Here's My Story

I was infected with Covid-19 a second time during a trip to Butterworth. My throat felt a little scratchy and a little phlegmy late Thursday. By Friday, that became sorethroat and the backdrip worsened too. It got progressively worsened until I started coughing while trying to sleep. Tried taking lozenges, antihistamine and phelgm thinner but to no avail. At just past 2am, I gave up and drove to Klinik Putra (Bagan), a 24-hour clinic. It's the first GP clinic I came across that required patients to walk in barefoot i.e. leave foot apparels outside. Despite stating a couple of times that my throat was red, I wasn't prescribed antibiotic. I was prescribed cough syrup (Prospan), the suppressant type so that I could sleep; antihistamine (ceterizine), lozenges and thymol. RM 96 @@ Well, I treat the premium as payment for the 24-hour service. I am impressed that they called a few days to check on me. The next day, it was confirmed that I had fever and so I consulted my usual GP in Bu...

Recently, I fell ill: lethargic and mild fever. Took paracetamol but still the mild fever came back repeatedly. Then I had a thought: I noticed that there was burning sensation in my perineum when I peed and I seems to want to urinate more frequently. Could it be UTI and could fever be a symptom? Apparently yes. Consulted doctor the next morning. She wanted to order a urine test but given that the only symptom left was the gradually-improving burning sensation, she prescribed 3 sachets of urinal alkalinizer. Unfortunately, fever returned later in the afternoon :( Hence I consulted the doctor again the next day. Since it was quite obvious I had UTI, doctor prescribed antibiotic and more alkalinizer despite ordering a urine test. I myself would have asked for antibiotic if she hadn't suggested it first. I continued to have fever for two days while the burning sensation continued to fade but I had to purchase two more sachets of alkalinizer from a pharmacy. Once the urine test was out...

The cholesterol results as compared to 3 months ago :   Significant improvement! Total cholesterol and LDL are now below the personalised benchmarks. "What did you do differently?," my sister asked. None that can explain it. In fact, cholesterol should go up due to (1) and (2): (1)  Exercise regime not much different during the 3-month period. In fact, few days before test, I hardly exercise because of UTI. (2) Diet: no difference. Lack of HDL the week before test because didn't prepare salmon don (I do this once a week) due to illness. (3) Fast nearly 11 hours before test. I will try to repeat (3) for the next test as an experiment. 

For years already, I've been counting down to age 50. No, not that I look forward to enter late-life crisis. It's a milestone for two additional medical actions to take: shingles vaccination and FOB test. Shingles vaccination is only for those aged 50+ because clinical trials were done only on those cohort, presumably it's the cohort most at risk of contracting shingles. Current vaccine requires two shots (2 to 4 months ago) and it lasts a liftime, thank goodness. Not cheap though: price is around RM 900 - 1000 per shot. Coincidentally, Ban's mother mentioned shingles vaccine but for a different reason: there is a study that shows "among the vaccinated, those who remained cognitively healthy were less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, and those who did develop dementia were nearly 30% less likely to die from it over the course of nine years." "More research is needed to confirm the findings—but the study is a particularly strong one......becau...

Exercise. Shower. Chill by playing games or read on laptop for like 30-60 minutes while waiting for hair to full dry. Then nap for 30 minutes. This gives me the best sleep. Yes, even better than the night sleep usually. Unfortunately, it's only for 30 minutes. The effect is no different if I nap for longer, up to, say, 45 minutes. Closer to 1 hour, I'll feel a little worse, usually, unless I'm much more tired than usual or ill.

Three weeks after the last appointment , we were back at Dr Ling's room. This time she voluntarily told us that the swab test confirmed the fungal infection diagnosis. She was also satisfied with mum's recovery after performing a physical examination. After we told her that despite mum having no prawn allergy for most of her life, the past 3 times she had prawns consistently caused itchy rashes. Mum showed her a photo of the rashes, which the Dr Ling said was bad. Hence, mum was advised to avoid prawns, regardless of the results of the 107 allergens test. I also signed up for the test. Dr Ling explained that the allergen test is testing for the presence of IgE. There are 5 types of antibodies i.e. IgG, IgM, IgA, IgE, and IgD. Allergic reaction that's caused by production of IgE to fight allergens is the most serious compared to other types of antibodies and hence allergy test focuses on IgE. So, even if the IgE allergy test is negative for prawns, mum's allergic reactio...

The cholesterol results as compared to 4 months ago :                                   Nov 25                 Mar 26                 Ref Total cholesterol            6.1                       6.7                    < 5.2  (<6)* Non-HDL                      4.4                       5.0                    < 3.4    HDL ("good")              1.67                    1.73              ...

