All Joy and No Fun

All Joy and No Fun

An Update of My Status Quo

Studies around the world confirm that passion usually ends.

Am I taking on this path?

I can't answer at the moment. If you take a gander at my blog, it has all the preliminary signs that my passion of writing blog is tapering.

May be, I should keep my nose to the grindstone, so wish me luck.

Stay tuned.

My Mother – A medical Imbroglio

My mother could easily qualify herself as the best prospect for doctors. She has no qualm at all in seeking all kinds of medical treatments; apparently, she finds solace in doing so. Of course,medical expenses take its toll on my father’s financial reserve.

I could not recollect when was the first time I accompanied my mother to seek medical treatment. According to her, she said she had five major operations. However, while writing this post, I realize it is more than 5 times. Let me chronicle her whirlwind tour in the medical eco-system.

The first operation was something to do with the eyes. She was hospitalized in General Hospital, Singapore. At that time, my credit card was not honoured as the expected medical bill exceeded my credit limit by a large margin. Luckily, it was rescued by my uncle. She spent slightly more than a week and the bill ran into the higher end of the four figures.

The second operation was done on her urinary system. Apparently, there were some blockages in her ureters. Well, it was done in one of the private hospitals in Johor Bahru. I could not remember the cost as it was fully financed by my father.

The third operation was done in the USA. Why USA? Well, it was more of a coincidence than pre-arrangement.

Many months prior to this operation, the cancer marker showed that she might have some cancer cells in the alimentary canal. This discovery triggered a series of unwanted and redundant medical investigations and examinations.

First, the doctors from General Hospital, Johor Bahru carried out a procedure on her called colonoscopy. To perform this procedure, she was required to cleanse her colons with liquid laxative. I remembered she had to drink about 5 litres of such liquid. She complained of the pain induced by the laxative. Anywhere, the mind-boggling part of the procedure was that the person(s) who performed it could not administer the endoscope , thus it resulted a failed procedure. She was again required to consume another 5 litres of the laxative in preparation for the next colonoscopy. Fearing that my mother would not be able to withstand such procedure, we decided that she should be discharged from the hospital.

The next day, she was transferred to one of private hospitals in Johor Bahru. They did an enteroscopy on her, but could not deter anything – NAD ( No abnormality detected.)

Notwithstanding the litany of medical tests and investigations, the result of the cancer marker still bothered us, we decided to give mother a last straw. This time, it was handled by the top specialist in gastroenterology in Singapore. He did colonoscopy and MRI. Again , the final result still ended with NAD.

We felt that since my mother had gone through so many medical investigations, we should not subject her to further agony of medical procedures.

A month later, she went to visit my siblings in U.S. While she was there, my brother took the initiative to refer her to one of his colleagues, a surgeon. The surgeon did a laparoscopic surgery on her, puncturing only two holes on her abdomen. To his surprise, my mother was suffering from appendicitis. I did watch a video recording of the operation, the infected appendix was surgically removed and placed inside a zip-lock bag and subsequently retrieved from the inner body cavity. The operation was done in the morning and amazingly she found herself shopping in the afternoon, what a medical feat.

My mother was examined by two top-notched surgeons, both in Malaysia and Singapore, both of them failed to detect the presence of appendicitis, not forgetting the battery of tests. What can I say?

The fourth operation was cataract surgery. Again, it was done by one of the private ophthalmologists in Johor Bahru.

The operation was done in a haste without taking her sugar level into consideration. As expected, her eye did not recover as expected.

The fifth operation was on her left eye. It was done in General Hospital by the Chief Ophthalmologist. This time, the surgeon took the pain to monitor my mother’s sugar level. it was after few months of controlling and monitoring that my mother was given the OK signal to be operated. The operation was a success.

The sixth operaton was done in University Hospital, PJ. She suffered from a mild fall and the pelvic bone cracked. So a metal implant was introduced to link the pelvic and thigh bones.

Four weeks ago, she was referred to consult a kidney specialist in Johore Bahru as her level of creatinine was three times higher than normal. It could mean that her kidney is operating at about 5% of a normal person. In other words, she may have to go for dialysis. After two consultations, the doctor did not give any conclusive decisions. Instead, my mother was given erythropoietin therapy. My mother is 80-year old and lives in a very quite kampong and my father is a first class husband, why the doctor had to ask for HIV test.

