Awal Muharram

Happy New Year to all Muslims!

I'm not happy as I have to work today, while the whole of Malaysia is on holiday. If it was just Selangor I wouldn't mind. Darn!

It would've been nice to sleep in as it was rainy and gloomy and cosy...

And it was probably a once in a year thing to have so few cars on the dreaded LDP in the morning. I could've counted the number of vehicles.

Nevermind. Another 2 days and it's gonna be 2009!

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas

AFter hospital, it was movie-time that night. 'The Spirit' was errm, one 'interesting' show. It wasn't of the normal type of movie. You will either love it or hate it. So we just ended up watching it till the end cos since we were there.

Next day, mum and dad came and we were up for a week of lots of shopping and eating. So our Christmas Eve dinner with my aunts was in an Indian Restaurant. No turkey served! hehe

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were filled with shopping. From One Utama to Ikea to Pavillion and Sg. Wang Plaza, we ventured while mum shopped. Most of the baby stuff are ready, so there's nothing much to get. Just 1 or 2 items for the house and that was it. While mum practically went into every other shop and browsed everything. Gosh!

TOday, it's back to normal, but the fact that today is Awal Muharram and while the rest of the country is on holiday, I'm stuck in the office, having to work! Adoi!! This is indeed no fun.

Since last week, I've been having dreams almost every night. And every night its a different type relating to delivery. Guess I'm just excited about it. I just can't wait for the day to arrive.

Last night, we finally got to washing all the clothes and linen bought for Jr. And my bag is packed! :D

Wonder what new year would be like.....

T'was the Week of Christmas

Boy it was a hectic week. Not from work, but all other things.

STarted Monday (22nd Dec) with a Dr's appt. Yeah, the much anticipated 'wait' to 'fil up' my capacity is finally here. Got my bag packed and checked with my insurance. I can't claim from my insurance if I'm not warded, hence I can't do a day-care treatment. So, I HAD to get myself admited.

The best part was, this 'admission' was in a way weird. Cos usually your Dr tells you when to be admitted into hospital, right? But this time, no. My Dr asked me 'So, when will it be good for you to be admitted?' I nearly laughed out. So I just told him I'm ready for today. So just do it la. Gosh! Admitting youself into hospital has never came across to me as a tedious process. Perhaps it was also timing, cos it's holiday season and those 'front desk' people were left with only 2, and it took me more than 1 hour to get myself admitted. Boy oh boy!

So why did I have to be hospitalised? Well, I had to 'refill' or medically, increase my red blood cell count to an acceptable level. This is in case of any surgery needed while delivery. I'm praying for a normal delivery, hence no surgery, but its just procedure to ensure that I'm at a safe level, if any emergency surgery is needed.

HOwever, surprisingly my Hb that morning was on a 9-month high! I was at 6.9. Fantastic! I was surprised. I needed to add 2 pints of blood la.

I finally got myself into my ward at about 3pm plus. By the time I got comfy, it was about 4pm and then hubby went home first la. Dr came in about almost 5pm to 'poke' me...hahaha he inserted that needle thingy into my left wrist into that vein of mine. Then I was put on drips till the blood was ready. Bout 6pm of so then they came and administered the blood. Aiyo....so complicated. Some more there's the white blood cell filter. Yeah, it amazes me - this filter-thingy. I didn't get to ask the Dr so I asked the staff nurse but she doesn't know how it works.

Blood with the filter

I was stuck with this from 6pm onwards....I had to 'ferry' it around everytime I went to the toilet. TO make things worse, apparently I was administered with this drug which would cause frequent urination. Aiyo, imagine the hassle.

I was in a 2-bedded ward, but before I was put on the drip, the lady beside me 'moved' out. The nurse told me she moved into a single-bedded room. I guess it wasn't ready when she got there. I got a little worried about what would happen later that night. :)

I kept myself sane by channel surfing but at that time, there wasn't much on TV or paid TV channels. I ended up watching Disney channel. hahaha Then I did some reading and Dr Siti came by at about 7pm. Saying she'll pop by tomorrow and I may have to go to her clinic to scan.

Dinner came and went and after that I was strapped on to this CTG (dunno what it meant) where fetal movement n heartbeat was recorded for 30mins. So I was lying down with a belt strapped on the tummy. Can't move much. By that time, there was about 1/4 left of that 1st pint. But it was really, really slow then. After about another hour or so, finally the nurse came in to 'pressurize' the pack by putting that pint into a bag which would be pressurised. It looks like the device used to take ur blood pressure readings, but this is in a bag form.

