Category: Cassandra

But it ain’t no holiday for me. Not at all as Sherilyn will be sitting for her SPM exam for the entire month during the school holidays. I still have to wake up at 5 a.m. and leave the house by 7 a.m. My Grab duties have to continue 😭.

And I’ll be stuck with Cass at home for the entire month. This brat can really annoy me till I’m on the verge of tearing my hair out and pack my bags, walk out of the door and never return.

My younger brother’s condo (just a few minutes’ walk from ours) will be ready soon and he’ll be moving in this year. I’ll ask him to reserve a room for me for my refuge! 😜

Just today, the brat’s sass made me go apeshit and I almost spanked her but I tried so hard to control my hands.

The brat tells me that for the next one month, I can drop her off at the skating rink in the morning and fetch her back at night. She’ll be too pleased to spend all her time at the skating rink the entire school holidays so that I can have some peace at home. She knows that she irritates me to the bones. I think I may do just that to get some sanity. I’ll get hubs to be in charge of Cass as I’ll be a full-time Grab driver for Sherilyn for the next one month.

When the brat is in a good mood, she can nonetheless be pretty loving. She would peel and cut a persimmon or an apple and stuff it into my mouth when I’m too busy to eat. She would feed me with my favorite dark chocolate or snacks when she sees me busy mopping the floor.

That’s what parenting is like, right? A love hate relationship with your children, a completely ying-yang experience. The hatred and anger can be so intense it actually burns.

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When she was about seven, Cass was obsessed with Shopkins. These cute little toys are a range of tiny, collectibles manufactured by Moose Toys. Based on grocery store items, each plastic figure has a recognizable face and unique name. They also have special finishes like translucent, glitter, or squishy. Shopkins were a rage with little kids back then.

Cass’ dad and I would buy her Shopkins as reward for good exam grades and during birthdays.  Cass collected them for about four or five years. Then came the pandemic. During the pandemic, the girls were hooked to their laptops, busy with online classes, watched movies and played games. Life during the long lockdowns was so mundane to the point of depressive and Cass eventually forgot about her precious little babies, all kept in a box under her desk.

While decluttering her space recently, Cass rediscovered her precious gems. They were so precious to her when she was in her early primary school years. But now she had made up her mind to part with her precious Shopkins collectibles as her interest has diverted somewhere else – figure skating! She wanted to get some extra moolah to partially pay for the expensive classes as well as to save up to buy a pair of more advanced skates which cost over RM2k.

Cass took photos of her Shopkins collection and posted the items for sale at Carousell. Cass and Alycia had previously sold some novels pretty quickly at Carousell. This time, her Shopkins were snapped up very quickly too. And that’s because she sold them for a song. The entire collection cost a few hundred Ringgit and she sold them for only RM40 🤭

Cass kept a few Shopkins pieces as keepsakes to remind herself of her childhood craze. I’m surprised that she had the heart to part with something that once meant so much to her.

I still keep my collection of Sanrio items that’s over 40 years old! They include cute Sanrio stickers, pencils, writing pads, envelopes, etc. They are all originals and made in Japan. In those days, there were no made in China copycats. And the quality of these stationery items are still very good even after more than 40 years. Cass brings them out to show me once in a little while and going through these collectibles that grew with me evoke a lot of nostalgia in me. I still keep a Snoopy and Garfield wall decor that my bestie, Ju gave me when she was 13 and 14.

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Cass’ final exam for 2022 was finally over yesterday after 2 long weeks. The next day we went to the skating rink at Sunway Pyramid to get her new figure skates.

I thought that the skates only cost RM850 but they’re actually RM950 and they’re the cheapest pair. And it didn’t stop at the skates. She had to get a pair of blades protector and fluffy skates covers which cost RM55 per accessory. The total damage was over RM1,000!

