Here's My Story

My b-i-l had a brilliant idea: rearrange the furniture so that my dad's bed and lazy chair would be in the dining hall while the dining furniture would be in the living hall where his lazy chair was. The idea was to avoid a step (there's one between living hall and dining hall) when going to bathroom and to the car. So after lunch on Saturday, we did that. Boy, it was tiring! Moved dining chairs to one side. Seated my dad on one. Moved lazy chair. Treadmill from living hall to upstairs (so heavy!). Dining table to living hall (hard to grip and so seemed so heavy). Bed to dining hall. Lazy chair to dining hall. Seated my dad there. Small table from upstairs to next to my dad's bed. Some chairs placed there too. Dining chairs back to dining table. In future, the temporary monthly maid will be sleeping next to my dad at night and can nap in my parents' room. Hopefull she'll be good. Fortunately, he could sleep on the bed. He acknowledged that he needed ...

A month after the last appointment , my dad's condition overall worsened: Very poor appetite: eats only half his "normal" portion. Much weaker: previously didn't need someone to walk beside him. Now he sways when walking. Painful when stands up and walking. Needs help getting up. Because of the above two, he needs to wear diaper. Leg/back pain returns less than 2 hours after last intake of painkiller. Occurs about 3 days in a week. Nausea and vomit more often Oxynorm breakthrough intake 4 times a day on top of the thrice daily intake for breathlessness The only improvement is that constipation occurs less often: about 3 days a week. PCU increased Fentanyl patch dosage to 100mcg.  upon enquiry, discovered that dad experienced "blocked" gas in his upper abdomen. Since metochlropromide sometimes didn't help with the vomiting, they prescribed domperidone as optional alternative medicine. when asked, said that Oxynorm should be effective for 2...

I love kebab. Ok, admittedly my experience is limited mostly to Australia's Ali Baba's kebab, which is still the best. I had tried two other places: one in Singapore and another one in Malaysia but they were lousy. It's hard to get them in both countries. Recently, I discovered Stuff'd which served kebab, among other things. So I was keen to try it. It was delicious! The meat wasn't dry and it was packed tightly. There was only problem though: it was a little light for me. I got so hungry later that I had to have a heavier supper than usual (my usual is oat + milk/soymilk). It would be better if it was 50% larger. I would want to have it again but need to think about what else I can eat, and also mindful of the company I have too because most people eat more than I do.

I first blogged about this outlet about 6 years ago . I did try again shortly after that initial trial but it was the same problem. Since then, I boycotted it. It was probably last year that I came across another outlet at Gurney Plaza and thought that perhaps this one might served better chendul. Yup, it was better. So last month, Grab notified me that my Grab Reward points were expiring by end of this year unless I made a transaction. I redeemed it for discount of this chendul at the Paradigm Mall outlet. It was the nearest outlet. Wow, what a huge difference compared to years ago! Much better now.

Following the audit of the actuarial study , the lack of actuary's independence was highlighted to the government agency, among other things. Evidence was presented to them by plucking out key sentences from the study that indisputably showed that the client had dictated the selection of assumptions. Yet, as a response, the agency claimed that the actuary was the one who set all assumptions. Blind? Denial? Or worse?

Ever since Overwatch introduced the Replay feature, I've been using it mainly to record interesting gameplays while watching them to learn. It's also used when I want to determine whether a player is cheating or not but that's rare. Here are some interesting gameplays: A team mate (and maybe more?) seem to be giving up (the "gg" comment) after we lost first point on Round 1 but I encouraged team to not give up. We had Bastion without any shield tanks. When once again our other support (a good one too!) asked for shield, I chimed in that maybe our Bastion can change, which he did i.e. he played Reaper. On hindsight, it was good that our Winston didn't change because he was good. In fact, I think my team carried me hahaha. We barely staved off opposing team from getting the final 3rd point. There was some refreshing chat before start of Round 1: Nyirgadlayk apologised for undesirable ping and said maybe it was due to typhoon near his area. Both Falle...