Thank God the other lady moved out already. SO hubby stayed on till midnight. Otherwise by 930pm he would be chased out! Only until midnight, this bit of blood finally finished. Apparently its due to the filter that causes it to be so slow.

The 2nd pint came and right from the begining it was put into that pressurized bag. After about 1.5hours, I noticed that blood was trickling and was really slow again. SO I 'called' the nurse and she came in puzzled too. Finally after a while, she decided to depressurize the bag and remove the blood from there and noticed that it was all gone! hahaha the 1st took almost 6 hours and the 2nd was only about 1.5 hours. A 'normal' duration is about 3 hours or so la.

So that was my adventure. My 'ordeal' was supposed to end bout 2am. However I was not left in peace. Every 2 hours, the nurse would come in and take my temperature and blood pressure readings. Aiyo...so mafan (troublesome). And at one time also fetal heartbeat. I didn't sleep well.

I ended up waking up at 645am (almost like any other working day) and felt groggy and not well-rested. PErhaps that was how they wanted me to be - to feel like I'm in hospital. hehehe otherwise I'd be too cheery and not sick-like...

I waited anxiuosly for breakfast but was totally dissapointed. They chose oatmeal for me. Adoi! So I ended up eating the bread only and my own supply of 'bytes'.

Dr Siti came and saw the CTG results and said to see me to scan at her clinic. Then, Dr Ng came in to check on me, I felt the same as before though I'm supposed to be 'energized' now. I guess its because to begin with I wasn't the wee bit tired or feeling lethargic. I Was ready to go home.

Went for the scan. Baby is now 2.63kg at 36 weeks. I finally 'told' Jr that he can come anytime now as we're all ready for him! We can't wait for his arrival!

The finished 2nd pint

Got out of hospital and had the days off till Christmas.

44444 already?

Everytime it hits a 'nice' number, it'll be at the most inconvenient time. When it hit '33333' I was stuck in a jam. Good time to snap, but then my camera wasn't that good and all visuals of it were shaky. (Or was it the person who took the photo?) And today it hit '44444' right at the toll booth, so I thought after I go through the Smart Tag, I'll take a snap. Somehow, 3 shots of it were blurry. Again. Adoi. So I had to wait till I reached the carpark of my office, hence about 3km away. So it's not a not-so-unique '44447'.

Just missed 44444

And is it a coincidence or what? On both occasions, I didn't have much fuel left. hahahaha

It's only 1yr and 5 months and it's surpassed 40k. Well, I guess this seems much better than the Mahindra. Less than 6 months and I was into 25k already. That time I was travelling JB-KL-JB almost every weekend. Gosh! Can't imagine....Right now the daily trips have been cut tremendously the past 1 month cos I've not gone to site for sometime now.

It's the weekend again. I'm looking forward to the gathering of Explorace friends, dunno how many will turn up. Erm, other than that, it's gonna be more spring cleaning again in anticipation of mum & dad's arrival on Christmas eve and well, the baby! :D

Everyday's been the same, anxious and looking forward to new challenges. Next week, will be more of 'hospital time' for me. Yeah....gonna be a 'dracula' for a day. Hope all will go well then.

OK, here's the story.

When I got preggy, I went to my doc (here I mean my hematologist) first. I wanted him to recommend an experienced ObGyn who can and knows what to do in my case. So he says that in my case, the only thing I may have is that I may feel tired and perhaps sometime in the middle of my pregnancy (around 4th or 5th month), I'll need blood transfusion. That is normal for most of his Thallassaemia patients. Thallassaemia minor, that is. This is because when preggy, blood gets diluted, and hence the red blood cell count will usually be reduced by 1 or 2 counts (erm, I can't remember the units - opps!). So anyway, I braced for that and I wanted that to be my challenge. To stay away from transfusion!

So at 4 months, I was feeling much better than the first 3 months. I was climbing steps with no problems, walking as fast as I normally would (on flat terrain la of course) and I just felt great. On my 6th month visit to my doc again, he was happy seeing my condition. Though my blood count is stable aroung the 6s (its usually about 8), I was doing great. So I was estatic. Throughout, I've not felt faint even. I seem to have all the energy in the world. Of course with the exception that I couldn't do anymore cardio la.

I breezed though and now that I'm approaching 36 weeks, I have to be transfused. This transfusion is to elevate my blood count to a safer level in case surgery is required. It's a safety precaution. There will also be blood loss during delivery and this should help keep the situation more stable. So, next week, I'll be 'checked in' for some 'dracula-action' .

