UPDATE ON ABBY

JULY 4, 2015 (continuation from earlier blog post http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2015/06/mid-year-crisis.html)

Today (July 3) is a glorious day ... after 10 nights in ICU (and the earlier 2 nights in a private hospital) our sister Abby is finally transferred out from ICU to a normal ward.

As she had fasciotomy performed to save her limb (left arm), her entire arm is of no use at the moment.. the doctor has not ascertained the exact extent of the dead muscles but we are told she still has enough muscles left to regain most use of her left arm, if not 100%... the road ahead will be a slow and painful one for her as she struggle with relearning how to move and use her left arm. She can barely clench her fingers now and she cannot unflex her grasp without the help of her right hand.

She still needs to be hospitalised as the doctor needed to perform further operations on her and they are leaving the wound open, mostly unstitched as that is usually what fasciotomy is and it shall be a few more weeks for her at the hospital and then some more weeks of medical leave until she is fit enough to go back to work.. driving will be a problem.. but she shall have us by her side at every juncture of the journey.

We are thankful for all prayers and well wishes from all. We truly are grateful and glad we still have Abby with us and most importantly she is going to live to celebrate her 30th birthday in August.

Her internal organs are out of danger (hence the transfer out from ICU) and her blood levels are back to normal, well, almost normal.

And yes.. her initial diagnosis was dengue fever which she has contracted the second time in 6 years and neither of the remedies worked... not papaya leaf juice.. young papaya fruit sap.. crabs soup and flesh... not frog with bitter gourd.. not this not that.. we have literally tried everything up till her platlets dropped to below critical to dangerously low below 15.

What helped were constant blood transfusion alternating with platelet transfusions and lots of prayer and positive thoughts sent her way. She was drifting in and out of consciousness as her organs were under attack, especially her liver, which caused her blood to not be like us normal people hence causing compartment syndrome.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2058838-overview

If you see the link above.. it must be performed within 6 hours of it happening yet Abby only had it done after 2 days as her blood works were not good enough for surgery or else she will risk excessive bleeding to death. Hence the death of her muscles. She is very lucky in the sense that they didn't have to sacrifice her arm in order to save her life, i.e. amputation after allowing the arm to die. She saw the scar this morning when they were doing dressing and it was depressing  but she quickly forced herself to accept the scar and the still open wound as part of her now. We are so proud of how brave she is.

Doctors said her condition was very critical where mortality rate is high especially with an almost definite mortality for the very young or very old... and we were right to fear her death. She fought and won and for that we are truly thankful.

If she is to get dengue the third time it will be even more dangerous. She is renting with her husband at a landed property, single storey terrace house now. My parents are persuading them to move to higher floors, i.e. condominiums when she is discharged but we shall cross the bridge when we come there.

Her husband also contracted dengue at the same time and recovered quickly within a week with lots of 100Plus and rest at home. No need for the remedies, etc. We were quite taken aback by some well wishes who vehemently preached certain remedies and implied that our mother had not tried hard enough to save her. God knows how much we tried and to what extent our dear mother has tried for her youngest daughter to the extent of begging for the ingredients from the gardens of strangers.

At our most worrying and trying times, it got too much for our parents to even answer phone calls or reply to messages on whatsapp or even meet and talk with another person... each time they relate to an individual about our sister's condition, they will be sad and tears tend to fall.. imagine you have 100 enquiries and you need to cry 100 times... it was really emotionally taxing.. if your queries went unanswered during that period, we are truly sorry but for our sanity and to keep things together... we needed to shut out the world for awhile.

With Abby's life out of danger now, our family can now sleep soundly for the first time in nearly 2 weeks.

AGAIN, THANK YOU for your support and we believe every prayer counts in her recovery. With every worst scenario that was presented to us, many u-turns were provided that somehow our sister managed to scrap through with the slightest margin.. and we were met with much kindness, many sympathetic nurses and doctors, much support from every one, most who have never known Abby personally and many who donated blood to replenish the hospital's blood bank for the general good, and the many prayers and well wishes from everyone whom we may not be able to name one by one... from the bottom of our hearts.. thank you. We saw the true human spirit and have not lost hope with humanity. We are truly blessed. Thank you for the help and prayers rendered from people from multiracial and multireligious backgrounds or denominations. We saw religious tolerance at its best when it is a matter of life and death.

THERE IS STILL HOPE FOR HUMANITY.

THANK YOU.

p/s- Aedes mosquito breeding grounds must be eliminated... Dengue is very real and it really can kill.