Me: Hey, any suggestion on what to get for A's birthday? My budget is XX A's friend: Must be at least YY (YY >> XX), otherwise don't bother. Me: ...... Luckily, A was ok with a meal treat, which cost about half of YY. We're still friends till today.

Even though Atlas Reactor is gone , I still keep in touch with some of my online friends I met in the game. TheJoker is one of them. At various points of time, even while Atlas Reactor was around, we played other games together for a while e.g. Paladin, Battlerite, Overwatch and Minion Masters. Recently, due to the possibility that our newly found 4th player (a real life friends of ours) may not make it for Ban's D&D 5e campaign (he's always on call, as a specialist), Ban wanted a 5th player. We were waiting for confirmation from a friend that his friend or nephew migh want to join. So with this caveat, I decided to ask TheJoker, after getting permission from Ban, since now that we're playing remotely a third party web-based software He was interested but have never played at tabletop RPG. Joker: So i have no idea how to even start dnd. I'll just be a bearded human male specialising in the art of beard magic and the beard gives me max charisma. Me: Hmmm sha...

If a god frowns upon those who do not pray during specific times but instead are spending quality time with their families during those times, you have to wonder whether such god is worth worshipping or not.

Ban and I were down with flu for like more than a week. He recovered faster, as usual. So recently, I felt well enough (still coughed out thick yellow phlegm occassionally) to suggest cleaning the apartment. It hadn't been cleaned for about a month. Ban: You know, we won't be having guests over any more (since we're playing D&D remotely via internet). Me: So no need to clean ar? Just let the dust accumulate and we just breathe it in, is it? Ban: *Laughed* Me: *Laughed*

After taking Oxynorm twice daily , dad's breathlessness is gone. However, during the period before the next appointment, more symptoms (re)appeared: Huge lump going to the back. It's now painful even without touching it. Previously was painful only if touched. Leg pain. Leg pain when first start walking but subside a little if keep on walking. Knee pain.  Back pain.  Eyeball pain. Much better now after eyedrop from Penaga KK. Vomit quite regularly.  Numbness until pain.  Blood in urine. Twice past 2 months. During that period, dosage of adhoc medicine taken was: Oxynorm breakthrough 3 times a day on top of the 2 times daily intake for breathlessness. Norgesic 2-3 times a day. Seldom take paracetamol.  During the next appointment with PCU: Worried about lump (afraid might be the cause of bad bowel movement) Pain: Fentanyl 75mcg (increased from 50), Oxynorm 10gm 3x daily (from 2x). Take breakthrough when needed Constipation: she felt his passin...

Few weeks ago, after a swim, my right ear was clogged up. This does happen from time to time (to either ear) and it usually goes away after a while but not this time though. I know I shouldn't have done this: I used a cotton bud to try to absorb the excess liquid. I didn't push all the way in though. After it persisted for a few days, I consulted my GP. I visited him like 4 to 5 times for this issue, during which he prescribed: oral medicine and ear drop for inflammation, ear drop to get rid of wax, and papase On the last visit, he said the inner ear looked healthy and so my hearing should gradually get better. Admittedly, it was better than at the start but it was still not normal. So after a few more days, I consulted an ENT specialist at SJMC, Dr Sia. I told him everything. Fortunately I wasn't reprimanded for using the cotton bud 😄 After taking a look at both ears, he proceeded to clean both of them. Boy, there was lots of wax. More on the right side but th...

When I'm healthy, I eat well. Balanced meal. Rarely fried, oily or even spicy. I drink lots of water. I exercise for 40 minutes 5 to 7 times a week. I take multivitamins and mineral supplement. My only vice is sleeping late e.g. 2am. So I supposed this one weakness is the cause of my recurring illness ? Regardless, I should sleep much earlier. I can't remember how often I caught this illness when I was working full-time in Singapore. I definitely slept earlier then. Exercised for 1 hour 3 times a week. Healthy balanced meal overall. More stress though hehehe. The GP that I currently consult regularly seldom prescribe antbiotics. So, unless the symptoms are obviously serious, he won't prescribe it during the first consultation. However, I'm tempted to just ask him prescribe if I know it's this particular illness because in the past, I ended needing them anyway. So why not just cut short my suffering, right? Sleepness night is a torture.

