May 2014 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Messy, Messier, Dustiest, Havoc-kest!

This is my once clean and dust-free warm abode…

Now the walls are hacked and the entire place looks like a post-earth quake shattered unit *sobs*

Even with plastic sheets, the darn workers’ rough handling tore down the sheets and my work area and dining area are freaking dusty!!! I asked the old fart supervisor to stick it back but he was reluctant, stupid grumpy old man!

The master bedroom…

Looks like we will have days and weeks of cleaning up to do. Every single item in the house needs a good wipe after the renovation. What a school holiday 🙁

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And The Nightmare Begins…

The nightmare has just begun for 2 weeks of hacking, drilling, dust and mess in the house *sobs*

The past 2 days we did a lot of packing, sealing and moving to our aunt’s unit in the same block as ours.

The real nightmare on Elm Street begins tomorrow!

As online work continues for me, I will still be at my unit during the day, amidst the deafening hacking and trashing of my walls. The hubs bought 2 humungous rolls of clear plastic sheets to stick on the ceiling and floor to partition my work area and the dining area from the walls that need to be hacked, as seen in the picture below.

We are installing new water pipes for the entire unit.

For the past 1.5 days, my work area is like a hot oven as the ceiling fan and air-conditioner cannot be turned on. The windows are 90% closed as we do not want wind to blow off the plastic sheets. Working at my desk is torturous!! I. Hate. Renovations!

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Manic Month Of May

My bad guts feelings are right. I could feel creepily that the month of May is a jinx month for Cass and me.

Yesterday I went back to my dentist as my gums and adjacent teeth still hurt 8 days after my premolar tooth extraction. No doubt, it was a very difficult extraction as the tooth was in-grown. And I found out just yesterday that the dentist trimmed my adjacent teeth so that the plier could reach the ‘cacat’ tooth. No wonder there is this nagging sensitive feeling and pain in the neighbor teeth and gums! And upon checking my gums, the dentist found out that there is a slight infection of the gums. So the only easy way to go to treat the pain is oral antibiotics 🙁

Dang the antibiotics as it is now causing me tummy discomfort and diarrhea. Actually I welcome the diarrhea to purge my guts of toxins but not the nagging tummy discomfort and drowsiness.

You see, I told you this month is doomed for me!

Never mind, only 3 more days to go before June rolls in.

After the emergency dental appointment in the morning, I rushed home to get some online work done as I had to bring Cass to see the Urologist in the afternoon. After a 1.5 hour wait, we were finally called to see the doctor.

After a long chat with the doctor (never knew HKL has such dedicated and hardworking doctors!!), the doctor has agreed to accede to my request of not letting Cass go through the CT Scan with IV contrast yet. And she has acceded to my request of not starting Cass on the oral meds for her bladder until her constipation issue is sorted out. This is because one of the side effects of the oral meds is constipation. Now I am waiting for a date from the hospital for Cass to do an ultrasound scan.

If something abnormal is picked up during the detailed ultrasound scan, Cass would have to do a CT Scan with IV contrast. And if indeed the CT Scan shows a hidden duplex or triplex kidney, my baby would require another surgery to correct the problem, so that her incontinence issue is solved. If that happens, it will be the third time Cass’ abdomen gets cut up *SOBS* 🙁

Sigh…

I need loads of prayers for Cass now. And I pray that there is no structural abnormality in her urinary tract. Only a miracle can resolve Cass’ issues now.

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I Hate The Month Of May!

Darn my twitching right eye lids and eye brows for the past 2 weeks. Bad things keep happening one after another. Each time my right eye lid and eye brow twitch, I start to worry. 9 out of 10 times my right eye twitches, someone dear to me or myself are bound to fall sick or get hurt or some misfortunes would strike.

Anyway, after Cass and I had 2 weeks of eye twitching, Cass fell really sick on Friday after she got back from school. She told me that many of her classmates had headache and fever so I could only surmise that she must have been bitten by those nasty bugs.

