hey! No one’s complaining since he was already a living miracle in the whole of NICU. Doctors and nurses were congratulating us on a daily basis and they were so happy to see our boy recovered so well. They have developed a kind of special bondage for the past few days.Every time when he woke up, he would opened his big round eyes to look at everyone and everything around him. We took him to the window to have a bird’s eye view of his “home” since he was born. He was quite excited to face the breeze that were blowing on his face from a tight opening we had on the windows. A smell of “fresh” air (note: garbage dump below) must be something new to him instead of all the air condition.
Throughout the two days stay in hospital, J learned how to breastfeed our son while lying down so that she won’t be too tired from carrying him all the time. She also learned how to feed our child his medications through a syringe as well as feed him water after that. We need to do this for the next three months or longer until he is given a clean bill of health.The doctors discharged J and our son at the end of the second day since we just can’t wait to get home. We thanked everyone who had helped us since our son’s birth and my mom even brought a few home-made apple pies for the staffs and doctors working there a few days later.
We bid farewell to everyone and headed home. I’ve already had our bed lay out nicely for our son. Luckily I ordered a King-size bed, so that he can tucked in between J and I every night. Is a shame that my in-laws need to rush home the day before, but I’m sure they are happy knowing that we are back at home. Everyone was gathered in my house and was lining up for a chance to carry the baby. He was an instant celebrity!With that, we come to an end of this 8-part “kisah benar” about our son’s birth. J and I wrote this not to scare off potential mums-to-be, but to tell everyone that miracles do happen. We are lucky to come through the whole thing and learnt a lot from it. I am sure Lilian, who was not as lucky as us with one of her child, had her fair share of experience as well to share. Such experiences will only help us to love and care for our precious children in the course of raising them. They will also remind us on the hardship our parents went through while bringing us into this world and subsequently raising us.
We dedicate this 8-part series to all parents and babies everywhere…
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/16/2005 03:53:00 PM :: and invited 20 Blah(s):
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The Birth of Little "Skywalker" - Ep 7 - Miracles Do Happen
Slightly more than a year ago in a hospital not that far away....
It was already the forth day since our son was born. I have been praying on rosary every night before I go to bed, somtimes twice a day. J was praying in her own way although she is not much into any religion. Sleeping, to us is no longer a necessity anymore. If possible, we would like to move into the NICU ward (even with no bed) to be at the side of our precious child.God must have listened to prayers from our family, relatives and friends. Our son began making miraculous recovery. He was more or less disconnected from all the drug medication machines around him, except for the feeding tubes to his stomach. He was already breathing on his own without the help of respirator machines. He was later transferred to another trolley type baby cot as other patients (babies) needed those machines to survive as well, mostly premature babies. However, our son was still sleeping peacefully.
By the time J and I dropped by for a visit, he was trying to open his small eyes. I guess he was coming about already. He opened his eyes for the first time in front of us. Phew! Is like having the KLCC lifted off both our shoulders. We were allowed to pick him up from his “bed” and carry him as much as we liked, but not before cleansing our hands with chemical soap (might as well throw in a gamma ray). Our son was still in a dizzy mode due to the after effects of the drugs to control his fits. We spent more than an hour talking to him before nursing him slowly to rest.
The doctors (God bless those miracle workers) break the “good news” to J and I directly. According to them, our son was a real tough fighter. The last brain scan showed that there was no long any fluid (which is causing some brain swelling) left. His fits were under controlled and he will be fully awake soon after the drug wear off. The doctor also suggested that J start breastfeeding (or give the little guy a feeling of breastfeeding) him directly as it would help him to regain his strength faster. J happily obliged and our son was responding well to her nipples. All the while I was busy taking photos of our proud little Jedi to show off to our families.
Later, J was asked to admit to NICU ward to continue her breastfeeding. Notes to newbies, breastfeeding is an on-demand thing and not a fixed schedule thing. J would have a bed with the baby cot next to her. Both of them would be together all the time. With the help from the nurses and my mom, our son began sucking milk on a regular basis. According to J, he cries whenever his mother put him back to his cot after he fell asleep while breastfeeding. However, his cries were quite weak as other babies and we can still hear some sounds coming from his throat when he breaths. The doctor said that is due to inevitable injury caused by the breathing tube that was put into his throat. It will eventually wear off.Our son will need to undergo at least 48 hours of observation before he can be discharged from the NICU. Little does he knew that there will be a huge celebrations waiting for him at home!
continue to Ep 8 - The Resolve
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/16/2005 02:50:00 PM :: and invited 0 Blah(s):
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The Birth of Little "Skywalker" - Ep 6 - The Wait
Slightly more than a year ago in a hospital not that far away....