I rarely record a gameplay. This casual game, though, was interesting not only because of its fast capture but the manner of which we got both points. Oh, also I got Player of the Game :)

There are currently only two underlords: Anessix and Hobgen. I think there are two more incoming, judging from the pictures and emblems in game. One the first few days, Hobgen was popular, especially with 6-mage composition. Later, and what seems like a long time, Anessix became the favourite after players realised broken was the Break mechanism and her annoying heals. Hobgen came up top after a patch where both of these were nerfed. The sun didn't shine on Hobgen long enough: another patch recently nerfed him and possibly slightly buffed Anessix, depending on your view of the tweaks. It's simultaneously hilarious and sad. The game time is too long. They brought back round damage recently and that cut down the time by about 3 rounds. Still too long in my opinion. There's a danger that this game will slowly die because of lack of mobile gamers. Would you play a 45 - 60 min game on your mobile phone? Not likely, right? Here are the winning matches (29th to 36th win) aft...

The first time Ban and I ate at An Viet was at Gurney Plaza in Penang. We met my old-time friend and his boyfriend there. Years later, An Viet appeared at Paradigm Mall, coincidentally taking over the shoplot that used to be occupied by another Vietnamese restaurant. A unique feature of An Viet is this: there is no extra charge for ordering more noodle/rice and so they usually advise customers to take the smaller size if they are undecided on which one to choose (there are 3 sizes). Also, they'll make a 10 cents donation to a food programme for each table where all food has been consumed i.e. no leftover. Their soup is delicate and clear. Definitely not for fans of Seremban Beef Noodle. Admittedly, I prefer heavier flavour but it's nice to have this once a while. Unlike all other Vietnamese restaurants I've been to in Malaysia, you can have as much add-on vegetables and herbs as you want. Other restaurants always give paltry amount of beansprout and so I'm...

Turned out that our Cleric player couldn't make it and so I rolled out an alternate character i.e. Fighter 1 + Warlock 2 which I later I made permanent (rather than just ad hoc for the 2nd session) for the following reasons: There are 4 players. Ban will run the session as long as there are at least 3 players. So having only one tank means that there may be sessions that the party is without a tank, which had already happened twice in a row. Hence, as Ban mentioned to me privately earlier, we need at least 2 tanks. Key features of this tanky character: (1) One level dip into Fighter gives access to Heavy Armor (essential to be a tank) and Martial Weapon proficiencies, Second Wind every rest (short or long) which synergises with Warlock's feature of regaining expended spell slots every rest, higher starting hit point (by 2) and proficiency in Constitution saving throw which helps with maintaining concentration spells such as Hex and Darkness. This delays character's p...

We had a session where I played Warlock with Pact of the Tome (aka 'Tomelock') and boy the first encounter was much harder than it should be because our Life Cleric, who volunteered to be our sole tank, couldn't make it until much later. Player had emergency in real life. We did win the encounter but our Valor Bard had to roll death saving throws 😓 I might need to roll out my alternate character (Fighter level 1 + Warlock level 2) in case the Cleric player couldn't make it for second session (day after funeral 😢). From the encounter, I realised I underestimated the problem using Unseen Servant and Hex: they both use bonus action to give command and to transfer to another target, respectively. So I decided to drop the former and take up Speak with Animals, after having consulted the Bard player. As I stated in previous post, playing Tomelock effectively is dependent on GM giving avenues of looting/buying ritual spells to be scribed into the tome (same case for al...

