Here's My Story

Four weeks after the maiden appointment , I was back at SJMC for results of the previous diagnostic tests and another full-blood count ('FBC') test. Results: 1. Vitamin B12 and serum folate were higher than the max number of the diagnostic range 😅 Should go down by now since I've stopped taking multivitamin. 2. Anti-nuclear Antibody titre value of 80, which was right at the border (desired value is less than 80). Comment in the pathology report: "Weak ANA of low titre is not usually associated with systemic automimmune disease. These titres may be found in approximately 5% of normal patoents and with increased frequency in ageing subjects." 3. WBC (white blood cell) count dropped, again, to 2.6. This worries me because there's a consistent pattern here: 3.3, 3.2, 3.2, 3.4, 2.8, 2.9, 2.6. Everything else was ok, thank goodness. Course of action: 1. Monitor. Redo FBC 8 weeks later. 2. If WBC drops below 2, will check bone marrow. If bone marrow is normal, then ...

This is what they teach here in Malaysia, under the subject of Science: you have to be married to be able to have babies. There was no such (nonsensical) 'fact' three decades ago. Must be a recent scientific discovery. Surely Malaysia qualifies for Nobel Prize for this breakthrough?

(continued from here ) So many of Wale's duchies have drifted into Ireland that only two duchies are left. The problem was that one of them was going that way in about 15 years time, not enough time for me to conquer enough land to establish the Empire of Brittania. So, when that goes, the Duke of Cornwall could then create the title Kingdom of Wales (because Duchy of Cornwall would be the sole duchy of the kingdom) and would just automatically be independent of me since we would be of the same rank. I thought of a few ways to solve this problem. One way which I initially favoured was to create the Kingdom of Scotland and destroy the Kingdom of Ireland title and thereby halt the de jure drift of the Wales's duchies into Ireland. Problem is that I'm not sure I could hold on to Scotland after that because I have no land in it and I cannot experiment because this is Ironman mode. The other way was to just use brute force revocation of tiles from Duke of Cornwall but that riske...

In the last game, I started out as King of Poland and managed to grow my realm such that I was emperor of three empires i.e Wendish, Scandinavia and Carpathia and close to clinching Empire of Rus. I also held 6 kingdoms:  Poland, Lithuania, Pomerania, Britany, Great Moravia and Magyar. I had 22 vassals who were kings, so powerful that they successfully waged war upon the Mongol Empire. I had half of HRE empire But alas, I left it for far too long (about 3.5 years!) and now it's no longer compatible with the current patch. Some stuff doesn't load up properly :( Recently, I decided to start a game in Ironman mode. Jeng jeng jeng! Lol, crazy, right? Especially after my sole attempt so far . Not only that, I've also set an objective to use Tanistry succession law throughout the campaign, which also I had done only once before .  It seems that there were quite a number of changes since I last played. Most was a pleasant surprise. A few was a rude shock. I'll be blogging my j...

It has been more than 2 months since I had that rather vivid dream of my dad . Recently, I briefly recounted it to my younger sister (she forgot about it) and I was surprised that I was still emotional about it. Incidentally, I haven't deleted a folder, in my phone, that contains the 'painful' period he went through before his death 😢 Due to the ban on interstate travel, I couldn't celebrate Chinese New Year with my mum, my sis and her family in Butterworth. Thus, I requested my sister to set aside some food for dad for reunion dinner. I video called them that night and spoke a few words to my dad. I smiled inwardly when I saw the food they offered him: steamboat with a huge prawn there, in clear soup. Something that he definitely loved. He loved all sort of Chinese food. Most wary of Western food, with lamb shank being the exception. Pa, hope you enjoyed the food :)

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In the last 10 years or so, I rarely needed to take omeprazole to treat acid reflux. The last episode was few months ago: I had this persistent throat irritation or sorethroat that didn't seem to go away i.e. it went away for a day or two and it was back again for a few days. My then GP didn't seem to be convinced that it might be due to acid reflux. After tolerating it for a while longer, I decided to take omeprazole (something I had done in the past). It worked! The information sheet recommended that, for my condition, I should take it for 4 weeks. When I tried buying it at the nearby pharmacy for the third time, they asked me the reason for it. They then recommended this: The theory is that the lack of digestive enzymes causes indigestion that then, among other things, causes acid reflux. The recommendation is one sachet, mixed with water, taken together with a meal. I chose dinner because I usually felt the effect of the acid after dinner. It was effective. After a month o...

 

Ever since I started going for annual general health screening (full blood count, liver function, kidney function, cholesterol level, CEA and CA 19.9 tumour marker) few years ago, I noticed that I had low WBC, a condition that the pathology lab labeled as leucopenia.  My then GP (now retired) didn't think much about it after a second test few months later showed similar level and I was doing fine. However, the latest level of 2.8 got me worried. Historically, it had been 3.3, 3.2, 3.2, amd 3.4 (normal range is (4 - 11). I consulted a friend, who is an anaesthetist, and he in turn consulted his father, an internal medicine specialist. They both advised me to consult a hematologist. I then made an appointment with Dr Alan Teh at SJMC, at an ungodly hour of 9 am 😁 Apparently he sees new patient early in the morning. In summary, Possible causes of low WBC : 1. Lack  of Vit B12, folate. Not likely because I take multi-vit supplement 2. Autoimmune disorder 3. Bone marrow not produc...