J’s grandma was here to stay with us although J was still in the hospital. When I came home after leaving J resting in the hospital, my phone beeped. It was my MIL, she told me to do something to my bed and mattress with the help of J’s grandma. According to her beliefs, we must have put our son’s life at risk when I decided to install our heated shower in my room’s bathroom near to J’s pregnancy. We need to do this small ritual to lift the curse or something.
I am not a superstitious person, but I rather kill myself than to live with this on my conscience for the rest of my life. Hence, I made the desperate move to complete the ritual, I think it involved lifting my whole king-size mattress up and let it stand at the end of the bed and put some leaf (olive?) in water under the bed or something. Anyhow, we got it done for the sake of our son’s survival.
J got discharged the next morning, we went to see our son again before we left the hospital. This is the first time we totally left him to the miracle hands of the doctors in NICU. Apart from us, my parents (my mum specifically, since she was the only one allowed in other than us because she knows the doctor there) went to visit our son few times a day, leaving behind a rosary and bible near his “bed”.
J’s parents came all the way from Skudai, JB to look at their (my parents’ as well) first grandson. We tried to smuggle them into the NICU ward to see our son, but only one managed to sneak in for one minute, and that is only my MIL, before the doctor warn us about their strict policies. However, I was given permission to bring in a camera to take snap shots of the little guy for everyone’s eyes. I borrowed a digital camera from one of my dear friend immediately the same night and plan to bring to the hospital later.
I went back to work three days after our son was born, and managed to take some time off during lunch hour to visit the little guy. He was still “sleeping” in his little plastic bed while the rest of us were waiting anxiously for our son to open his eyes for the first time.
The doctors reduced the medication on the third day, allowing him to “wake up” slowly. J was advised to express his breast milk into milk bottles and to be fed to our son via the tube to his stomach. However, J had difficulty expressing milk since there was no sucking sensation from our baby (gee.. why I didn’t volunteer?) but she managed to do it using the pumping machine that was available at NICU.
Feeding our son with breast milk seems to have the effect of stopping his hiccups, which occurs almost concurrently with his fits. Hence, I printed a few online articles to help J to pick up breast feeding into a bottle and to calm down her stress because she was so worried not being able to “produce” that much milk. The doctors also encourage her to continue trying as it was normal in the early stage of breastfeeding without a baby.I took a snap shot of our son while waiting for him to wake up to the world…
continue to Ep 7 - Miracles Do Happen
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/16/2005 01:45:00 PM :: and invited 1 Blah(s):
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Kena Tagged Big Time!!
Shit! Didn't realized I kena tagged by my ham-sap friend (one of the member of the ham-sap gang) until just now! I read about James tagging someone and did not understand what he meant (although I act as though I knew) this morning. Thanks to him, I learned what "tag" and "meme" are.
So here goes:
Seven things you plan to do before you die:
- ask a lawyer to do up a legal contract and send out to guys you
wish were deaddislike and guys you're damn sure are part of the ham-sap gang in order to prevent them marrying your wife, assuming they are pretty sure kena dumped by their wives, if they ever got married :P - write a book on why you intend to
chicken offmigrate to a better country instead of staying on to fight the government - build a kick-ass company that can rival Microsoft using their own platform and brainwash my son to brainwash his children to do the same
- build my own house on a piece of land that I own on top of a green mountain (like those in the Salem ads)
- charter a private jet (with state-of-the-art weapons) and travel around the world
- sit in front of all my grand, great-grand, great-great.... grandchildren and
bullshittell them about all the stuff that I've accomplished throughout my life - have national and international broadcasting channels focused on my face as I take my final breath
Seven things I could do:
- try to stay as long as possible on my fixed-paying job for the experience and keep a lookout on higher paying jobs or business opportunities
- try to stay
sexyhealthy and live long enough to see my grandchildren, but not longer than my wife because I think I will cry if she goes first (touch wood) - make sure I move into a bigger house before I am 30
- make sure my savings can reach at least RM1,000,000 before I retire
- get all the pirated DVDs available for US-based movies and TV series that I can possibly find
- make sure my parents live a healthy and happy lives
- reach the target readership like Lilian and James for my blog and ensure my children reads them
Seven celebrity crushes:
- Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan)
- Dax (Terry Farrell)
- Angelina Jolie
- Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman)
- Jolin Tsai
- Rachel (Jennifer Aniston)
- My wife, the celebrity among my family members :P
Seven often repeated words:
- hahahahaha
- mah ham / mah hai
- diuuuuuu
- cheebye
- shit
- wei/eh (a name I call everyone including my wife)
- ah wei (son's name in case you are wondering)
Seven physical traits I look for in the opposite sex:
- nice face
- sexy body
- sexy voice
- big boobs
- big breasts
- big bosoms
- big chest
Seven tags go to:
There you go, did this because I didn't like the idea of Wilwolf asking Lilian to ham-sap me, if one the celebrities mentioned above then I don't mind :P
p/s: I think this tag thing has become a chain letter of some sort in the blogsphere already... *sweat... luckily I did what was necessary to lift the curse on me :P
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/16/2005 11:32:00 AM :: and invited 10 Blah(s):
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The Birth of Little "Skywalker" - Ep 5.5 - First Encounter
Below is another of J's account on what happened on our first encounter...