Our regular chap fan shop moved a few shops away. In time, they also added 3 stalls serving bamboo noodle and Hakka noodle, Western food, and pork noodle. The last two are handled by the same vendor. The bamboo noodle is actually the typical wantan mee but using bamboo noodle. It's not flat like the typical wantan noodle and so far, it had no hint of chemical taste that sometimes comes with wantan noodle. This dish tasted exactly like wantan noodle but better: it was less greasy. The portion above was small and yet the amount of noodle was quite large and slightly more char siew than the typical wantan mee. I also asked for more vegetables. The wantan itself was probably the star of the dish: it wasn't dry and quite flavourful. Sometimes, if I don't particular like the meat dishes offered by the chap fan shop, I would order a bowl of wantan. RM 3 for 6 pieces, if I'm not mistaken, is a good deal, I think. The downside of this dish is its price tag: RM 7...

Ban started another D&D 5e campaign, his 3rd time as a game master (GM) after one Ironclaw and one 5e. Because he intends for this campaign to last long enough fort our characters to hit level 12 (from 3), his mad husband scoured the player's handbook and looked at every single class and subclass for its feature up to that level 😅 I managed to trim the list down to 'only' 18 subclasses 😄: (1) Barbarian: Berserker (maybe) (2) Barbarian: Totem Warrior (maybe) (3) Bard: Lore (4) Bard: Valor (maybe) (5) Cleric: Life (if get Shillelagh via Magic Initiate) (5) Cleric: Light * (6) Druid: Moon (7) Monk: Open Hand (8) Monk: Shadow (9) Paladin: Devotion (10) Paladin: Veangence (11) Rogue: Assassin (maybe) (12) Rogue: Arcane Trickster (13) Sorceror: Draconic * (14) Warlock: Fiend * (15) Warlock: Great Old One (16) Wizard: Abjuration (17) Wizard: Conjuration (18) Wizard: Divination * denotes the 3 subclasses that made the cut. As always, I got Ban's ...

Turns out that it was true I didn't play any more matches, ranked or casual, after the last update . The Big Upate lived up to its name: it really shook the game in several major ways. The bad: Terrible UI. The most glaring one is the removal of mirror imaging when you view opponent's position in between battles. Why take out such a useful feature? Terrible visual. A single white dot enoting CD? Is this really an improvement over the previously clear progressing white line? Also, the heroes' model look childish now. Previously, they looked polished. The lack of time to shop after end of battle, wasting time in terms of economy and delay in potential upgrades. Can't carry forward the free reroll. Why? The good: Variety of composition. Introduction of several more Alliances, and possibly due to certain tweaks, make this possible. The 'Jail' feature results in different meta everyday and so it's less boring. Here's my first win after the Big U...

There are two dishes in Singapore that I cannot find in Malaysia. One is Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle and the other is this: I tried this the first year I studied in Singapore and I love it ever since. It wasn't rare but not common either. I know that the food court at Pavilion in KL served Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle, which was just moderately similar to that in Singapore but at least it was quite delicious. I have yet to come across this beef noodle though. Anyone knows?

Nest is a restaurant of 5 restaurants. It's like a combination of a food court with the traditional restaurant. Its menu is like 5 separate menus amalgamated into one book. So one day, after yoga class, I tried the following from Pizzazone: The banana smoothie had good texture but was surprisingly a little sour. The prawn curry pizza took ages to arrive. I can't remember waiting that long for a pizza before. Although the bread texture was good, thin and quite crispy, it was a little saltier than expected. There wasn't any curry taste. Even if it was supposed to have a subtle curry taste, it was overpowered by the saltiness. The prawn was meaty and springy. It was a tad disappointing but I would go to Nest again to try the poke bowl from Tail & Fin.

