After a week of being cooped up at home battling Covid, the four Coviders are now negative and well again 💪.
I’m so happy that my sense of taste and smell have slowly returned. Though not 100% functional yet, I am still happy that I could partially smell and taste my food. I was so relieved when I could taste the Portugese egg tarts and Unagi rice that the eldest SIL bought for us yesterday.
I went for my first brisk walk in 12 days this morning. I walked to the shops to get roast chicken, while I got to soak in the glorious morning sun.
I hope Alycia, hubs and Haru will be spared from the nasty virus. Haru seemed to know that I wasn’t feeling well. She was very clingy to me the past few nights – she kept swiping me with her paws and jumped up to sit with me on my chair. Haru is not a clingy cat nor does she like hugs and cuddles. She seems to be very aware of things that are going on in the house. She’s like a little human stuck in a cat’s body.
The worst part of having Covid was the extremely parched throat for the first three days, the nose block which made it hard for me to sleep at night and subsequently loss of smell and taste. I had Covid about four months after my second booster jab. This is how long the protection lasts. With this infection, I may have have immunity for another 3-4 months. Hopefully there will be no second time for me and the rest of us.
Breakfast by chef S ~ pan-toast Jalapeno & cheese bread, fried wallet egg, sweet potatoes, salad and cumin cheese.
We voted on 19 November 2022 and fulfilled our responsibilities as a dutiful citizen. Alycia also voted for the very first time. However, till today there is still no decision made on a new government and it looks like there is a protracted political impasse 🥱
The four Covid virgins in our household finally lost our Covidginity 🤪.
Me, Cass, the mil and Sherilyn have been down with Covid.
I was out at Pavillion Bukit Jalil with Cass on Sunday and felt unusually enervated after walking around the mall for 2 hours. The shopping queen in me usually have no issues walking for hours on end at the mall without feeling tired. I once shopped for 10 hours with my youngest SIL at One Utama and didn’t feel achy or tired a wee bit. But this time, I felt different. By evening after we came back from the mall, all I wanted to do was to shower and sleep.
The next day I woke up with a scratchy throat, mild cough, throbbing head and pain in the eye balls. I knew that I was about to get a flu with fever. I had a hunch that I had Covid. Whenever I have a bad flu, my eye balls would hurt. I did a self-test (nasal swab) and the result turned out negative. Two days later I did another nasal swab test and this time it’s positive.
Your self-test kit could still be negative when you’re actually Covid-positive. This could be due to a low viral load at the onset of the infection. If you have persistent symptoms, do continue performing a self test.
The next day Cass started to show symptoms as well. She did a self test (saliva) and a faint line appeared. It does not matter whether the line on the T’ window is faint or dark. As long as there are double lines on the test kit, you’re positive.
On the same day, the mil started to cough. She was the least suspicious of being infected with Covid as she was feeling well, except for an itchy throat. The next day just as she was about to go swimming, I told her to do a self test first. And the test turned out positive too! From getting ready to go swimming one moment, she ended up swallowing Paxlovid several hours later as she’s a high-risk individual with comorbidities.
Paxlovid is the latest COVID-19 treatment that’s been all over the news. The drug was granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2021 for anyone ages 12 and older who weighs at least 88 pounds, and is at high risk for severe disease.
Paxlovid is an oral antiviral pill that can be taken at home to help keep high-risk patients from getting so sick that they need to be hospitalized.
Paxlovid is only available at selected government and private healthcare facilities. The hubs managed to get Paxlovid from BP Specialist Centre @ Taman Megah, PJ. The drugs are given free by the government, however, hubs had to pay for doctor fees as he got it from a private hospital.
Paxlovid must be taken within five days of developing symptoms (6 tablets a day). Like all antivirals, Paxlovid works best early in the course of an illness—in this case, within the first five days of symptom onset. And for this reason, hubs had to drop everything that he was doing to rush to the hospital to grab hold of Paxlovid.