I came to know of allergy test, covering 52 allergens, from Pathlab sometime ago. I did one nearly 6 years ago , covering 35 allergens. The former cost RM 1,200. My usual doctor's clinic quoted a staggering RM 1,500! So when my sister highligted that Klinik Dr Yeoh, clinic that I go to if I am in Butterworth and I'm sick, charged RM 560, I took up that offer. While waiting for the results, Ban and I brought mum to her first follow-up appointment at Bagan Specialist Centre and we saw a poster for allergy test covering 107 allergens for RM 380 (it's now RM 416). Meh. Here's the result:   Nothing! Not even mild, unlike previously. Ban suggested that I go for the 107 allergens test. My sister agreed. So I would be doing that together with my mum .

Besides reading news and interacting with people directly or via WhatsApp, I do the following daily to exercise my brain: (1) Wordle This game was the rage (many?) years ago. Aim of the game is to guess correctly the 5-letter word of the day. You have 6 tries. Correct letter in the correct position is highlighted in green while correct letter in the wrong position is highlighted in yellow. (2) Nerdle Aim of the game is to guess correctly the mathematical formula composed of 8 numbers and mathematical symbols (+, -, *, /, =). You have 6 tries. Correct number/symbol in the correct position is highlighted in green while correct number/symbol in the wrong position is highlighted in maroon. (3) Nerdle decoy There are two puzzles here: (a) Numbers version: aim is to form a mathematical formula with all given numbers and symbols except one which is the decoy. (b) Word version: aim is to form a word with all letters except for one. Two clues will be given, one at a time, after a certain t...

During the one-month period  in between sessions, pain was triggered by Palm pressed down on exercise mat to open the chest. Slicing chicken/pork vertically. Horizontal movement when scooping fish meat off its bone. The pain was only slight. I believed that it was still an improvement. Lee, the therapist, tested the thumb/wrist and then the arm. He postulated that the issue might be elsewhere e.g. the elbow. He then proceeded to massage the hand and a bit of the shoulder, while regularly asking feedback from me (whether it was painful or not). Finally, he asked me to treat a 1kg dumbbell as a knife and to do the slicing motion. It still elicited pain but very slight. Then he adjusted my top right back and voila! The test didn't elicit any pain @@ As for the exercise regime, still do everything but adjsut as follows: (1) Do the thumbs-up exercise (nicknamed Y shape thumbs-up) on exercise mat by lying face-down and lifting up the body slightly. x30 (2) Do (1) but with T shape i.e. h...

As blogged earlier this year , I did my health screening before my annual trip to Australia mid-Dec. WBC dropped again, this time from 3.4 to 3. Hope it doesn't drop below 3, which would be my cue to consult the haematologist again. Neutrophil count dropped from 2.1 to 1.7 but still above 1.5. Lymphocyte count dropped from 1.0 to 0.9 (ref 1.5-4.5) while  monocyte count increased from 0.2 to 0.3 (ref 0.4-1.1), which are still similar to previous two years' results. Interestingly, I was a little unwell, which should have had increased WBC. The cholesteroal results as compared to 4 months ago :                                   Jul 25                  Nov 25                  Ref Total cholesterol            6.1              ...

During the 3-week period in between sessions, pain was triggered by pouring water from the kettle where I just moved by wrist, scooping out soup by using a ladle, with a twisting motion, closing a container by turning its lid clockwise, and slicing off the skin of a salmon fillet. All of them except the first occurred only once despite doing it multiple times. Quite strange. As usual, when the pain occurred, my initial feeling was that it was located between the base of the thumb and wrist, probably just above the wrist but when I pressed that part, it didn't trigger. Instead, I found spot about an index-finger below the wrist, next to the tendon, that elicited some pain. After investigating, the therapist said that my initial assessment was correct: just that the trigger for the pain was deep within in, which he did discover during the investigation. As usual, his treatment made the pain went away despite me performing all the motions that typically triggered the pain, as request...

This session was two weeks after the last . About a week before this, I noticed that dicing chicken didn't cause pain: it was more like soreness. Also, at last I could pinpoint where the pain was coming from. Oddly, it was from two places: a spot deep inside the fleshy part of the palm, below the thumb and closer to the wrist; the other spot is about one-and-a half finger line below the wrist, on the right side of the tendon. As usual, Lee checked by manipulating the hand and arm. He declared that this was the best condition so far, which I agreed. Continue with the same exercises and I can restart push-up, which he already said I could during the last session but I'm going to take it slow. I'll resume with knees down first. Next appointment is in three weeks time.   