So there's going to be a huge update very soon which will introduce new Alliances, new heroes, changes to existing heroes' alliance and new feature. I've been swinging between Boss 3 and 4 recently and was wondering when I would string a set of wins to get to Boss 5. Here are some videos (as an update from previous post ), probably last batch before the significant patch: After quite a while I tried this composition again. I love builds that include Mages :) Another Scrappy + Mage composition. A little frustrated not 3-starring Timbersaw and Tinkerer since Scrappies are uncontested. Still, happy with 3rd place. 24th win! Hit Boss 4 for the third time @@ Hit Boss 4 for the 4th time :) I hope to march onward to Boss 5 soon. Quite proud at how I managed to whittle the winner's lead from 68-18 to 22-2. I faltered at the end because I wasn't quick enough to reposition. It's the weakest part of my gaming skill. 25th win! I think th...

Highly intelligent but also overweight and this friend knows these.  He's been on his self-styled diet plan for at least the past decade.  There's either no change or he has gained weight during this lost period.  In fact, ironically, he gaine weight after getting teeth bracers 😲.  On top of that, he has high cholesterol and sleep apnea. Hence, it's important for him to lose weight. Whenever we talk about his diet, Ban sometimes says, "His diet plan is eat-whatever-I-want plan."  I half believed it...until recently: Me: Are you really on a diet? Friend: ? Me: 3 days ago, you had teh ais. 2 days ago, you had a large fried chicken drumstick Friend: What's wrong with friend chicken? Me: *Eyes widened in disbelief* Is it healthy? Friend: ......... it's only one piece Me: But you had unhealthy food and drinks for 3 consecutive days. Yesterday, you had curry chicken and your rice was drowned in curry sauce. Friend: What's wrong with rice with cur...

Looks good, right? Unfortunately, the noodle was a little hard and the sauce wasn't sufficiently flavourful. Both Ban and I was quite excited to try it because it's quite hard to get 'dry' udon. We had this just before we watched the locally produced movie 'M for Malaysia'. Good movie, regardless of your political leaning. Coincidentally, that night marked the start of my long period of illness, interrupted by only a few days of full recovery, which I'm still suffering from its lingering effects :(

Dr P of Adventist Hospital recommended that we consult oncologist for possible systemic treatment of cancer for the rest of dad's body. So we consulted Dr D of Mount Miriam. Unfortunately, since she was not in possession of previous CT scans' images (done at GH), it was better to get a scan done at GH for comparison. Depending on the comparative results, she recommended: (1) Radiotherapy if there was significant progress of cancer in one area. (2) Chemotherapy if there was significant progress of cancer in a few areas. (3) Monitoring if there was no significant changes. The proximal femur replacement surgery got rid of a significant source of pain and thus improved his quality of life greatly. However, his daily shortness of breath was affecting his walking and talking. Thus, we took Dr P's and D's suggestion to explore treatment options with the GH's oncologist. To do that, we tried getting PCU doctor to refer dad to oncologist once more, which she did...

After about 40 days, my dad has recovered sufficiently to be brought home. Yay! He needed help only in two instances: someone to extend lazy chair when he got on it, and then to help to retract it back when he got up. We're looking for a shop that sells better lazy chair (higher so that he can do all these himself) so that he can try it out. Personally, I don't like him using the current once because it is a little out of shape and so it's bad for his posture. Jasper Lodge's physiotherapist listed the following exercise for my dad to practice: (1) With leg extended, move it front and back 15-20 times, and then to the side 15-20 times. Repeat them with the other leg. (2) Walk with walker. (3) Walk without walker. (4) (Half) squat 40 times. (5) On the spot marching, while holding on to something. (6) On the spot marching, unassisted. (7) Walk up and down staircase, two days once. Dr P of Adventist Hospital added the following: (8) Stand assisted. Be...

I was gone from most of my usual games for a time because I was playing Fell Seal almost exclusively. I still did watch streamers playing Underlords and Overwatch every now and then. Recently, I sort of stop playing Fell Seal because I was hungering for competitive games and so I picked up, among others, Underlords again. The meta is no longer exclusively 3-starred composition. It seems to have veered towards "good stuff" composition i.e. getting the 4 and 5 cost units but unlike the bad old days of legendary meta, you still need Alliance bonus synergy to fit these in to win. So here's a couple of videos as an update the milestones I've achieved: Back to Boss 4 :) 23rd win since two months ago, incluing the hiatus period though.