And finally, five days later, the darn virus got the better of Sherilyn. Sherilyn who has an on-going SPM Trials to sit for will have to skip school next week. There’s another classmate who is also down with Covid. She and this classmate would have to sit for the remaining papers on other dates when they are well enough to return to school.
Today is my 7th day and I lost my olfaction partially 😩. Everything that I eat is tasteless and I could barely smell anything, except for strong smelling things like essential oils. Besides, I also had quite a bad throat on the first two days, blocked nose for three days, chills and a low-grade fever for 1.5 days. It’s not as bad as I had thought but would never want to get Covid again. What I really want right now is my sense of smell and taste again 🙏
On the same day that I tested positive for Covid, my papa in Ipoh also tested positive! My poor mum who has weak lungs and asthma has to take care of papa while fearing that she would also get infected.
Covid is far from being over and removed from the surfaced of the earth. It’s getting even more forceful with continuous mutations and new variants. Very soon, if you’re the rare one who hasn’t gotten Covid before, you’ll be labeled as someone who lives in a cave, far away from civilization 😬
Alycia’s bosses who are ever so generous with their staff gifted us a loaf of lemon thyme cake and Jalapeno cheese loaf from their cafe to cheer us up when Alycia told her bosses that we’re down with Covid. I super love the lemon thyme cake as it’s rich in flavors and most importantly, not overly sweet.
I got my second booster shot on Wednesday, 27 July 2022 at a clinic in our hood. Though the Government recently announced that the second booster shot is only available for individuals aged 50 years and above, as well as for anyone with comorbidities, funnily though, I still managed to secure an appointment to get the shot via the MySejahtera app on my phone. I am 49 years old this year and will only turn 50 in 8 months.
This time around, the strongest side effect is soreness on the injected arm (left arm). It hurt so badly that I couldn’t sleep the entire night. The soreness and numbness lasted for 2.5 days. The day after the shot, as usual, I felt malaise and sleepy the entire day. My throat felt a bit sore too. On day 3, I had intermittent sharp shooting pain in my left ear for half a day. All the side effects vanished by day 4.
The mil had no side effects again. She didn’t suffer from any side effect as well after her previous 3 shots.
The hubs still hasn’t scheduled an appointment for his second booster shot as he’s still busy with work and can’t afford to fall sick. He’s short of manpower now and is still looking at hiring staff.
To secure an appointment, just ensure that the MySejahtera app on your phone is updated to the latest version as the appointment feature is only available on the latest version. Shots available at the clinic that I went to are Pfizer and Sinovac. I opted for Pfizer. Alternatively you can find out where you can walk-in for the shot. The shots are still free of charge.
When I called iHeal @ Mid Valley Megamall to enquire about the vaccine about three weeks ago, I was told that for individuals aged 60 and below, walk-ins are allowed provided there’s proof that you have a compromised immune system. Subsequently the Government announced that the second booster shot is allowed for individuals aged 50 onwards, with or without comorbidities.
If you’re still unsure whether to get a second booster shot, read this article and this article to restore your faith. And remember that when the pandemic first started in early 2020 before there were vaccines, many people died from the infection and symptoms were also more severe. After people received their vaccines, there were fewer deaths and people recovered from the infections faster too. Of course people can still die from the infection now and this is usually associated with underlying medical issues.
I just realized that I have not updated this blog for 10 days. As you might already have guessed, I’ve been up to my eyeballs with work – house work this time. Maria our part-time maid of 10 years is pregnant with her second child and has been riddled with bad morning sickness. She’s not come in for work for two weeks.
With the mil still not 100% recovered from her second cataract eye surgery, I have to cook, though not every day. Cooking is not something that I look forward to do ever since my last live-in maid went back to Indonesia for good 11 years ago, but would still do it when I’m in the mood.
With Maria pregnant now, I can foresee that she may not come back to work for us. Even before she got pregnant, she’s been getting jobs from other employers who are paying her higher than what we’re paying her.