Cass had chills for 2 days and her temperature shot up to 39.4 degrees C. I gave her just 1 dosage of Paracetamol suppository, lots of sponging and lots of clear fluids.

Cass complained of headache, a very painful throat, a very colicky tummy and constipation, chest pain, ear pain and had eye infection! When it rains, it pours cats and dogs shit! Everything that could go wrong with her went wrong. Darn the Murphy’s Law! Since Friday, I have not been sleeping well at night. I woke up several times in the night to sponge Cass and to feed her with water.

For her very colicky tummy and constipation which caused her so much pain to the extent that she could not walk, I settled that with a ‘bomb’ aka enema, which I bought from the pharmacy. With just one squirt, she passed out gas enough to inflate a balloon! And she emptied her bowels completely *sweats*

On Saturday, I woke up at my usual time of 4:45am to get the usual chores done. Alycia had to attend a school trip and had to be in school by 7:30am.

On Sunday I woke up at 4:45am again. I felt like I had not slept at all for 2 days straight!! Cass had to be in her sisters’ school by 7:30am to sit for an assessment test for entry into Primary 1. As her sisters’ school is a High Performance school (Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi / SBT), all pupils entering Primary 1 next year are to sit for this test to gauge their competency level in BM, English and Math.

The throes of motherhood is indescribable! My lady of leisure days seem so so so remote!

While Cass sat for her tests, we parents had to attend a 4-hour long briefing at the auditorium!! Oh fark, 90% of the briefing was conducted in Mandarin and I could not understand 80% of what was being said! I dozed off towards the last one hour of the briefing!

Thank God Cass got well fast enough by Sunday morning to sit for the assessment test.

What made Cass well was Manuka Honey UMF 10+ mixed with extra strength Propolis. I fed her with this concoction 3x a day for 3 days. I also made her gargle her throat with salt water 3x a day. She ate mostly fruits, homemade bread and homemade cake and slept like a new born baby for 2 days. On Sunday, she told me that her throat did not hurt anymore. Praise the Lord! I really thought that she would have to succumb to antibiotics when I saw how sick she was and how painful her throat was. Thank God I managed to nurse her back to good health naturally, phew!

This is Cass with her classmate, CYM from pre-school at the ‘big kid’s school’ yesterday. It was a very tiring day for Cass and me yesterday.

With 90% of the difficult hurdles for the month of May ticked, we now have 3 more to go! Tomorrow I will have to see my dentist again as my gums where the tooth was extracted exactly a week ago still hurts. Tomorrow is also my appointment with Cass’ Urologist at HKL. On Thursday, we will have to evacuate our nest to make way for some renovation works in our unit. And I have not packed a single stuff! SIGH…

I hate the month of May!!

No. of times viewed = 616

A Very Expensive Lesson Learnt, The Hard Way!

As I had mentioned in my earlier post, the month of May has always been a very challenging month for me. Nothing goes smoothly in the month of May. It is also a month that money goes out inevitably from my pockets, from hubs’ pockets too. We were married in the month of May. Hubs and I had to break our bank accounts to fund our wedding expenses.

Cass’ surgeries were performed in the month of May. That cost us over RM50,000 and not a single sen was claimable from our insurance companies. Come May every year, I would have something challenging and expensive popping up unexpectedly. The most recent challenge was my difficult tooth extraction. Next week, hubs would have to break his bank account again. Our unit will be undergoing some massive renovation works not by choice and we would have to evacuate our nest to stay at our relative’s unit for 2 weeks 🙁 Our internal water pipes are starting to leak and if we do not replace them with new ones, we risk having the water pipes burst. So our 2-week school holidays will revolve around lots of packing and unpacking of our stuff and loads of cleaning up to do after the renovation works are completed, boo hoo hoo 🙁

About 2 weeks ago, Alycia asked me for RM5 to buy some ice-creams from the store at our condo. When she came back, I was about to start the washing machine. She quickly removed her uniform (with a 50 sen coin in her pocket!!) and asked me to chuck it into the washing machine. I did not check her pocket as I had already started the machine and had to pause it to put in her uniform. That moment of neglect proved to be a lifetime of regret for me!! All because of the 50 sen coin, I had to fork out RM200 to fix the washing machine! All because of a moment of neglect and laziness, I had to not only part with RM200 but I had to work extra hard by going down to my aunt’s unit below us to use her washing machine for 4 days! 4 freaking long days for someone with OCD who has to wash 5 loads of clothes everyday is torturous!