Yes. I’m going to see my baby!! Finally!! egghead came early in the morning. He brought me breakfast and wheel me to NICU once after my breakfast. On the way, he told me one thing, like I’m a little girl. “Later when you see Baby, don’t cry in front of him.” Even though he speaks in his softest and calmest tone, I sense some worry in him. Is it really that bad?
Once inside the NICU, egghead showed me to our Baby. There he is. Lying in a ‘box’ attached to a big and tall machine, naked. I was told to wash my hand with ‘some chemical soap’ before I could touch him.
We have a few minutes alone with the baby before a doctor shows up to explained the condition of Baby. From what I can understand from the doctor, due to the lack of oxygen in Baby’s brain, they have to put some medication to put him to sleep for 3 day to limit his brain activity. They also put a few other medications to control his condition. They will only be waking him up after 3 days. What we can do for the time being is only to pray a lot. We were also told to be prepared for the worst. Be prepared if Baby’s unable to wake up forever, or be prepared if Baby’s to wake up and grow up with abnormalities, and even some organs failures.
I touched him on the face, and hold his tiny little hand. My heartbreaks when I see tubes in his mouth, on his belly, his hand, and legs. Nonetheless, I’m able to hold myself strong. I rubbed my hand against his face, hand, and legs, and spoke gently to him. “Baby, Mama came to see you, open your eye and see.” I’m so glad he is such a cute and good looking baby, yet so sad and keep wondering what really happened to him. “No matter what you will wake up to be, please wake up!!”
Egghead send me back to my ward after half an hour with Baby, as we are not suppose to be there all the time to disturb Doctors do their job. Once outside tear flows endlessly. I couldn’t help but keep blaming myself for not learning more about delivery process, not learning the exercises, the breathing techniques, and not pushing hard enough in the delivery room. Although the Doctor told us the reason for the lack of oxygen is unknown and might be due to some complications during pregnancy, I still think the reason is me not pushing hard enough and in a wrong way. I must have hurt Baby’s brain.
Back in the ward, egghead accompanies me and comforted me. We talk about Baby’s name. We have been searching for a nice name for Baby since very beginning of pregnancy but haven’t decided on any yet, as we wanted to give him the best name that will bring him good life.
We also talk about how we would still love and care about Baby even if he wakes up and grow up with abnormalities. And most unwillingly, egghead gently reminded me of the probabilities that Baby would never get to wake up. We also think of a colleague of mind who actually lost her baby a year before. Her also experience difficulty in getting the baby out. Her baby also stuck for too long and there is brain damage. Her baby stayed in NICU for a month and finally let go. We were so scared the same thing will happen to us. She is a strong lady who takes the whole incident very bravely.
For a "in-depth" and "behind the scenes" account on the actual events, please refer to this.
continue to Ep 6 - The Wait
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/16/2005 10:30:00 AM :: and invited 2 Blah(s):
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The Birth of Little "Skywalker" - Ep 4.5 - The Truth?
Below is J's account on what happened on that fateful day...
At hour 0023, 6th July 2004, little skywalker “walks” into the world. Unlike the other newborn, he walks in silently. I felt both relief and worried. Relief because he is out at last. Worried because he should have cried out loud. Lying on the bed, I can hear the midwife asking egghead to cut his umbilical cord, separating me and my baby psychically. Then, she held the baby up high, asking me what I saw. I said I saw my baby boy. And immediately the nurse carried him away. Lying down helplessly, I panicked and ask egghead to faster go follow the nurse, while the midwife help to clean me up.
I waited anxiously for egghead to come back to me with some news on our boy. I only had a second to look at him, haven’t even got a chance to touch him. Finally egghead came back. I quickly asked what they did to my baby. He told me they clean him up and cleared his lung, and beat him to make him cry. I asked whether he cried? He say yes. He cried. But very very soft. And he looks pale. Egghead added, after a few seconds, as if he is contemplating whether to tell me. And they sent the baby to NICU. NICU, why are they sending my baby to NICU? Is anything wrong with him. Have I caused him any damage during the long and chaotic birth process? Egghead wanted to accompany but I ask him to go help check on baby again.