With this scenario, I’ll have to start looking for another part-time helper. I may even have to learn to live without any helper at all. It’s not that bad an idea as I’ll be able to save a lot of money each month. I can definitely live with dusty ceiling fans and windows 🤑
The girls and I are also happy with Shopee Food and Grab Food several times a week 😁 as no one likes to wash the dirty dishes and keep them after washing.
Alycia returned to college last Tuesday after testing negative for Covid. However, she’s still having intermittent cough and have lost her sense of smell partially. She told me that her food lacked taste a couple of days after she tested negative. I think this is caused by her blocked nasal. As of today, her olfaction has improved and she can taste her food better, though not 100%.
I totally forgot that I have a box of Lian Hua in our larder. I bought it 4 months ago when our neighborhood pharmacy restocked it. When I was looking for my vitamins, I stumbled upon it. But Alycia had already tested negative. I still gave her two sachets (1 sachet a day). She said the taste is bearable, not as icky as she had thought. A box of 6 sachets costs a frigging RM48!Something simple that I cooked the other day – air-fried butter and garlic pollock.Seasoned with melted ghee, minced garlic, pinch of salt and dried herbs, lemon juice and black pepper.My keto dinner – air-fried pollock on a bed of spinach.Cass made frozen yogurt bites and yogurt bark using Gippsland strawberries and cream twist yogurt. They don’t look pretty but are yums! I love it and it’s a healthier alternative to ice-cream.
By day 4, most of the classic symptoms of Covid crept out — sore throat and high fever. On day 5, the fever subsided but Alycia started to have cough and a bad throat.
Since Alycia had a zero-symptom Covid infection three months ago and is now infected again, I think she got infected by Omnicron BA.5, the new subvariant. BA.5 is now dominant in the US and has already landed in our shores. I hope none of us in the house will get infected as BA.5 is highly contagious and much more contagious than the previous versions.
Alycia’s well fed and hydrated all day. She gets honey lemon juice in the morning and in the evening. Mid morning after her breakfast she downs a mug of thick matcha powder tea. And in the afternoon she downs a mug of fresh coconut water. In between she drinks lots of plain water. She has 3 main meals and snacks in between. Her room is sanitized twice a day. My life since Monday revolves around prepping her meals, buying coconut water, sanitizing her room and the house, washing/sanitizing the toilet after Alycia uses it, and washing my hands like a hyper OCD lunatic 🤧 😷
Day 5 brekkie – egg and kale mayo with multigrain bun, sweet corn and orange and thick matcha tea.Day 5 lunch – MIL bought healthy pan mee from an organic shop. Day 5 dinner – Alycia requested for bread with strawberry jam as her throat hurt badly. MIL boiled a big pot of watercress + loh hon guo cooling drink for everyone.Day 6 brekkie – chives and minced pork dumplings, veggies, red bean tong sui, black grapes, banana and thick matcha tea.Day 6 dinner – air fried mini drummets, braised duck and veggies. Fruit – guavas and watercress + loh hon guo drink.Air fried mini drummets marinated with turmeric powder, soy sauce, oyster sauce and corn flour.Day 7 brekkie – Gippsland strawberry and cream twist yoghurt with walnut and watermelon seeds, Sanwa soda crackers, jackfruit and blush pear. Day 7 lunch and dinner – Wantan noodles with broccoli + alfalfa sprouts, tau foo far and soy bean milk from Dao.
6 July 2022 – The Covid self-test kit showed a faint line on the T window. Alycia is still feeling well and chirpy. The first symptom however crept out late in the evening with a scratchy throat. Alycia asked for lozenges and I gave her my honey and propolis lozenges that I kept in the fridge for emergency use.
7 July 2022 – The line on the T window is very clear this morning. Her temperature in the morning was 37.7C and shot up to 39C in the late evening. Alycia popped 2 Panadol today. I bought coconut water today and gave her a big mug. By late evening when her body was burning hot, she felt unwell and antsy. For once, she slept at 9-ish p.m.