I learnt a lesson from this negligence. Alycia too. Alycia is very fond of leaving used tissue papers and money in her pockets despite me telling her umpteen times not to do it. After this very expensive life lesson, I told her to never ever leave anything in her pockets when she dumps her dirty clothes into the laundry basket.

As for me, I have developed a phobia after this incident. I now check all the clothes with pockets many times before I put them into a washing net.

And all clothes with pockets go into a washing net. Had I put Alycia’s uniform into a washing net on that fateful day, the coin would have been trapped by the washing net and not get lodged near the inner drum of the washing machine.

I told Alycia that her 2 ice creams cost me more than RM200!

So dear friends, do learn from this lesson. Always check all your clothes pocket before putting them into the washing machine. If you are in a rush to check the clothes, at least put the clothes into a washing machine net with a zip that is in working order. A faulty zip would only render the zip to be opened up during spinning with all the clothes spilling out into the washing machine.

Sekian…

walks down the soap box and bows…

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Math Craze Cass Scores!

Today Cass gave me a very very BIG SURPRISE!

When I picked her up from school today, she told me that she scored 100% for her Math test! I could not believe my ears. I know that she is Math craze and can spend hours doing Math sums while waiting for her turn to see the doctor in the hospital. While waiting for our food to arrive when we eat out, she would also crunch on pages of Math sums from the workbooks that she puts in her little backpack.

To add icing to the cake today, she told me that she was the only one in her class to get a 100% for her Math! And she beat Ethan (who scored 92%), the top student in the class! Her class teacher asked all her classmates to clap for her! And she told me that she felt really shy LOL!

Actually I was not confident that Cass would even get 90% and above for her Math as I only did less than an hour of revision with her on the eve of her exam. We were out shopping at Mid Valley Megamall *guilt stricken*!!

When Cass told me that she was unsure of how to sum up money and panicked on the night before her Math test, I fished out my purse and did what I used to do with Alycia and Sherilyn, by using real notes and coins to teach her. De ja vu! I had gone through my nightmarish days of teaching her 2 older sisters money and hidden numbers sums and now it is Cass’ turn!

If you are struggling to teach your pre-schooler money, i.e. how to add up Ringgit and Sen, I suggest that you use real money to teach. It really does make a big difference when your child can see the real money and touch it. And she/he will find it very fun to be touching and counting 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 Ringgit notes and coins.

Fortunately, my Math lover girl grasped pretty quickly. When I needed a break, Sherilyn took over and guided Cass.

Wawavooooom!! I am so proud of you baby girl! Keep up the good work and I can only hope that your interest in Math will never wane even when the tough gets going.

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See No Touch

Inspired by my friend’s posting of the picture of her mum’s homecooked black sweet vinegar pig’s trotters in Facebook and also aroused by the killer aroma of this dish from the unit above ours (a lady just gave birth and dang it, her Confinement Lady is drowning me with the aroma of her confinement dishes from dawn to dusk!), I asked my MIL to cook this dish. And so she did a few days ago 🙂

As she cooked a huge pot, there was still some leftover in the fridge. Yesterday she reheated the dish but dang it, I could only see and salivate! See no touch 🙁

With a fresh wound from a tooth extraction, putting black vinegar into my mouth would only leave a deadly aftermath of stings and possible infection of the wound. So as I watched everyone else sipping on the mouth-watering black vinegar pig’s trotters broth, I could only eat bread and cabbage (cut till very fine with scissors) like a sick cat using one side of my mouth, boo hoo hoo 🙁

No. of times viewed = 2788

Awful Monday

The month of May has always been very challenging for me. This May, I have a long list of hurdles to tick away from the Awful May list. The biggest hurdle was ticked last week after Cass went for her Urodynamics Test.