The skates can only be worn up to a certain level and Cass would need more advanced skates that costs over RM2,000 a pair for competitive skating! 😲

And if Cass is into competitive figure skating, she would need costumes and more accessories. The costliest part would be the skating lessons and time on ice. It would cost at least RM1k a month if she took the competitive skating route and Cass is 100% certain that this is the route that she wants to take 😵.

I am definitely not in agreement with Cass’ decision, mainly because of the cost and also the time that she would need to spend at the skating rink. For a beginner competitive skater, she needs to attend a minimum of two hourly lessons twice a week and another minimum 2 hours of self practise per week at the skating rink.

I cannot imagine myself sending Cass to Pavillion Bukit Jalil or Sunway Pyramid twice – thrice a week after she comes home from school at 4 pm. By the time we reach home, it would be way past my bedtime.

Sangeetha, a Malaysian competitive figure skater who’s 14 (Cass’ age) starts her day at 4am thrice a week. Her dad sends her to Sunway Pyramid to practise at 6am after which she goes to school. She’s currently ranked 8th in Asia.

I am definitely not ready to be doing this. NO way! 🤪

While Cass had a 2-hour skating session, I walked around Sunway Pyramid, trying to find Wok Hey to get take-out for dinner. We tried the fried rice and fried ramen from Wok Hey once when Alycia bought them for us and everyone liked it.

Wok Hey is a fast-casual, quick, takeaway kiosk concept inspired by Cantonese-style cooking and traditional stir-fry staples in a box that was introduced as Singapore’s finest Asian stir-fry cuisine. With the title of “Singapore’s Best Fried Rice”, Wok Hey has earned the hearts of Singaporeans and now Malaysians.

I had no idea where Wok Hey is as Sunway Pyramid is very huge, with an old wing and new wing. I didn’t manage to use the electronic directory as there were long queues at every directory. So I Whatsapped Alycia to ask her where the stall is but Alycia was working and only replied me many hours later. By the time she Whatsapped me, I had already found the stall and it’s located just a floor above the skating rink! So near yet so far and I wasted 2 hours walking around the mall looking for it 🤣. But it’s ok, it was a great way to exercise and I chalked up over 10k steps just walking at the mall.

After getting takeout from Wok Hey, we segued into Taco Bell as Cass wanted to try it after reading so much about this famous fast food chain.

The next day, I took Cass to Pavillion Bukit Jalil for her figure skating lesson. While she skated for 2 hours, I walked around the mall for 2 hours, with nothing in mind to buy and chalked up another 10k steps just at the mall. I cannot imagine myself doing this every Saturday and Sunday for the next few years 😳

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Today Cass attended her third ice-skating lesson at the Blue Ice Snow Park skating rink @ Pavillion Bukit Jalil. Before the class started, we checked out the new figure skating skates. The skates that she wanted are priced at RM870 and are the cheapest for beginners. Cass has been looking forward to getting these skates as the skates provided by the skating rink are hard and stiff, thus rendering it hard for her to do more advanced movements in them.

Unfortunately the beige colored skates (for ladies) are all sold out. Only the black ones (for men) are in stock. In the event (big IF) Cass takes part in competitions in future, she’s not allowed to wear black skates during competitions. The new stock for the ladies skates will only arrive in December and Cass is very disappointed.

Later that night, I called a friend whose daughters are national figure skaters to ask her where else I can get those figure skates. We had a long chat on ice-skating and the prospects in our country. I found out from my friend that competitive skaters don’t receive cash prize when they win competitions (with the exception of Olympics). A medal is all they get and of course, the glory of winning. That’s it! And I wonder why parents still invest so much money and time in their children’s passion when the rewards are not even rewarding. I’m kiasu like that. I want to see returns in my investment 😬

Figure skating is a very expensive sport and a painful one too when they fall. My friend’s daughter had many falls during her 17 years of figure skating and had even gone for major surgeries to fix the injuries. Thankfully my friend is a physical therapist at a hospital who can help her daughter recover faster. And she’s her daughter’s biggest cheerleader, investing in all her daughters’ overseas competitions and expensive skates. But I guess she didn’t invest in vain as her daughter is now a figure skating coach, as well as a gymnastics coach. Her daughter is extremely disciplined and talented in both the sports. She also obtained a full scholarship to study psychology in a private university with the condition of competing for the university. Her daughter will graduate in a few more months. My friend stopped paying for most of her daughters’ expenses when she turned 18 and started to work as a part-time figure-skating and gymnastics coach.