Alycia’s four classmates/group assignment team mates who are also down with Covid are having fever as well, except for a dude who has no symptoms. Classes for them are via online mode until they are all well enough to return to campus.
Besides prepping her meals, my entire day revolves around sanitizing the house and bathroom (after each use), especially Alycia’s room.
As per her high school’s SOP on Covid prevention, Cass has to stay home for three days, as well as perform a Covid self-test twice. Her teachers arranged for life online classes for her.
Alycia’s room service meals:
Day 2 brekkie – Nama Shokupan bread with strawberry jam, mushroom omelette, banana and blush pear. Day 2 lunch – chap fan, green tea, cut papaya and longan.Day 2 dinner – air-fried boneless chicken chop.Day 3 brekkie – Yee Mee soup with lots of veggies, black fungus, poached egg and minced pork. Fruits – red dragon fruit and papaya. And a cup of thick matcha.Day 3 dinner – vermicelli with beef and beef balls, raw broccoli and alfalfa sprouts, dessert of matcha red bean swiss roll and orange.
It’s never anything good to receive a phone call from my daughters while they’re in school or campus.
Last week Sherilyn called me from school to inform me that her newly pierced ear was bleeding as she asked her friend to remove the earring from the ear but the earring almost got stuck in her ear and it bled. So I had to bring first-aid essentials to school for her. And two weeks ago, she suddenly felt like puking and I had to rush to school to bring her home.
When I got a call from Alycia at 10 a.m. today, I thought something bad had happened to her at the campus. Then I heard her mumbling first time negative, second and third time double lines.
One of Alycia’s group assignment team mates was tested positive for Covid this morning. Then the rest of the team mates tested themselves with a self-test kit and out of the five mates, three of them were tested positive, including Alycia.
They tested themselves three times because the first test kit showed negative for some while another friend’s kit showed positive.
For Alycia, her first test kit showed a single line. The second test kit showed a faint double line and the third test kit showed a clear double line.
Her 3rd test kit.
After her phone call to me, she got home from campus immediately. I was out with the mil. She quickly showered and then isolated herself in her room while waiting impatiently with a rumbling tummy for me to come home with food for her (her breakfast and lunch).
So yeah, Alycia’s Covid positive – her second infection in exactly three months. It’s when her immunity to the virus waned.
I can’t believe how easy it is for Alycia to get infected with Covid again. But I’m not shocked nor surprised that she got infected as her lifestyle lately has been pretty unhealthy. She stays up in college till at least 9-ish p.m. to complete group assignments almost every day, eats outside food everyday – 3 meals a day, sleeps late and has not been exercising. She’s cooped up in an air-conditioned room with her friends almost all day.
However, the symptoms have not kicked in yet. I’m praying that she’ll be symptom-free again just like the first time when she had zero symptom.
Lifestyle factors do impact our health!
Room service meal – Day 1 lunch. Chap Fan, cheese cake, gingko + barley + fuchok tong sui, thick matcha tea for all the antioxidants that she needs now to fight Covid.Room service meal – Day 1 dinner. Rice with stir-fried pork + ginger + black fungus and wine, yellow wine chicken and blanched spinach. Fruits – papaya and plum. Dessert – marble cake
I think Alycia secretly likes to be quarantined in her room coz she gets in-room dining and doesn’t need to do any of the house chores! I even clean and sanitize her room for her when she takes toilet breaks.
Sherilyn started her new academic year on Monday this week. She’s in Form 5 this year and will be sitting for her SPM in March next year. By mid of next year I will have a pre-U kid and a uni kid. Time flies! I miss the girls’ baby days😥
Cass was back to face-to-face classes last week. And this means my phone alarm is now back to 4.45 a.m. from Mondays through Fridays. Hello zombified days!