I just had my lower tooth no.5 extracted today and gawd, it was one of the worst experiences for me. Besides a miscarriage, an Amnio test when I was carrying Cass and my 3 C-section deliveries, this tooth extraction is one of the most chilling experiences for me. Because of the positioning of the tooth, which was crocked due to lack of space in the mouth, the dentist had to use a dental plier to pull and tug very hard while the nurse pulled my head. I felt like I was in a torture chamber being pulled to death slowly. You know in the olden days in China, criminals were tied to 4 horses and pulled apart to death? I felt just like that just now. When the dentist told the nurse that he could not pull it out, I felt like oh fark, what’s next? Surgery?? More LA jabs?

Finally after 3 jabs of LA, lots of pulling and tugging and head pulling, the tooth was finally pulled out! The whole procedure fr the moment the 3 jabs were administered to the time it was over was over an hour! *sweat & felt like crying*

I felt like crying when I was seated at the reclining dentist chair waiting for the LA to numb my mouth. I was totally freaked out. I freaked out as I could still feel pain on the tooth. Even after 20 minutes I could still feel pain. The dentist did some knocking on the sides of the tooth and since I could feel no pain, he went ahead to extract the tooth. I was alone at the dentist’s office and I was scared shit! I think the fear of what was to happen was so much more greater than the pain. No doubt, it was piercing pain when the LA jabs were administered. The yanking part ain’t that painful but freaking scary. I really did feel like I was going to die from all the yanking of my tooth and pulling of my head!!

I am so relieved that it’s now over. One hurdle ticked. Three more to go before June rolls in.

Check out the big hole on the tiger’s fang. Despite brushing my teeth after every meal, decay can still happen. The dentist said that because the tooth was crocked, the position made it very easy for food to be lodged inside.

As I still have another similar looking tooth on the other side, I will have to do a bi-yearly check up of my teeth at the dentist’s office from now onwards 🙁

My diet for today and tomorrow will be only fruit smoothies, bread and some porridge that I can just swallow without chewing. My stomach is growling now but I can only see the delish food that my MIL has cooked but can’t eat as the gums are still painful.

On a side note, I LOVE my MIL’s new Blendtec blender. It can whirl out 3 glasses of smoothie at once at the push of a button and the motor and blades are so powerful. My Shimono can only churn out 1 glass at a time. Boost Juice and Juice Works use Blendtec too! 🙂

I think the only good thing that I am going to gain from this chilling experience is that I think I will loose some weight. Since Saturday, I have not been able to eat well because of the pain. Today and tomorrow will just be fruit smoothies. So yes, I hope my mummy tummy will be trimmed as a result of my diet 🙂

No. of times viewed = 618

Health Freak Mommy’s Super Healthy Breakfast

Here’s health freak mommy’s breakkie for today 🙂

Sugar-free plain yoghurt with an assortment of salt-free and sugar-free nuts from Hawaii (pecan, cashew, almond, macadamia) and chia seeds with a drizzle of coconut palm sugar (gula melaka)…

This is not my choice of breakfast actually as I find it a tad plain but each time I get back from a hospital visit, I would vow to eat healthier and cleaner. I think I am already eating pretty healthily (I have weaned myself off deep fried food) but I still indulge in some junk food and unhealthy food several times in a week to satiate my crave for sugar and carbs. But after my recent trip back from HKL, I can’t help but to appreciate and value my health more. I told my kids that we must eat healthily at all times, else when we are stricken with some kind of diseases, we would end up spending more money restoring our health.

In my most recent visit to HKL with Cass, I met a young girl who was bald and pale when she was wheeled out from the X-ray room by her parents. She is battling cancer. I saw many patients with renal failure at the Nephrology Unit. I saw a middle-aged man with a huge growth on his face and many other patients in such pathetic state. I felt so sorry for them and their loved ones and pray that my loved ones and I will never ever be in a similar condition. I told myself that I have to get my kids, my family and myself to eat right and clean. Stay away from junks. Keep stress out (TRYING hard!). Get more sleep. Get more exercise. Laugh more. Don’t sweat the small stuff and pray more.