Cass has big dreams in figure skating while I see it as a hobby and sports for her and nothing more than that. While she looks forward to her Sundays now and tells me that she wants to continue learning figure skating FOREVER (O.M.G.!), I am not willing to spend 3-4 hours at Pavillion Bukit Jalil every Sunday for the next 3-4 years! When Cass turns 17 or 18, she can Grab herself to the skating rink without me accompanying her.

We went to the supermarket to get my weekly supply of veggies, fruits and ready-to-eat triple washed salads before we left the mall.

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On the morning that Cass and I were brought to the ward at the Institute of Urology & Nephrology, there’s this pretty female patient in her mid fifties two beds away from Cass’ bed. Though she was in pain, she tried to make eye contact with me and smiled to me.

Several hours later, she doddered painfully and slowly to Cass’ bed and struck a conversation with me. She asked me the usual questions on why we were here and then told me that she’s just donated one of her kidneys to her daughter.

The Malay lady, seemingly from East Malaysia judging from her facial features, told me that she’s in great pain as she’d just donated one of her kidneys to her 26-year old daughter a few days ago. Her daughter was just wheeled out of the ICU and into a normal ward. Her daughter lost both her kidneys when she was just seven years old and had to be on dialysis. At 19 years old, she finally registered to be on the kidney transplant wait list. However, the wait was for seven years and finally she had to receive her mother’s kidney. I didn’t manage to dig more info from the lady as she was struggling to talk to me due to the pain.

As her daughter had to undergo dialysis thrice a week at a public dialysis center, the only job that she could do was to be her own boss, thus she runs her own restaurant. I was happy to know that her daughter’s body is accepting the new kidney and I hope that there will be no rejection later. Too bad I went home to get Cass’ stuff and didn’t get a chance to say good-bye to that lady. I wish her and her daughter well and hope that there will be brighter and happier days for them.

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During registration on Thursday (Day 1), the staff at HKL asked me for a letter from Cass’ school to confirm that she’s a student of the high school. But the nurse in charge did not inform me to bring this letter along prior to the appointment! Without this letter, I would have to pay for the cost of the procedure and admission.

As it was still the school holidays (term break), I panicked. After we had gotten a bed at the ward, I quickly Whatsapped Cass’ teacher, who was still on a holiday in her hometown in East Malaysia. She told me to call the school. Thank God there are staff working during the school holidays.

Long story short, the extremely helpful school office administrator helped me get the letter signed by the principal. Thank goodness the principal was around on that day. But she needed me to email Cass’ info to the school, which I did, and squinted my eyes looking at the phone screen till I felt dizzy as I didn’t bring my grandma reading glasses along with me. In less than an hour, the letter was emailed to me. Bless that kind staff for helping me, pronto. This is one of the incidences when I am thankful that I sent Cass to a private school. Staff are extremely helpful and I almost always get what I want speedily. I quickly took a Grab car home to get the letter printed. Hubs printed it for me at his office and brought it home. After a quick lunch, I took a Grab car back to the hospital.

After Cass fainted at the toilet, the doctors wanted her to stay for one more night for the nurses to monitor her blood pressure until it stabilizes and not hover at a dangerously low reading. Again I was not prepared for the extra one night stay in the hospital. I rushed home in the evening, had a super quick dinner, packed Cass’ stuff and went back to the hospital at night to pass the things to Cass.

Cass seems unperturbed with sleeping at the hospital alone as she had done it once before two years ago at Pantai Medical Centre.