After almost 2 years of getting to sleep in till 6-ish a.m. almost every morning, it’s a pain having to wake up at such an ungodly hour in the morning now. One of the pros of the pandemic and lockdown is I get to catch up on my sleep. Now that our country is transitioning into endemic phase and lives are slowly returning to some semblance of pre-Covid days, I’m losing sleep and dozing off in front of my PC throughout the day again🥱 😴 .
The only thing that I enjoy about the girls being back in school is I have more quiet time in the mornings. I have lesser work to do in the morning as I have 2 less people messing up cooking in the kitchen. Sherilyn and Cass love cooking, baking and prepping their own meals and they leave behind trails of destruction for me to clean up. Now I have some peace at home until 3-ish p.m. when they return home.
On days that Maria comes in to help me, Sherilyn is allowed to cook more complicated and ‘messy’ dishes.
She made Japanese curry, chicken karaage and sushi when Maria came last week.
Chicken karaage + avocado sushi.My comfort food – porridge with fish maw, chicken and fish. SO delish!
This year is the third year that I’ve had a low-key birthday celebration, done at home. We were in lockdown the past two years and this year, though our country is now in transition to endemic phase, I still couldn’t go out to have a blast.
It’s a no-brainer guess. Darn Covid.
Alycia was tested positive last weekend while doing a routine Covid self-test and just as she was about to discard the test kit after 20 minutes, she saw the dreaded line on the ‘T’ window. It was so faint that I had to wear my glasses and use a magnifying glass to enlarge the kit to have a better look.
The moment we all saw the very faint line, Alycia quickly isolated herself in her room. Dutifully, she quickly updated her MySejahtera app and informed all her course mates who were in close contact with her to do a self-test.
The next few days involved everyone doing the RTK, me spending hundreds of Ringgit buying self-test kits, sanitizing the house, mask-wearing at home and doing room service for Alycia.
Thank God Alycia has been asymptomatic. If it wasn’t because of the routine pre-outing Covid self-test, she would not have found out that she was positive. Her daily RTK self tests since day 1 showed faint lines. On the third or fourth day however, the line got slightly more prominent but it was still not in bright pink. The line on the ‘T’ window was still faint.
Yesterday and today though, the line on the ‘T’ window was very faint again. I still could not see the faint line but Alycia, Sherilyn and Cass claimed that they could see it. Even with me wearing my glasses and using a magnifying glass and going out to the balcony to scrutinize the self-test kit under the sun, I still couldn’t see the line.
I wonder if my Presbyopia has progressed that badly? 🤨
I can only surmise that the zero symptoms and faint line have got to do with the low viral load theory.
Alycia has one more day of self isolation before she is released from HSO.
Surprise birthday cake from the girls. They know I love brownies and got me 9 large pieces of brownies in various flavors from Brownies Bar By The Accidental Bakers. They had the brownies Grab-ed to our condo from The Gardens Mall.
I had just gained 1kg from walloping almost the entire fudgy brownies that I ordered for myself last week, then lost that 1kg during the Covid drama last week through this week and I think I’m going to pile up the 1kg again with all these decadent brownies 😜.
What a way to celebrate my last 4-series birthday. I’m so looking forward to the 5-series next year!
Check out Alycia’s Covid quarantine meals at my other blog.
This time it’s Cass’ turn. She may be in close contact with a Covid positive index from our condo block. They were both at the gym on Wednesday night. On Friday, the lady who went to the gym tested positive for Covid. The condo Managment office was notified on the same day.
Today a staff from the condo Management office called to inform me that the Covid positive index was at the gym on Wednesday from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm. As Cass checked into the gym at 9.30 pm, she’s required to do a Covid self-test as a precautionary measure.
Now Cass isn’t sure if she was near this lady when she was at the gym on Wednesday. She can’t even remember if there was anyone at the gym as it was already 9.30 pm and off-peak hours at the gym.
