Here's My Story

By Day 5 of Cycle 1 FOLFOX regimen , my dad had enough and wanted to stop chemo, thinking that the pain and discomfort he was experiencing were all the chemo's side effects. With information from my sister (I was back in PJ), I called and talked with my dad. In short, I told him that he had the current symptoms previously (i.e. not during chemo treatment) that the hope was that the chemo would be effective to lessen these symptoms but needed time for it to work to consult the hospice nurse (she was going to visit the next day) and the PCU specialist (appointment was 4 days later); tell them where the pain and discomfort were and how them how often they occured The hospice nurse brought a doctor with her this time. They concurred that most of the symptoms were existing ones but the chemo probably caused more bloating (and hence more frequent vomiting of gas). The doctor suggested taking the omeprazole 1 tablet twice a day, instead of 2 tablets once a day. They also encouraged...

My mum tried to follow the psychogeriatric's advice . She managed to successful stop taking benzhoxol but still couldn't go without clonazepam. The dizziness worsened and so, upon Dr N's advice (she kindly responded to my text), we decided to consult GH's psychiatrist as a walk-in patient. Turned out that there was no clinic day that morning and so my mum was attended quite quickly by the stand-by psychiatrist. We were a little worried that she would be asked to go through the outpatient clinic first because there was a sign stating the procedure for walk-in patient but the doctor, later on while we were parting ways, assured my mum that she could go straight to the clinic. We briefed the doctor on the situation and also told her of the psychogeriatric's plan . After consulting a senior specialist, she suggested the following: (1) Cut off the day time olanzapine for 2 to 3 days and observe whether mum's still ok. Incidentally, previously mum tried (without...

Ban and I were in Singapore earlier this month. He was there on volunteer work related stuff while I took the opportunity to do some important errands (I'll probably blog about this later) and to meet friends, ex-colleague and the actuary I'm currently working with. Here are some photos I took: One of my favourite Western food restaurant. Cheap and good. Surprisingly its price wasn't hiked up at its Changi Airport's outlet. Something new to me, at Changi Airport. Still the best dumpling noodle ever. Delicious soup too. Well, I guess "major" disruption happens sufficiently frequent that they had to put this notice up at the MRT station. So cute the bottle. High tea at Intercontinental Hotel. There was also self-service ice-cream. There was a chef who could make pancake to go along with the ice-cream. Wide selection of yong tau fu (ytf) at Changi Airport. In fact, it's the norm in Singapore and almo...

The consultation with GH's onclogist, 2 weeks after the insertion of chemo port , was a breeze: it took about 5 minutes. What took longer, apart from the waiting time of course, was the date of the first cycle chemotherapy. There was some confusion on their part. When it was finally sorted out, we were told that for the first cycle, my dad had to go to a ward because the staff there would teach us about the process. Subsequent cycles would be done at the usual daycare oncology section. The date was 1.5 weeks later. On the day itself, we were told that the chemo drugs would be ready only at around 3-4pm, which means that dad had to be in the ward until about 6pm. I wished someone told us this earlier. Haiz. In addition, it was only on that day itself they asked us whether we brought a sling bag to place the chemo bag in it. How would we know this if no one told us? It was our first time going through this regimen. However, I appreciated a nurse's initiative to quickly check ...

During the two-month period since the last appointment , my mum was gradually getting better. She could drive again. Woohoo! Her range of facial expression had increased. Her taste bud improved (previously, it was "ok" for most food, which wasn't her "norm"). The only constant problem, something that had been happening since the time she was warded, was her dizzy spells. It occurred from the moment she woke up and lasted until at night. Only its intensity varied. The geriatric psychiatrist said that this may or may not be due to the medicine. Three medicine could cause dizziness: benzhexol, clonazepam and olanzapine. Clonazepam was already on its minimum dose (it seems) and so the next step was to cut it off but mum wasn't keen on that because when she tried that (it was like 3 months ago though), she couldn't sleep. So the doctor asked her to stop benzhexol and stick to that as long as her tremor doesn't interfere with her activities. If not, take...

One defining feature of Titus is his dash. His dash's range is the longest of all freelancers, in a straight-line. In a non-linear path, Asana's and/or Celeste's can easily surpass Titus's dash's range. It's a useful ability to get away from enemies. To get much value out of it, however, you (as a Titus player), should dash and hit enemy(ies) which will then reduce the ability's CD by 2 i.e. half it. That's significant. To help him survive better in case enemies anticipate the dash towards them, I like to take the healing mod. In fact, I use the "Holy trinity" build (not my term): (read this wiki for details on abilities and mods) (1) Overhead Slam: Battlefield Triage (2 loadout points) Healing mod. If you prefer a more damage-focused build (then you better hope your support can help you), then Power Hitter is a good choice (2) Berserker Charge: Harvest (2 loadout points) Healing mod. (3) Thundering Road: Rallying Cry (2 loadout p...

At the end of a match, game will show who get which accolade from a selection of 4 accolades. There was a few times I got all 4 and if I remember correctly, that was through playing Support freelancers. I believed one of those times was with Helio. For Frontline freelancers, it may be possible to get all 4 if there's no Support freelancer in either teams, or the player is bad at supporting if there's one. Still, getting 2 or 3, for any freelancer, is already quite impressive. Recently, I got this: Oh yes, my Garrison got Cornerstone too lol. I believed there was at least a support and so it's surprising. Not only that, I also got silver Triple Threat badge. Amazing. Then shortly later, followed by this: This is more believable. Also, bronze Triple Threat here.

SPOILERS AHEAD! Let me summarise the main conflict of the story: In late 19th centure, Russia (still ruled by Tsar then) needed money while US was interested in purchasing Alaska but the former wasn't keen on losing the land. So someone on the US side proposed what he thought was a brilliant idea: Russia can redeem the land in 99 years by paying 99 times of the the purchase price (paid by US) i.e, a total of $712.8 million in gold bullion. Of course in 1966, that redemption amount was considered cheap. Power of inflation. Russia easily came up with the required gold bullion. Russia needed to present the original signed agreement in order to redeem the land. The problem was that it was hidden within a national icon: something that only very select few people on both sides know about. This icon was, indirectly, bequeathed to a British guy. Coming from a rather poor family, this guy, in fulfilling his father's last wish to take care of his mother, wanted to auction off a...