The ward that Cass was in is quite comfortable, though it’s not air-conditioned. There’s a row of windows next to her bed with cool breeze coming in throughout the day. Thankfully the weather has been gloomy and rainy lately, thus it’s not hot. There’s also a ceiling fan above each patient’s bed. So there’s very good ventilation in the ward, much better than an air-conditioned room with no proper ventilation.

There was an elderly patient with a productive cough though, two rows away from Cass’ bed. It’s really worrying each time she coughed and spat out phlegm 🤮. Anyway, all patients and accompanying caretakers had to take a PCR test before the admission date.

On the day that Cass was discharged from the hospital, when she was walking to her dad’s car, she accidentally twisted her ankle! When she got home, her foot was throbbing in pain. She was reduced to a hobble and didn’t follow us out for our Mid Autumn Festival dinner at a nearby restaurant. She was nursing her foot with ice cubes compress and was in a foul mood.

Dang Murphy’s Law!! And this is why I get terribly restless each time Cass has to do a procedure at the hospital. She seems to attract Murphy’s Law in a hospital setting.

Two days later (yesterday), hubs took Cass for a physiotherapy session of her injured foot. Today Cass went to school with a slight limp.

At the Discharge Counter on Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised when I was told that I didn’t have to pay a single cent for the 3 days 2 nights stay! That’s one of the benefits of being a Malaysian – almost all your medical expenses are paid for by the Government if you seek treatment at a government healthcare facility , albeit some medical gadgets and procedures are not covered. This admission and procedure would have cost almost RM10k had it been done at a private hospital, perhaps exceeding RM10k if done at a 5 or 6-star private hospital.

As of typing this post today (3 days since Cass sprained her ankle), Cass’ ankle has healed well and she’s so happy that she can walk without a limp anymore. She even went for a walk around our condo grounds in the evening. She missed working out and running very, very much.

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From what was supposed to be a one-day procedure at the hospital, Cass ended up spending 3 days at the hospital. Dang Murphy’s Law! Cass seems to attract Murphy’s Law quite a bit in a hospital setting.

It was an indeed eventful 3 days at the hospital.

First we waited in vain the entire day on Thursday for Cass’ MRU procedure. The appointment was for 3 p.m.

At 5 p.m., the nurse at the Institute of Urology & Nephrology ward gave Cass a specimen bottle and told Cass to collect sample of her urine for a pregnancy test! Cass had done an MRU twice in the past and was never told to take a pregnancy test. The MRU was done when she was 6 YO and 12+ YO.

After waiting the entire day at the ward, I was too tired to ask the nurse why a pregnancy test was needed. I surmised that the test is a protocol for MRU for female teenagers and above. This is because MRU involves the administration of a contrast material which may harm the fetus.

Next, the Urology team MO told us that Cass’ procedure had to be postponed to the next day. Why the h*ll tell us only after we had waited the entire day?! And the MO insisted that Cass stayed overnight at the ward so that she would not miss her slot at 8 a.m. the next day. Cass was reluctant as she would be sleeping there without me. But as usual, our Miss Spunky agreed and took everything in stride courageously.

I took a Grab car home, had a super quick dinner, packed Cass’ stuff and hubs rushed me back to the hospital before 8.30 p.m. to pass the stuff to Cass.

Also, the nurse inserted the IV catheter wrongly into Cass’ hand twice. There are different colors of cap on the catheters to signify that they’re for different procedures. One is for IV drip and the other color is for contrast material. Different colored caps are for different purposes and for insertion at different positions on the hand. The nurse used a different catheter and inserted it at the wrong position on Cass’ hand, twice.

😔

The next morning, a doctor prepped the IV line again for Cass.

There are now blue black bruise marks on three spots on both of Cass’ hands 😞

On Friday, which is the day of Cass’ MRU, things went pretty well initially and she was out of the MRU room after 1.5 hours.