It's so hard to get Seremban Beef Noodle outside Seremban. No beef noodle, Seremban version or not, is as good as that one. This one came close:   It is the best beef noodle outside Seremban. The 'laksa' noodle though was a little hard. Surprisingly, the kuay teow version was much better and that was what I've been having since then. For some reasons, I can't have the soup version, here or in Penang. I get stomachache @@. So it's only dry version for me. Beware that its 'small' portion is actually quite huge. So even for those who normally upsize, I suggest trying the small one first.

We conveyed to the nursing home's manager Dr P's instruction - also written in a letter - to have my dad go for hip extension exercise . Later, after discussing with my dad, I came up with 3 milestones for him to achieve to be sufficiently independent at home: (1) Able to get on and off the bed without people's assistance. (2) Able to stand without people's assistance.   (3) Sufficient walking speed, at least with a walker. We were initially concerned about the competency of the nursing home's physiotherapist. For a while, she didn't get my dad to do hip extension exercise. Some days, there weren't any sessions. Fortunately, my dad exercised on his own during those times. We shared our concern with the home's manager. Our issue was that we weren't exeprienced in judging whether the therapist's programme was sufficiently vigourous or not. We even started researching other nursing homes but none ticked as many boxes as Jasper Lodge. T...

The following photo might be disturbing for some: it's a photo of the part of my dad's femur that was surgically remove d...along with the tumours on it.

During the last trip to Singapore with Ban, a friend recommended this to me. Once there, I noticed that it was already prepacked and refrigerated. I usually don't like cold taufufa but boy, this one was great. It just burst and melted in my mouth the moment I munched it. Highly recommended!

I was supposed to be in Butterworth toay while Ban was supposed to be on the way but my ilness resulted in postponement my mum's appointment with the psychiatric clinic. As a result, Ban and I celebrated earlier and this time we invited William and Derek to join us as they were they ones who introduced us to each other. Unfortunately, due to last minute arrangement (yes, our schedule was packed!), Derek couldn't make it. As usual, we dined at Kinpachi. I was surprised to learn that it was William's first time there. We had a good time there. Since I'm sick, I doubt we're doing anything fancy today. I just want to rest at home and so would want to minimise my time outside. Happy 10th anniversary, honey dearest. Thanks for being a good person and for loving me. I know my presence has enlivened your life but more importantly I hope you feel much loved from me. Muack!

Recently, I came across an actuarial report that alarmed me. It was an actuarial review/valuation (title of report was "review" but they had prepared "actuarial valuation study") of a country's social secrutiy retirement system. Common actuarial practice for such review/valuation is to determine and select assumptions that best reflect the system going forward. This is codified into professional code of conduct/professional standard/guidance note of various established prominent professional actuarial bodies. Yet, in this report, it was stated that the client had the final say in selecting methodology and assumptions. Clearly, the actuary wasn't given the independence they needed as it would be absurd to assume otherwise i.e. their client gave it but the actuary declined. This just reduced the actuary to a mere highly skilled technician. Even if various caveats were inserted to clearly disclaim their responsibility in selecting assumptions (which I sti...

I remember a year or so ago, there was a stage where my dad regularly expressed his worry of being a burden to his children, which I sincerely denied so. It is still true that his physical ailment (i.e. his cancer) or my mum's mental ailment (i.e. bipolar disorder) is not a burden to me. Those I can help them e.g. plan their hospital appointments, be familiar with the chronoligal development of their ailments and their medication; journey to Butterworth and stay there for a while to bring them to their various appointments; asking doctors pertinent questions, giving them relevant information and help them to rephrase their questions to my parents. Yes, it's exhausting but I can do it. What I cannot handle, and it frustrates me, is their unreasonable behaviour/attitude. For example, (1) It's understandable that my dad isn't happy being at nursing home despite him seeing the necessity but it frustrates me that he is making it an even worse experience by not doing t...