Gyms are a high-risk place for Covid to spread because of the equipment that everyone touches . And it’s air-conditioned, making ventilation poor. Cass remembered that she didn’t use the treadmill, water-rower, bicycle, or air-walker on Wednesday. She said she only brought down her gym mat to do floor exercises and used the weights. Now that’s bad enough. What if the lady sneezed and her droplets dropped on the floor? What if Cass used the weights that the lady used minutes earlier? No one wears mask inside the gym because of the nature of the exercise.
I told Cass that it is quite useless to do a Covid self-test today as it’s too early for any symptom to manifest. But this girl insisted on doing one and it’s negative.
According to WebMD, on average, symptoms show up in a newly infected person about 5.6 days after contact. Rarely, symptoms appeared as soon as 2 days after exposure. Most people with symptoms had them by day 12. And most of the other ill people were sick by day 14.
So we’re now counting down the days to day 14. Cass has another 10 more days of school holiday and I’ll get her to do another test on the eve of going back to school.
We can’t run away from the virus anymore. It’s ubiquitous and inconspicuous. The only thing we can do is to strengthen our immune system with nutritious food, regular exercise and adequate shut-eye. You may think that sleep is not important but it is just as important as nutrition, exercise and supplements, if not even more important. All our friends and daughters’ friends who were infected with Covid admitted that they had not been getting enough sleep prior to getting infected with Covid.
It’s 10 minutes to 11 pm now and I have to rush off this post to stack some Z’s. It’s going to be another early and long day for me on a Sunday tomorrow. Hubby has a function and has to be at his central kitchen by dawn. And I have to chauffeur Sherilyn to work at the cafe tomorrow morning.
Have a restful weekend, all and sundry!
Cass did this poster of Haru. She’s obsessed with Haru whenever she does a cat loaf 😻.
Alycia received her Pfizer booster dose on Thursday. It was a walk-in vaccination at a clinic in our hood. The next day (yesterday) she was down and out. She had fever, chills and a throbbing headache. Except for waking up to pop Panadol and drink water, she slept the entire day, wrapped up in her blanket up to her neck. She rode out the fever and woke up this morning feeling much better, though she still has a slight temperature. The 3 Pfizer doses were really tough on her.
Brunch with my ex-bf (just the both of us) last week:
At Les Deux Garcons (LDG) Pâtisserie, our favourite cafe in our hood.Dim Sum @ Restoran Jin Xuan Hong Kong, Kuchai Lama, KL. Some of the items were brought to us by a robot.The butterfingered girl dropped her Huawei phone and wrecked the LED screen. Cost of repair is at least RM200. I told her that she has to work for her dad to pay for the cost of the repair 😑My favorite past time to de-stress – online shopping! I bought these KN94 face masks in sweet pastel colors from Lazada. Missing in the photo is mask in mint green. I love the quality of the masks and the pretty colors. The colors above are taro purple, pastel yellow, stormy blue and baby Mandarin. Alycia likes to wear color-coordinated face mask and clothes when she goes to college.
Covid cases continue to soar by the thousands every day. From just slightly below 2k cases just a month ago, the numbers have spiked to almost 14k today and is expected to continue rising in the midst of an Omnicron wave.
Cass’ high school shot out a notice to announce that in view of the current Covid situation, only SPM 2021 students need to be present in school for the SPM exam and all other students will attend online classes for the entire month of February 2022.
This morning I didn’t hear my phone alarm ring at 5.15 am. Someone defied me last night and made me burning mad just before bed time, resulting in me having insomnia until almost 1 a.m. I must have slept so deeply when my phone alarm buzzed at 5.15 a.m. and only woke up 1.5 hours later when I heard birds chirping outside. Being an ultra light sleeper, this is the first time that I didn’t hear my phone alarm ring! Thankfully hubs didn’t have to leave the house early for his central kitchen today and could drive Sherilyn to school. She was slightly late for her exam 😞
Haru caused a shitty mess in her litter box early this morning. The poop splattered onto the wall and everywhere else in the cage! I spent almost an hour wiping down the wall and cage with Sol-U-Guard and discarded the cotton sheets lining the cage. Last night Sherilyn fed Haru with quite a bit of chicken soup and it must have caused the poop to be slightly loose.