Happy weekend peeps and I hope that this post will get you to start eating healthily too 😉

No. of times viewed = 361

Mother’s Day 2014

It was two days straight of digging into glorious food at new eateries, starting from Saturday nite through Sunday. For the hubs, there is always no better way to celebrate an occasion than to do it and to show it with good food with his loved ones. On Saturday nite, he brought us to Muugu Garden Bistro, Off Bukit Bintang for dinner. It was a rainy nite and because it was pretty dark and wet that night, it took hubs about 20 minutes making countless rounds at the vicinity of Bukit Bintang to finally locate Muugu. This hidden bungalow restaurant was opened recently near Bukit Bintang and is set in a spacious and serene sanctuary amid the hustle and bustle of the city in the heart of KL. I shall post more pix of our dinner in a separate post, but here’s a picture of Cass and her daddy taken at Muugu on the eve of Mother’s Day…

On Sunday morning, Sherilyn woke up early to whip up a surprise for grandma and me. It was her signature egg dish with onions and cucumber.

She also bought me a stalk of fake rose from her school at 60sen a stalk and painted this picture in school for me ♥♥

After breakfast at home, we headed to Avenue K. This time, we decided to try Grandeur Teppanyaki at the Taste Enclave food court and there was not a bit of regret. It was a beautiful dining experience for us and by far the best food court experience sans the heat and oily smoke. Dining at Taste Enclave gets you to taste the best of hawkers fare and international cuisine in a nice and comfy ambience. Taste Enclave offers every one of all ages a smorgasbord of menu and taste. We enjoyed every dish whipped up by the Teppanyaki chef. Hubs also ordered items from other stalls and we had a feast of sort at the classy food court. Here’s Cass enjoying her seafood teppanyaki.

Errr, it was not my idea for Cass to bring along her Math book but entirely her idea as she’s going to sit for her mid-term exam next week. After lunch, we popped over at Popular Bookstore to get Alycia some books. I had promised her that for every 90/100 mark that she gets in her mid-term test papers, she gets a book. And the highlight of the day for the girls was their dinosaur-search experience at Dinoscovery by Dinosaurs Live at Discoveria. Hubs brought the girls to their dino adventure whilst the mil and I went our separate ways doing some retail therapy 🙂 These pictures of the girls at Dinoscovery were snapped by hubs and Whatsapp-ed to me while I was shopping 😀

After the dino-search adventure and shopping, we went to Johnny Rockets to sample their famed hamburgers and hotdogs but we left feeling a tad disappointed as there was really nothing to shout about. Had I closed my eyes and ate a burger from Burger King or McD and a burger from Johnny Rockets, I really couldn’t tell the difference o_O After we left Johnny Rockets, the foodie hubs then hopped over next door to Library to have waffles with ice-creams and coffee *BURPS*!!

Dinner was homemade Vietnamese beef noodles, made by hubs’ uncle. And the last highlight for Mother’s Day was the cake, which we only had room in our tummies to eat at 9:30pm, after which I hurried the girls to go to bed as it is a school day the next day. How was your Mother’s Day celebration? Hope you had a swell one too. Here’s wishing my dearest mother, MIL and all you fantastic mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day 🙂

No. of times viewed = 405

Bravest Girl In The Whole Wide World

The award for “Toughest and Bravest Girl” has to go to Cass!

All my worries about how Cass will cope with the pain and fear has been unfounded. My baby girl was as brave as ever yesterday during the Urodynamics Test, without shedding a tear when the nurse prodded the two catheters into her urethra and rectum. I was holding her hands and comforting her. She did say that it was painful and ticklish but was very cooperative throughout the procedure which lasted for about 40 minutes.