This is what happens when I let Ban customise my in-game chracters according to their portraits: He loves to spend hours on customising his characters. Sometimes that's all he does in a gaming session lol. Muack!

Saw this at a highway R&R in the north (probably Tapah): Interesting. I wonder how popular it is.

Five days after consultation with PCU and thirteen days after discharged from Adventist Hospital , my sister and I brought my dad to the hospital for follow-up appointment with Dr P. The specialist told us that dad was using the walker incorrectly: he wasn't supposed to walk into the 'box' but only to its back. Later, I messaged the manager of Jasper Lodge to get her staff to adjust the walker a little higher so that my dad wouldn't need to bent over using it this way. Dr P checked the surgical wound on dad's leg as well as tested his leg. (1) He was happy with the good healing of the wound, without infection. (2) During surgery, he noticed that the soft tissue around dad's left hip had hardened. This might explain why dad couldn't fully straighten his left leg while lying on the bed. This is a concern as it affects his walking. So Dr P wrote a letter to the physiotherapist on appropriate exercise, especially one that helped with hip extension. My d...

....from a single tree!

Dad changed his mind a few times about staying at nursing home but always relented each time I reminded him the reasons we put forth for him to recuperate there. However that didn't stop him fron nitpicking when my sister brought him to Jasper Lodge. Geram! The final straw for me, when I was speaking with him on the phone, was about food. I reprimanded him for sweating over the small stuff and that he had to think of the important ones: the reasons why he was there. He hadn't even been there for 24 hours, for goodness sake. It was obviously he already made up his mind that he didn't want to even try and so spewing out negative comments. It didn't help that the pain in his leg flared up when the staff there tried to lift his legs onto the bed (he was already sitting on the bed. "This is a bad sign." *Groan*. Upon my sister's suggestion, they brought up a lazy chair, newer and sturdier than the one at home, and that worked for him. Phew. Dad: I try fo...

Results as compared to 4 months ago :                                 Apr 2019          Aug 2019          Ref. range Total cholesterol           5.0                 5.5                  < 5.2 HDL ("good")               1.86              2.16                > 1.04 LDL ("bad")            ...

The day after surgery , dad's pain subsided and he could talk in sentences. In fact, he recovered gradually each day. He still couldn't walk with walker 2 days after surgery, as that was the doctor's expectation, and so he was kept one more day despite dad pressuring him to discharge him that night. He made substantial progress a day later and thus was discharged, with no charge for the extra day (because it was supposed to be counted another day if discharged after 2pm). Also, to our pleasant suprise, the final bill was around RM 39k. Yes, there's actually going to be a small amount of refund. Looks like the doctor followed through with his offer of discount . At this point, there is already significant improvement over pre-surgery conditions: pain in left leg no longer flares up whenever transition to lazy chair and he no longer has to take Oxynorm. Once a while he takes Norgesic/paracetamol for his back pain while sitting on a chair. Swelling of his legs, due to...

On Sunday, Ban and I checked my dad into Adventist Hospital ward in preparation for the surgery on Monday . The first problem we had was the deposit requested: 40k! This amount was nearly the same as the estimated medical bill. How did they expect people to fork out that amount under normal circumstances? We were further bewildered when the cashier asked, "Are you paying with cash or card?" What? There are people walking around with a bagful of 40k cash? It was fortunate that Ban was with me, and that my credit card was issued from Singapore. Hence, after some stressful moment, we managed to pay with combination of cash (we spent lots of time at the ATM machine 😬) and two credit cards. The ward was spacious despite being a "open" ward: it had only 7 beds. Nurses were helpful and professional. As expected, my dad was initially uncomfortable on the bed and wanted a lazy chair, which wasn't available. So he made do with adjusting the bed head's and/or le...