Haru still reeks of poop despite me wiping her down 100x with wet wipes. We don’t have the time to give her a bath yet.
I felt so shitty in the morning and still pissed with someone. But it got better after I had a long walk outdoor and then went to the supermarket to get groceries. A long walk or run outdoor always defuses a bad day and palliates the gravity of a situation for me.
Our dinner from last night – Miso Tori Paitan Ramen (Creamy Chicken Broth Ramen). This recipe is not for the time-strapped as it involves a LOT of work.
Ramen in chicken paitan broth (Tori Paitan Dashi), topped with spinach, mushrooms, sauteed minced pork and raw leeks. Even the fried shallots are homemade.
The ramen was made from scratch last month and frozen. The chicken broth involves multiple onerous steps from boiling to blending the chicken and veggies in the Thermomix and then sieving it. The result is a very rich, emulsified and nutritious chicken broth.
Barely 3 weeks into in-person classes this year, Cass (and her classmates) have to be home quarantined twice – one week each time. The student who was in close contact with a positive case was finally tested positive 2 weeks later.
It’s not any better for Sherilyn as well. One of her classmates was tested positive for Covid and she had to be home quarantined for a week too. Sherilyn gave us a scare when her temperature went up to 37.9C and hovered around 37.4 – 37.5C for several days. She also had a slight dry cough. Other than that, she was very well with great appetite and all. She tested herself using a Covid RTK four times and all four times showed negative. I can only blame this on her lifestyle. She has a habit of dozing off on the couch and only waking up in the wee hours of the morning to shower! Hubs, the mil and I have been nagging her to shower and sleep early but to no avail.
This Chinese New Year we will be staying put in KL, for the 2nd year straight. With Cass and Sherilyn being close contacts just recently, it is not safe for us to be back to meet my parents as they are highly vulnerable folks. My mum has asthma and weak lungs. I’m really disappointed that I can’t meet my parents yet. I’m praying that we can go back in early March this year during the school holidays. But the trip will likely involve only Cass, Sherilyn and me. Alycia’s semester break will only be in April and the school holidays would have ended by then.
My SIL from Hawaii sent this to me via her friend who came back to Malaysia recently. It’s a Kate Spade wallet in my favorite color! 🥰
The girls were gifted with clothes, bags and a big angpow from their Sarah koo koo.
Sherilyn cooked this for lunch on one of the days during her home quarantine – kimchi soup (with homemade kimchi) with loads of onions and vegetables, sweet corn rice and Ajitsuke Tamago (Ramen Eggs).Our sun-worshipper getting her daily dose of vitamin D in the mid-morning sun.
Last Monday, I heard the most dreaded words from Alycia. Her best friend was tested positive for Covid-19 and Alycia was in close contact with her! They hung out a week ago on Monday and had meals together. Towards the end of the week, her best friend felt unwell and on Monday (7 days later), was tested positive for Covid-19.
When Alycia said “mummy, where can I do a PCR test in Taman xxxx? ABC is Covid positive and I met her last Monday”, my heart dropped.
I zoomed to the only clinic at our hood that performs Covid tests (the same clinic that I brought Cass to after Haru bit her) and waited anxiously for the PCR test to be performed on Alycia. Alycia was both overwhelmed and terrified of the procedure. Who wouldn’t be? You’re about to have something shoved up your nose and another swab slid deep into your throat. Well, except for Cass who had gone through a PCR test twice and could still laugh after the procedures were over.
Alycia commented that the swab procedure wasn’t as bad as she thought.
If Alycia was tested positive, it would have an impact on every single occupant at home and the chain reaction is going to be dreadful. I tried to be positive, though it’s hard. I don’t always have a good relationship with hope.
Prayer was my only hope and somehow, I was quite certain that the result would be negative.