Two weeks ago, she complained of the pain coming from the metal implant. So, we took her to an orthopedic clinic in Johor Bahru. The surgeon did not comment anything about the metal implant but pointed out that lumbar vertebrae ( L2, L3, L4 ) had degenerated so much that they are actually touching each other. Due to her age, surgery was not an option. So, the surgeon could only prescribe pain killer and bone enhancing tablets.

Two weeks after the orthopedic consultation in Johore Bahru, the radius of pain had extended and I promptly received a call from her. She told me that she had to seek a second opinion. Well, the nearest clinic is in Kluang.

The pain was in fact caused by the failure of orthopaedic implant. If you look at the x-ray shown below, the main part of the implant had no support whatsoever and it became a moving part.

The four metal rods had conveniently detached from the main support.

My biggest disappointment was why the surgeon in Johore Bahru did not detect this defect, even without this x-ray taken few months ago.

Instead, he conveniently diagnosed the pain to be originated from the lumbar vertebrae.

Prior to the operation, the anesthetist gave me a long catalogue of warnings and asked me to sign the letter of consent. The biggest complication in the surgery could result in a heart attack. OMG, I was conveniently given to shoulder all the responsibilities should the operation fail. To be or not to be, it was a decision that you wished that you never had to make especially when you were out on a limb.

Despite her age and diabetic condition, in the throes of making a decision, my mother took a gamble on her life and went along with the operation. The operation took two and half hours to complete, replacing the old metal implant with a new one.

For the curious readers, the new implant looks as follows.

My mother was discharged after 7-night stay at the hospital. Now, she can walk much better than before with the help of the walker.

After the pelvic surgery, she is on a 3-month Forteo ( teriparatide ) program, why the doctor still prescribes calcium supplement. This is another soul searching answer?

As you can see, they are competent and non-competent doctors. Even if they are competent, they do draw the wrong conclusion. There are so many unanswered questions why the doctors chose to take certain decisions and actions, their conducts are moot, do they have a special axe to grind? I am not discharging a deluge of complaints and belittling the conducts of doctors, but just stating the facts, I hope the learned readers could read between the lines.

Life is based on Papers

Very good, very, true, very meaningful !!!

出生一張紙，開始一輩子；
畢業一張紙，奮鬥一輩子；
婚姻一張紙，折磨一輩子；
做官一張紙，鬥爭一輩子；
金錢一張紙，辛苦一輩子；
榮譽一張紙，虛名一輩子；
看病一張紙，痛苦一輩子；
悼詞一張紙，了結一輩子；
淡化這些紙，明白一輩子；
忘了這些紙，快樂一輩子 !

這週是世界好友週，如果你願意，
請把這條資訊發給你所有的好朋友 。

也包括我 ⋯⋯ 看有多少人會回發給你。

當大部分人都在關注你飛得高不高時，
只有少部分人關心你飛得累不累，
這就是 友情。

再忙，也要照顧好自己，
朋 友 雖不常聯繫，卻一直 惦念。

天涼時記著多穿衣！

世界好 友周快樂！

少喝奶茶、不吃剛烤好的麵包，
遠離正在充電的電源。

白天多喝水，晚上少喝，
一天不喝多於兩杯的咖啡。

少吃油多的食物，
最佳睡眠為晚上十點至早上六點

晚上五點後少吃大餐，
每天喝酒不超過一杯。

不用冷水服膠囊，
睡前半小時服藥忌立刻躺下。

睡眠不足八小時人會變笨，
有午睡習慣的人不易老。

手機電池剩一格時不要打電話，
剩一格時輻射是平時的一千倍。

Why English Is Such A Difficult Language to Master?

Without prejudice.

I received this email from a friend. Please take a look.

Subject: RE: xxxxx Nite 2010
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:07:57 +0800

Hi there,

Good day.

Thank for your attention and interest.

I regret for my late inform, which about the dateline of registration. The registration has already closed, due to there was a dateline for us to finalize the number of table.