If trasfusion was carried out earlier at the 'expected' 4th or 5th month, at the end, I still may have to have this 2nd transfusion. This is because one transfusion usually lasts for about 1 month only.

So looks like I managed to go through the 'challenge' I set for myself and I'm just so happy.

I'm anxious. I keep having funny and weird dreams about delivery, the transfusion and all that is to come the next 4 weeks. NOw the tummy is the only obstruction to what I can usually do before this. Bending forward is not so possible now so I have to re-position myself at times when needing to pick up something from the floor. Sleeping patterns have changed recently. I'm sleeping later than before. Weird. I just can't go to sleep.

Looking forward to more 'action' next week!

Did I mention?

Chocolate is IN again! hehehe after 36weeks of not craving for chocolate or cakes or anything sweet (I only take it when it's there and I don't go hunting for it), I suddenly craved for choc again few days ago. I was surprised.

And hence ,I don't think the chocs which have been lying in the fridge will last till new year! Yes, I've finish half a large bar in less than two sittings (and that also cos last two days I wasn't lazing around at home). I was controlling myself. Could've finished that whole bar at one go! Yikes!

I'm looking forward to some choc/cheese cake slices this weekend....yummy!

Oh no!!

Trip to the East

My boss told me that we'll leave at 8am. Gosh, that seems pretty early. But nevermindlah. So by 8am I was already waiting. Thank God I told ladyboss the night before to call me before she leaves the house, cos by the time she called, it was already almost 830am. And in between, I managed to doze off and slot in some 'The Guardian'.

So the journey began to Kuantan. Stopped at Temerloh Rest Stop for a break - nice nasi lemak they have there too. Actually it was the first time for me travelling to Kuantan via the newly (not so new now) opened Karak highway. I think it's been two years already? The last trip I used was up to Mempaga only. That was barely halfway point. The new stretch starts further from there. So gone were the really winding and some parts single carriage way where you have to crane your neck to checkout the oncoming traffic before overtaking. However, it did take about 3 hours for us to get to the meeting. I didn't dare sleep (luckily I wasn't sleepy then) cos I needed to know where the meeting place was and where was the site too.

After everything was over, while we had lunch, somehow something too me by surprise. My boss knew I took part in Fear Factor? huh? when and how? I'm puzzled. Cos right after I went to settle the lunch bill, as soon as I got back to the table, my boss said 'they' (those people we had meeting with and hence lunch) wanted to know how I got to FF and what I did. Oh boy, was I surprised. hehehe Uptil now, I dunno how he knew. Don't wanna ask la.

Didn't manage to enjoy the 'beach' hehehe

The journey back was nother 3 hours or so too....dropped by the site and then shortly after hitting the highway, I dozed off. Hope I didn't snore! hehehe woke up approximately an hour later, fully rested and energized. :D

Guess there'll be more trips down Karak Highway next year for me.

Mid-morning Snack Anyone?

This is not a good sign....since yesterday, I noticed that I'm snacking (my so-called mid-morning snack la) because I'm bored and not because I'm hungry. Yeah, seriously. OK la, I was a tad hungry yesterday, and my mouth wanted to feel something sweet, so I ate that wafer. But today, after pasta for brekkie, I didn't even crave anything, but automatically bout 945am, I just had to open the drawer beside me and look for something. Oh no! Think since I'm down to my last 'snack', tomorrow I will have to prevent myself from doing this. This is NOT good!

Bored of surfing the net and doing some reading...hehe

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Over the weekend, hubby received 3 wedding invitations from his friends, 3 consecutive weekends of eating, right after Christmas, through New Year, I'd say. Luckily they were all nearby, and not like last 2 weeks, those were far away....

And something just struck me - how come this year none of my friends got married huh? Erm, ok well, there was one in Penang and that was about few weeks back. Other than that, zilch! Not a good year? Or everyone still 'searching' and 'waiting'....

Speaking of which, it's really funny. This friend of mine la. He seems to be so aloof about it when I asked him about his wedding. I wonder why. Citing being busy perhaps is no excuse. We go back a long way, about 13 years I guess, since high school. He has along the way 'prospered' both physically and well, now emotionally la, now that he's happily married. Congratulations Logan & Pamela! May God bless both of you. (sorry la, it has taken me few weeks before I actually write bout it here - forgot la....:p)