The next 24 hours or so was tough for Alycia and me as we were both consumed by anticipatory anxiety. This is when our thoughts and bodies are consumed with worst-case scenarios, dread and fear for what might come.
The worst case scenario was Alycia would be quarantined in her room for 7 days. And all of us would be rounded up to the clinic for a swab test too. That would cause a damage of RM200 x 5 = RM1,000 for the PCR tests for the remaining five of us! Or we could just save the money and not have the tests done but just lock ourselves up at home and not step out for the next 7 days? I kept disconnecting from the negative thoughts, and I knew I had to be positive that Alycia would be negative 🥴
Words cannot describe our relief when the result was finally released. Hubs bought my favorite cakes from Nutmeg to celebrate 😅
But I wasn’t 100% relieved yet. Alycia had to quarantine herself for 5 days and there was still a possibility that she could still be positive. I tested Alycia’s temperature and did a pulse oximeter check on her every day. On Friday when she was out of quarantine, she did another Covid test using a self-test kit.
The waiting part is now over and everyone at home is super relieved. But Covid is still lurking around at every corner. How can we be sure that we will not get infected by Covid? I can only remind the girls (and sound like a naggy long-winded grandmother) of the Covid SOPs and not to share food or drinks with their friends when they’re in school and campus, no matter how close their friends are to them and how tempting it would be to be sharing and eating from the same bowl or plate of food.
In essence, good nutrition, regular exercise, being physically active, get enough sleep (at least 7 hours), have a healthy psychological and emotional wellbeing can benefit our immune system to strengthen it.
Stay safe and healthy everyone!
Alycia’s meals were brought to her room, three times a day.Fried nasi kerabu from hubby’s central kitchen.Cold tofu with minced pork.Spaghetti Carbonara and Portugese egg tart from Red Kettle, washed down with a cup of healthy matcha.
The entire process at Axiata Arena yesterday was completed in under an hour, including a 15-minute post-shot observation period. While the youths waited at the observation area after their shots, all the parents were asked to leave the hall and to wait outside, under the hot scorching sun at 12 noon 😷. The entire process was quick and very well organized. Kudos to the front liners and volunteers 👏
Both Sherilyn and Cass are out of sorts today. They both have similar side effects — fever, chills, headache and joint pain. While Cass was covered in her blanket on the bed, Sherilyn was covered up in a jacket with a cold pack on her forehead. I think they should be well again tomorrow.
With this, Sherilyn will be pretty ready to go back to school for face-to-face learning on 1st November 2021. Cass’ high school has already announced that for junior 1 students, the mode of learning will be fully online until year end. And Alycia’s college will be on a hybrid learning mode – she’ll finally step foot into college on 8 November 2021, yay!
Tomorrow will be Sherilyn and Cass’ 2nd dose Pfizer shot. I’m already starting to feel anxious over whether they’ll get side effects or not.
Alycia had high fever (39C) with body aches the day after her 2nd shot. Sherilyn was out of sorts after her 1st shot with mild fever, mild difficulty in breathing and felt malaise for days.
People say that the 2nd dose is always harsher on the body. I didn’t believe it until I experienced it. But I think it’s got to do with how well you take care of your health. I ate durian almost everyday after my 2nd AZ shot and as a result, had mild throat discomfort and felt malaise for weeks. Sherilyn stayed up late to complete her school projects after her 1st shot, despite me nagging her to shower and sleep early, only to be ignored 🤨.
And the littlest brat secretly exercised a few days after her 1st shot, when her sprained ankle recovered… and continued to exercise daily. She locked herself in my room with a yoga mat and came out with sweaty clothes. Stubborn girl!
Cass is hooked on making stovetop popcorn. She made another batch last Sunday. All it takes is just 10 minutes using our trusty old wok. Cass managed it on her own.She gobbled up the entire Tupperware of popcorn for breakfast the next day, while attending online class!Our guilt-free popcorn, popped using organic extra virgin coconut oil and Lakanto zero-calorie sugar (suitable for diabetics).
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