After the recommendation of getting hearing aid and the try out of samples at GH , I tried to get my mum to 20dB, a hearing centre recommended by GH audiologist, to obtain the hearing aid (cheaper with letter from GH, fyi) but it canceled many times due to mum's bad dizziness and/or migraine :( Recently, she finally felt well enough to go on this 35-min trip to Bukit Mertajam. We told them that mum tried 3 hearing aids and chose the Resound Enya other the other two, and that they all cost about RM 3.5k per piece. They were quite puzzled because it cost only RM 2.2k, which incidentally matched the information the first GH audiologist gave. In response to their query, I said that we were ok to get an aid that cost more than RM 2.2k but within our budget of RM 3k+ if it was significantly better than Resound Enya. They retested mum's hearing since GH didn't provide the graphical results. With the data, they used a computer software to calibrate Unitron Moxi RIC for mum to ...

Eight days after having consulted Dr D , we arrived at Adventist Hospital for appointment with Dr P. He remembered us as well the cancelation of the proximal femur replacement surgery. He told us that Dr D also spoke with him on the phone about my dad's case. We updated him the results of both Oct 18 and May 19 CT scan results, which showed mild progression. He checked dad and asked us a few questions to be certain the pain was emanating from his left hip and not elsewhere. He ordered an X-ray taken that day itself. Result showed that the bone was on the verge of fracturing, due to the lesions caused by cancer, and that that was causing the pain. Once again, he recommended the surgery, where 12cm of the femur would be replaced with a stainless steel rod (that last for 10 to 15 years; the most expensisve version, made of titanium, woud last 30-40 years) which would provide buffer against cancer progression (i.e. in case cancer was further down than what was shown on scans and ...

Since the last post , I won another 16 more times i.e. total of 22 wins of ranked matches. Yes, I reinstalled it after learning more via guides online and gameplays. There had been several patches with some major changes and consequences, one of which I am so happy about: the move from the legendary meta. Basically, the meta used to be like this: get to mid-game with solid Alliance bonuses. Thereafter, the player with the most number of tier 5 units and/or the most starred onces win, even if that meant (and often that was the case) breaking the Alliance bonuses. Oftentimes, you would need at least one of them to finish in the top 3. So stupid. Now, you can get to to top 4 (they extended to 4th position i.e. positions below that result in lost of ranked points) without legendary. Key to winning is getting as many 3-starred units as possible but retaining the importance of Alliance bonuses. It is only when players have equally strong in 3-starred units, bonuses and board control, tha...

The next day, we visited Dr D at Mount Miriam Cancer Hospital. This appointment was obtained much earlier, independent of the walk-in to consult PCU doctors . As always, there were many patients wanting to consult her but this time it took longer than usual for her to finally see us: almost 3.5 hours after the appointed time @@. It was worthed it though, as with all previous visits. We updated her with what had happened since the last time we consulted her. The main concern now was the pain in my dad's left leg and so we were seeking her opinion on what was the best thing to do. She confirmed with my dad that his priority now was to treat the pain in his leg. So rare for doctors to find out from patients their priorities. Oftentimes, they simply assumed what those are. Humph! She advised us to seek to consult GH oncologist, via PCU (since oncologist discontinued follow-up appointment, presumably because dad didn't want to do chemotherapy ), and get them to coordinate wi...

CW had been a great help for my dad so far. He did all that was asked for in a schedule, that he agreed in advance, and more. In fact, he pampered my dad hehehe. On a related note, each time my dad came back from hospital appointment, he felt exhausted. Although we didn't think it would help much, with CW's agreement, we asked him to follow along on a trip to Penang GH so that my dad could be wheeled in the push chair we brought along. That would had been difficult and time consuming for me alone to handle, on top of doing everything else e.g. drive and park car, getting medicine from pharmacy, etc. Conclusion: my dad wasn't exhausted and so we would be asking CW to come along to hospital. The trip we made was a walk-in to consult PCU, three days after the last appointment . The purpose was two-fold: Dad had watery poor and very soft poo twice each on Saturday, none on Sunday and small amount of normal poo on Monday. I was concerned that it would be a repeat of previo...