As usual, I had to don on the ‘heavy armor’ coat as X-ray was involved. Photography is not allowed in the Urodynamics Suite but I managed to convince the staff to let me take just 2 pictures…

Below showing Cass while the procedure was on-going…

Right after the procedure, she was her usual naughty self again, prancing and hopping around the hospital floors.

And she certainly deserved a good meal after the procedure…

She chomped down almost the entire bowl of Soba noodles at Kirishima Japanese restaurant after the test before we returned to the hospital for another half a day of waiting just to get another appointment but alas, I was told to go home as the doctors needed to discuss and review her case first. Abuden, this was what I had expected from a Government-run hospital.

And the good thing about Government-run hospitals is that we don’t have to pay a single sen if you are a citizen of Malaysia. The procedure yesterday would have cost me over a thousand Ringgit if done in a private hospital. Having said this, my hubs and I plan to make a trip to GMC Penang to consult Cass’ surgeon as there are certain procedures recommended by HKL which we are just not comfortable with.

No. of times viewed = 642

Orange Apple Avocado Smoothie With Chia Seeds

Yesterday, I made a glass of orange + apple + avocado + chia seed smoothie for Cass to combat her constipation problem. I also added half a cup of color-free strawberry flavored yoghurt drink to the Shimono cup for a double power laxative effect and whirled everything together for a few seconds. This concoction is SO refreshing and according to Cass, it tasted just like those smoothies from MBG Fruit Shop and Boost Juice 😀

And the result? She poo-ed after her lunch 😀

No. of times viewed = 524

Exam Fever

Scene at home on the eve of Alycia and Sherilyn’s mid year exam, on a Sunday….

Me revising with Alycia and Sherilyn on Kata Kerja, Sinomim, Antonim, Simpulan Bahasa, Penjodoh Bilangan, Kata Ganda and a whole load of Tatabahasa on Slideshare from the computer.

Alycia is in Primary 5 and Sherilyn in Primary 3 this year.

Last year and this year, I am killing 2 birds with one stone. Next year, I will be targeting 3 birdies with one stone! Cass will be in Primary 1 next year. And my BM and English lessons will be jointly, with 3 girls simultaneously. After all, BM Tatabahasa and English Grammar are all almost the same for Primary 1 through 6. Even now, Cass is participating in my English and Math quiz with her 2 che ches.

Pardon the total mess on the dining table. I guess the mess will be around for the next one week until the girls’ exam is over. We had a very simple lunch just now and tonight, I told MIL not to cook. We are eating at the Japanese restaurant downstairs. I ain’t going to do much house chores today.

I better log off now and wake Alycia and Sherilyn up from their seista for our next round of Tatabahasa revision *wipes sweat from forehead and sips some herbal tea for my throat*!! And breath in….. breathe out…. and must try hard not to spank someone!!

No. of times viewed = 803

Cutesy Pink Car

For the past one month, I have been making head turns, putting a smile and chuckle on kids’ and adults’ faces and people point at my direction in awe. People often stop short of what they are doing just to gawk at my direction and they often chuckle. Just yesterday morning, a man stood right in front of my car to gape at it. When I walked towards my car, he started a conversation with me about my car.

And it is all because of this pair of cutesy pink bunny ears and nose on my bright pink i10 😀

You like it? If so, you can ask your friends and relatives who travel to Singapore to get you a set from Cold Storage. My friend from Singapore gave this to me as a gift recently.

Happy Friday peeps! Today started out rough for me. Alycia and Sherilyn’s transporter overslept and we waited for her for half an hour at the lobby in vain! And my sensitive and teacher-fearing Alycia was in tears! Coz she is a school prefect and a school prefect is not exempted from being late but has to be exemplary at ALL times! So the hubs had to be jolted up from his sleep and drove like Lewis Hamilton in his not-so-sporty car to school. Thank God they reached school just in the nick of time, phew! Darn the right twitching eye brow of mine for the past 2 days. I just knew that something ominous is bound to happen. My eye brow is right again – 9 out of 10 times when it twitches! Dang it, this is darn spooky!!

No. of times viewed = 452

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