Here's My Story

While waiting for CW to commence work , dad's condition improved (thankfully!): Pain less frequent. Oxynorm down to 3 times daily, from 5 Swelling slowly decreased Slowly regained strength, where eventually he could get down from lazy chair unassisted (yay!) The last one was quite important: at night, before going to bed, we could help dad to get onto the lazy chair without worrying about him getting out of it in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, during the week before his next appointment with PCU on Friday, he started having problem with bowel movement: gradually pooed lesser and then finally constipated for 3 days. This coincided with the increased of Oxynorm intake from 3 to 4 / 5 times daily. PCU doctor recommended the following: Just for that day: once get home, take 6 tabs of bisacodyl + 20ml of lactulose Next day onward: replace bisacodly with Senokot (purchased outside) 2 tabs twice daily If still cannot poo by Monday, then at least I (i.e. dad doesn...

Fortunately, despite the fiasco , dad came around after I had a rather long talk with him: I assured him that we weren't trying to abandon him; we were merely addressing his medical needs I reconfirmed with him that his priorities were less pain and more movement He would resume seeing the orthopaedic oncologist and to continue the bone drug (pamidronate) infusion if they recommend it Nursing home was back on the table i.e. comparing trained lived-in caregiver and the home However, later, even he exclaimed how expensive trained lived-in caregiver was and so we downgraded it day trained caregiver for 4 hours. Meanwhile, my sister managed to get a medical graduate who was willing to be dad's daytime helper for at most a month while waiting for his posting. We then presented the following options to dad, along with their upsides and downsides: (a) Nursing  home + 24 hrs + medically trained nurses and doctors + staff helps to administer medicine + exercise and acti...

Taking care of a terminally ill patient is not easy. The caregiver needs to be familiar with the prescribed medicine help patient to manage their symptoms be with patient during consultation wtih doctors, especially if the patient forgets and/or misunderstands certain relevant information discuss with patient whenever options are available and help them implement the chosen options Surely you want to make life easier, not harder, for both of them, right? How can you do that? Well, for starter, respect their requests, if they're not harmful. Such requestions could be as follows: Call them if you want update; not the other way around. The caregiver already has their hands full helping the patient, on top of whatever personal stuff they have to do e.g. work, family, R&R. In addtion, in my dad's case, if you are going to suggest something major or convince him to change his mind, please involve the caregiver. Often times, he forgets important information or doesn...

Every Monday, Ban and I travel to Sungai Besi our a session of D&D 5e at the GM's (Game Master) house. It's far: takes about 1 hour 10 mins, but it was our idea because we it was our way to play with friends we usually have fun doing it. The third player, a mutual friend, is the key person because he's the source of jokes. At times, our game progressed so slowly because both GM and him were busy josting around but I couldn't complain much because my jaw was aching from all the laughing haha. Due to the timing, we decided to have dinner at a nearby shop. We weren't familiar with the shops there and so we made a point to drive around, taking note of possible eating places. On our first night, we chose Mek Siam...and haven't changed place since then haha. They served so many delicious meals. Their rice dishes, however, are an issue for us: too spicy, even when we asked for as less spiciness as possible. So, unfortunately, we had to avoid them despite them b...

Other improvements since the walk-in to consult PCU specialist are Intake of Oxynorm decreased from 7 to 5 Pain while transitioing to and fro lazy chair and car seat was less but still need assistance Swelling, predictably, did go down but only if lie down on the lazy chair Later, dad went for his appointment at Penaga govt clinic for follow-up on blood test. Upon inspecting the swollen legs, the doctor there prescribed  furosemide and 2 different antibiotics. On the same day, his constipation returned but fortunately, there was appointment with PCU the next day. PCU doctor said can continue furosemide and the antibiotics prescribed 4 tabs of bisacodyl to be taken at night if constipate for two consecutive days; forgo pump on the 2nd day of constipation continue all other medicine, with posssibility of increasing the dosage of the fentanyl patch because the current one was slightly lower than painkilling effect of 40gm Oxycontin (twice daily) He did constipate for a ...

The next appointment was 4 weeks after the last . However, towards the end of the third week, the pain in his legs spiked up and there were both hugely swollen.He had constipation for 3 straight mornings too. His left leg weakened further such that he wasn't able to get onto and off the lazy chair (where he rested and slept) unassisted. Basically, it was painful for him to transit from sitting to standing and vice versa. He couldn't wash past his thighs during bath. He needed help to wear pants too (he's now using sarong). For those days, he had to take Oxynorm 5 to 7 times a day. Hence, we both decided to do a walk-in, a week earlier than the appointment date, to first consult the PCU doctor and the oncologist if needed. The PCU doctor's main concern was to solve the constipation issue because it reduced the effectiveness of the painkiller. It was at this point, I asked and found out that dad didn't take as much fruits and vegetables as he used to and so that m...

Underlords is an auto-battler game: you place your units on the board and then they'll do whatever that's logical during the battle. I had thought it involved little skill but I was wrong. What you can control are (1) Your choice of units (2) Synergy among your units (most notably the alliance bonuses) (3) The composition of your build (4) Coin management (5) Actively strategising against your opponent (most notably via positioning and maybe denial of certain key units especially if you want them too) (6) When you want to level up (7) When you want to reroll (8) Choice of items (as loot from Neutral waves) I spent lots of time playing this game as well as watching videos and Twitch streams, and reading guides. I manage to pushed all the way to Lieutenant 5...and then just continued falling back to Lieutenant 2. The frustrating thing is that I don't know why I can't be in the top 3 more consistently, other than blaming rng, which is absurd. So I've recent...