When we were back at the ward, Cass was still OK. I walked across the hospital to get us some pie and quiche from Gloria Jeans and Cass’ favorite drink from Tealive.

After eating the pie, quiche and drink, Cass told me that she felt queasy. Her lips turned grey. I asked her if she wanted me to call the nurse but she told me that she’ll just take a nap. When she woke up from her nap, she told me that she wanted to take a dump in the toilet.

After 20 minutes or so, I went to check on Cass at the toilet. When Cass opened the toilet door, I got a shock. Her face was white and her lips were grey. She did not look normal. She looked drowsy and irritated and kept asking me to tie up her hair with a hair tie. She could not even stand steadily. I told her to forget about pooping and just get back into the ward pronto to get help!! Cass resisted me and I insisted in a serious tone that something is not right with her. As I pulled her out of the toilet, Cass collapsed on me. Luckily I managed to catch Cass fast enough and the super helpful Indonesian cleaner ran to my aid.

When Cass was drifting in and out of consciousness, her dead weight of almost 50kg on my body was really too much for my 42.5kg frame. With all my might I held my child tightly to prop her up to prevent her from falling. The kakak shouted out to the nurses for help and kept stroking Cass and saying “sayang, tak apa” (love, it’s ok).

I am now suffering from sore arms, similar to the pain I got after my Covid shots.

When Cass was wheeled back to her bed, the MO and nurses came. The chief nurse coaxed her to drink some Milo, another nurse took her blood pressure, set another IV line (on the other hand) for saline drips and the MO kept bombarding me and Cass with questions.

Minutes later, Cass’ lips color changed to pink again and there was colour on her face again. She regained consciousness and was well again in less than 5 minutes! PHEW!! 🥴

Apparently, the contrast material administered intravenously plunged Cass’ blood pressure to a dangerously low reading of below 80!

I was shocked as to why this happened as this is not the first time Cass did an MRU with contrast material administered. She did not suffer from any side effect from the previous two MRU.

I think Haru sensed the danger that her sister was going to go through and wailed the entire night. She didn’t wail when Cass and I went back to Ipoh recently nor did she behave in a bizarre manner when Sherilyn went back to Ipoh early this week. Read my post on Haru’s Six Sense here.

To be continued…

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Today’s supposed to be Cass’ MRU procedure at HKL but everything went wrong. I am so enervated and having a headache now.

Just want to let you guys know that Cass is spending a night at the Institute of Urology & Nephrology @ HKL alone. It’s a long story but I’ll leave that for another day to tell.

I have to get up by 4.15 a.m. tomorrow and leave the house at 6.30 a.m. as I must reach HKL by 7.30 a.m. As Cass is under 18 years old, a parent must be around when she goes through the MRU procedure.

Oh yeah, at the eleventh hour, the nurse asked Cass to do a pregnancy test!

Will update my eventful day at HKL in the next few days. Gnite!

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After more than a year of hiatus from our visits to HKL due to Covid-19 (HKL was a red zone), Cass and I are back at HKL on 20 June 2022. I started to make calls to the head of urologist’s nurse to get the appointment and after months of trying, she finally gave me an appointment.

The head of urologist wants a repeat MRU (using contrast material) on Cass as the previous two MRUs were not crystal clear. As Cass’ urinary tract and abdomen were operated twice, there’re plenty of adhesions, thus making the images of the MRU unclear. The radiologist reported that there’s a possibility of an ectopic ureter somewhere but the images are not clear, thus the need to have a repeat MRU 😞

Before the MRU, a creatinine test has to be done first to measure the kidney function. Thank God, it’s A-ok 🙏

I’m now on standby for the nurse to call to give me the date for Cass to do the repeat MRU.

I hope that the repeat MRU will be able to show really clear images this time. And I hope that Cass’ issue will be resolved soonest possible as the head or urologist may retire in two years and I am not keen on another urologist taking over Cass’ case as it’s an extremely complicated case.

I really need divine intervention 🙏

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