I asked the nurse whether I can go see my baby. And she said no. I am suppose to stay in the room for another two more hours to make sure the bleeding stop and no further complications. She said I can go to see him after two hours.
After some time, egghead came back to me. His worried face has light up a little this time. He told me Baby’s has slowly regain his colour tone. Except for one foot, which is still pale and bloodless. Then I asked egghead whether Baby has open his eye? Egghead said no. The Doctor has put some medication to let him sleep and rest, because he is slightly lack of oxygen in his brain. Lack of oxygen. Isn’t that the cause of death for my colleague’s baby who died one month after birth? What actually happened to my baby? When only I can go to see him? Am I going to loss him? Egghead reassures me that Baby is only slightly lack of oxygen, and the doctors in NICU is good and is closely monitoring him and he is just sleeping and resting peacefully in the NICU. Is he telling the truth? Is he hiding anything from me? As if he can read my mind, he reassures me he is telling the very truth and there isn’t any good to bluff me as I can go to see Baby in a while.
It was almost 0330. Finally the doctor allows me to leave the room and go back to the ward. Doctor/Nurse say its better for me to go back to the ward to rest and to see Baby in the morning and egghead sent me back to the ward. I know I need to rest but I also want to see my baby. I couldn’t even remember his look now.
I’m not a good mother.
For a "in-depth" and "behind the scenes" account on the actual events, please refer to this and this.
continue to Ep 5 - The First Encounter
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/16/2005 10:25:00 AM :: and invited 3 Blah(s):
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The Birth of Little "Skywalker" - Epi 5 - First Encounter
Slightly more than a year ago in a hospital not that far away....
After putting J to sleep, I was asked to go home and have a rest, so that I can deal with whatever that comes my way in the morning. I disagree at first but finally relented as there is nothing that I can do now but to pray for our son’s survival.
As I came back to a house with no one in it, I could hardly close my eyes. I took our my rosary (never use it since I got married and moved out) and say a whole rosary by myself on the bed, praying that our son will make it through. After that, I managed to drift into sleep as my brain was overwhelmed with everything that has happened.
That was undeniably the worst day in my life!
Slightly more than three hours later, I got up, hoping what had happened the day before was just a nightmare. But when I saw J was not next to me on the bed, it finally hit me that I am living this nightmare. I took a bath to clear my thoughts before heading to the hospital.
J was so anxious to see our son that she was already prepared before I arrived. As I push J to the NICU ward, I reminded J not to cry in front of our baby boy as I think he has already suffered enough. What he needed was not our symphathy, but our strength and courage to guide him through the whole ordeal.
At the NICU ward, we were reminded to wash our hands thoroughly with chemical foam before touching our son to prevent any form of infection. J finally saw our son clearly for the first time. The doctor came a few minutes later and briefed us about the little guy’s development so far. I guess Malaysian doctors aren’t really trained to “break the news gently” as what we see on TV. They will just go ahead and tell you to prepare for the worst, even though they were talking to a mother who had just given birth less than 8 hours ago. Or I guess Malaysians are just much tougher than those in the developed countries.
That said, we were not as tough as we thought we were. We just began sobbing in front of the doctor, and worse, in front of our little boy, as if he is never going to make it. The doctor told us that the drug will keep our son asleep for three days in order to keep him brain activity at a minimum, so that whatever fluid we saw earlier will clear away themselves (without going through surgery). He also gave us a few (bad) scenarios on what is going to happen in the next few days. Suffice to say, it did not look good at all even if our son managed to make it through and wake up!
We spent a few private moments with our son, allowing him to feel his parents’ touch of warm and caring hands. We also spoke a few words of encouragement to his ears to help him overcome his fear. It was really breaking our heart to see tubes being fed down his throat as well as his belly button. He was still showing signs of fits. The shape of his head was like a cone, due to him being squeezed a long time between J’s pelvic bones, but the doctor said it was normal and it will start to regain the roundish look within a week. The back of his palms and feet were showing signs of bruises because the nurses need to take quite an amount of blood to test for disease and infection earlier.
We came out of the NICU about half an hour later to allow the doctors to do their work. J just burst into tears as soon as we got out the door. I guess she can’t stop blaming herself for what happened to our son although the cause of our son’s lack of oxygen was still unknown to the doctors. I managed to calm her down later and tried switching to other topics which are not as heartbreaking such as deciding on a name. We also discussed about how we are going to provide unconditional love and care to our son no matter how he grew up to be.
Behind my head, the thought of our son not surviving the whole ordeal haunted me , but I managed to keep this from J…
continue to Ep 5.5 - The First Encounter (J's account)
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 9/16/2005 09:13:00 AM :: and invited 0 Blah(s):
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