This session was 3 weeks after the last . About a week before it, I started to be aware of which actions trigger pain or twinge: Slight pain when hand on a mat, slightly behind me, pointing backward and body leaned slightly towards it. Slight pain when dicing chicken. Noticeably lesser t han previously . Twinge at base of thumb when doing the shoulder stretch using the wall. Twinge when wiping face with towel but I now think it occurs only in the morning. Overall, it's better: triggered less often and pain intensity is much less. As usual, Lee examined the hand and arm, prodded/massaged them while getting feedback from me until finally the pain was reduced to mere twinge. He concluded that it might be posture issue. Something to do with my neck and being slightly hunched when I sat up. All exercises remained the same except replace the chest/back stretch (point (3) here ) with the following: Both arms straight out in front with hands making the thumbs' up sign. Raise arms up a...

During the two weeks after the previous session , I noticed something rather peculiar: there were more actions that triggered the pain shortly after I woke up each morning than during the rest of the day. For example, I drink a full glass of water shortly after I brush teeth. That triggers the pain. At other times, it's either no pain or so slight that I won't notice it if I don't pay attention to it. I reported this to the therapist. He proceeded to massage and prod different parts of the hand. The first several proddings didn't trigger any pain but later he found it: it was deep inside. So, as I understand it, something (a tendon?) inside was stiff and inflexible and so certain movements caused the bone to rub against it and thereby irritated it. He proceeded to explore ways to alleviate it. Took him four tries before I finally confirmed that there were no more pains when I it. The following exercises were added to the current routine: (1) Palm facing left, with finge...

During the 12 days after the last session , I took note of activities triggered the pain: Lifting the bottom of my t-shirt. Scooping up soup using huge ladle. Drinking soup with a spoon from a bowl held near me. Dicing chicken. When thumb was used to scoop up dental floss that dropped on floor. Holding phone horizontally and bringing it closer by bending elbow and wrist. 5th finger pressing Shift key while 2nd finger pressing the 8 key The good news was that when it occurred, the intensity was less. During this session, the therapist remarked that the tendon was no longer swollen. After further testing, he concluded that it was back to the original diagnosis i.e. De Quervain tenosynovitis 😔Possible repetitive actions that might cause this, that is specific to me, are using thumb to press space bar and the positioning of wrist when using keyboard. Lee massaged and used shockwave to treat the pain. As usual, the pain went away after that. I was to continue with the current exercises and...

About a week and half after the last session , there was hardly any difference 😞 After asking questions and testing the wrist, Lee concluded that it was still a tendon problem @@ One question that I couldn't answer then was what actions triggered the pain. Since then, I started observing and one action was when I lifted the bottom of my t-shirt. I messaged the therapist and he wasn't surprised: "Cause that is contracting and stretches it. So it put some pressure onto the tendon." Lee administered massage and shockwave therapy. Thereafter, he asked me to ice the tendon for 3 consecutive days after completing physio exercises. He also asked me to stop the following physio exercises: (1) The thumb mobility exercises as blogged previously i.e. (1), (2) and (3))  (2) Side mobility as blogged previously i.e.the new exercise then .  He also asked me to stop a couple of my daily exercises: bicep curl and crunches. The latter is just in case I used my hands (I placed them beh...

After about 2.5 half months, I decided to consult Lee again because although there was further improvement, the pain didn't go away. In fact, I felt pain when I helped to lift mattress, with palm placed underneath it, and when I placed palm on the exercise mat, behind me, hand facing behind and lifted the wrist slightly. Curiously, when I pulled thumb back, the pain at the base of the thumb was lesser than previously but if I held it for 10 counts, the wrist pain vanished. Lee said that it was a distraction 😅 He asked me to try a few things and one of them produced a puzzling result: one of the two ways I reproduced the wrist pain was to extend my hand forward, palm faced towards me and used the other hand to gently push the back of the palm towards me. However, as requested by Lee, I tried this with hand extended sideway, the pain was much less. He surmised that the posture of the shoulder/back was incorrect. So unlike previous sessions, time was spent on massaging the muscles ar...

Here's the latest results, compared to three months ago:                                      Apr 25                 Jul 25                  Ref Total cholesterol            6.3                       6.1                    <5.2  (<6)* Non-HDL                      4.6                       4.5                     <3.4    HDL ("good")             1.74                    1.61        ...

For the longest time, while asleep, I sometimes subconsciously stretched with my hands above my head and my feet pointing down. However, for the past year or so, three or four times when this happened, I had severe cramp in my right calf. So severe that I woke up screaming. It was scary. The first time it happened, Ban got a fright but quickly massaged the calf when he saw me gripping it. Subsequently, he was much quicker in doing so.  I consulted a doctor. If it's not frequent and/or affecting my daily routine e.g. can't walk properly, she isn't concerned.  I recently have a theory: for a couple of years or so, I switched the way I sit when I meditate before doing light stretches (in the morning and just before bed at night): from sitting cross-legged to sitting on my heels with the feet stretched flat on the ground. I have now reverted to cross-legged. Hopefully this helps. I'll continue stretching my calves before I sleep. On a slightly related topic, we were passing...