Anyway, i was glad to heard from you with the replied, thank you. we shall arrange another dinner to involve all of u, perhaps it will be next xxxx Nite, will inform u guys earlier.

Thank you, and have a prosperous tiger year~^^

Regards,

xxxx

Reputedly, this email was written by a profession graduated from University of Malaya. I think it is best that I keep silence on his profession lest I might offend his fraternity. Maybe, we have a simplified English in Malaysia. Don't forget that language is a living thing and it can evolve.

This is another written work of Y.B. Teresa Kok which appeared in her facebook.

Visited snatch thief victim and family in Salak South for second time

Yesterday (18 March 2010), I went to visit snatch thief victim 18-year old Chong Chooi Yoon at her home in Salak South area which is part of my Seputeh constituency. You might have read in the papers that she was a victim of snatch thief just a few days before Chinese New Year. It was…

Any comment on her writing?

Did she go to two places, namely the victim and another family?

I wonder why she wrote “ I went to visit” instead of “ I visited”, was it a translation from Chinese language?

“Go to” is always followed by “someone” or “ something”.

Example:-

i. I went to her for advice. – someone

ii. I go to the bank. – something.

Maybe, Y.B. is correct and I'm just ignorant of the inflected usage of "go to".

The private secretary to the late Tunku Abdul Rahman once told me that he used to vet the latter's written works in "The Star". He was not allowed to change the style of writing but only allowed to correct glaring grammatical errors. If Tunku could make grammatical error, so were we.

I do not profess to be an expert in English language. It does take a toll on one's effort and time in order to achieve high level of proficiency. It is best illustrated by the graph shown below. Time is on the x-axis and y-axis represents level of proficiency. You could put in a lot of effort and time, however the return on the proficiency is negligible. So, what is the solution? I leave it to the readers.

Time ( in arbitrary unit )

Another Problem for Hacking Your Brain

Last year, a good friend of mind suggested I should take up the position as a private tutor in maths, giving tuition to students studying in Singapore. You can always reap a handsome return in this kind of endeavour. However, my friend liked to inflict on me some of the maths questions which were presented by his daughter in Sec One. He told me that he was literally thrown off from his chair after seeing the question.

OK, this was the maths question:

Matt, who is often late for appointments, walks up a moving escalator in the MRT station one step at a time. When he moves quickly at the rate of 2 steps per second, he reaches the top after taking 24 steps. When he is tired, he climbs at the rate of 1 step per second and reaches the top after taking 15 steps. How long would Matt take to reach the top if, on a rare day, he just stood on the escalator?

This question is not difficult if you apply algebra. The catch is that you are not allowed to use algebra in solving this question. Again, wishful thinking is the way to go.

How about this question given by a US Professor .

A census-taker knocks on a door, and asks the woman inside how many children she has and how old they are.

"I have three daughters, their ages are whole numbers, and the product of the ages is 36," says the mother.

"That's not enough information," responds the census-taker.

"I'd tell you the sum of their ages, but you'd still be stumped."

"I wish you'd tell me something more."

"Okay, my oldest daughter Annie likes dogs."

The US Professor suggests that you should get your hands dirty in doing this kind of analysis.

Difference between Problem and Exercise

I just watched a university lecture about problem solving. How long do we take to solve a problem, less than a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a month , a year or a life time.

The professor poses a problem as follows:-

a. The doctor categorically says that the drug will work if you take it religiously everyday.

b. The drug consists of two type of pills, i.e. Pill A and Pill B.

c. You are required to take only one pill each of A and B at the same time.

d. Any imbalance of dosage taken will kill you.

E.g.

A + A = fatal

B + B = fatal

A+A+B= fatal

B+B+A=fatal

A alone = fatal

B alone = fatal

A + B = OK

B + A = OK

e. There is no marking on the pill and both pill A and B are identical in look.

f. One day, while taking a phone call, you happen to drop 2 A's and 1 B in your palm.

g. As the pills are identical to each other, you have no way to isolate the pill A and pill B.

g. If you take 2 A's and 1 B, it will end your life.

How do you solve this problem ?

Clue to this problem:

This problem can become an exercise for those who have wishful thinking.

I have googled the internet and could not find any solution. Do you want to slow down the emergence of Alzhemier's disease.