I would not wish this upon anyone or for any family to go through the grief or heartache of this illness.. And there is still no medicine for this. Forget the traditional remedies.. seek treatment from the government hospital immediately and get your blood tests done. My sister was initially rejected a blood test from a 24 hour clinic near our are in Setapak, we are still contemplating if we should pursue further action with that clinic with two very sarcastic locum doctors (visited twice in two consecutive evenings). Go straight to a hospital if you display the symptoms of dengue which may include high or low grade fever with extreme pain on your bones and joints and a terrible splitting headache and lethargy.

May all beings be well and happy.

Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukhitatha.

In the Fog and Mist

I feel like I am in the thick fog and mist right now. I made an essential trip recently, full of hope and desperation, for the sake of a loved one.

Will blog more about it when the time is right. Time is precious now. I need to rethink my mid-year resolution on my Blogging frequency and make it once a week instead of three times a week as something more pressing is way more urgent to attend to in life right now. Prayers for speedy recovery appreciated. I love this person too much to lose so early.

Till next week, may all be well and happy, free from pain and suffering and mental anguish and anxiety. Pix taken from the plane to reflect my feelings -End-

Spending each precious moment together

Have you checked your heart?

Have you checked your heart lately? Not matters of your heart or feelings, I'm talking about one of the most vital organs in human body, the heart that pumps blood throughout the body, blood that contains liquid and precious oxygen that keep humans alive.

I brought my mother, my own mother whom my face greatly resemble, to a cardiologist today. The Heart Specialist of my choice when my mother called to ask for my opinion for a cardiologist on Kuala Lumpur area is Dr Yeo of Tawakkal Specialist Hospital, of KPJ Group, a pix below shows Yeo's Heart Clinic reception area, the clinic is located inside the hospital.

Being menopausal, my mother is worried her heart may be at risk as she is now lacking the precious female hormones pre-menopausal women could produce, hence she wanted to be on the safe side and have a heart check.

The doctor suggested non-invasive procedures like ECHO and stress test.
My mother passed with flying colors.

We left the specialist hospital with lighter hearts, figuratively speaking, we are glad nothing is wrong and my mother's heart is beating strong, as is her zest to live. :) Wishing you a long life ahead, mama!

When you keep falling sick

When you keep falling sick, and you are at your wits' end, you tend to sleep, and sleep and sleep while dragging your sorry self to work when the time comes after your sick leave is over.

Oh, please get well soon, for Goodness' sake!

Klinik dan Surgeri Setapak, Jalan Prima Setapak 5 - Sunday doctor RUDE

My hubby just consulted the stand-in doctor at Klinik dan Surgeri Setapak at Jalan Prima Setapak 5 who is totally rude and lacking interpersonal skills. It was an Indian male doctor who stood in for the usual jovial weekday doctor. He consulted this doctor on 24th January 2010, at about 7.00pm.

The doctor was giving his diagnosis of what we have already suspected, a middle ear infection, and he had actually paused and there was a pregnant pause in the conversation, so my husband asked a question to clarify and the doctor indignantly said: Let ME finish first.

That shut my husband up cos he was utterly pissed with people who are lacking finesse in their speech. He even charged a bomb for such shoddy consultation. He actually turned my husband's head around roughly and complained my husband turned his head wrongly/not enough/not the right way for him to see. Instead of feeling better, my hubby came out from the consultation room feeling slighted and said: "that is why I hate going to doctors."

Don't get us wrong, the usual doctor is very nice and friendly but this stand-in doctor brings the image of this branch down.

FYI: the address of this clinic is Klinik dan Surgeri Setapak, 19, Jln Prima Setapak 5, Setapak, KL

It Has Been A Year...

It has been a year since I left my singlehood and embark on a whole new journey of sharing a life exclusively with another person, I have been married for a year and a half already. Time really flies.

It has been a year and 3 months and still counting when my heart was broken into shards of glasses when I lost a precious little life that did not have a chance to live and grow.

It has been a year and 1 month since I left the job that caused me so much emotional stress that it has contributed to me losing what matters most.

It has been a year that I ventured into a totally new field but eventually, that didn't last too.

PLEASE, I beg you, don't ask me or my spouse any of these questions as it hurts everytime you ask them:
Are you parents yet?
When are you starting a family?

Then, if we tell you the truth, DON't say things like this cos it will only hurt ME even more:
Aww, I'm sorry, at least you knew you could get one.
You're more lucky than those who carried to term or bigger tummy then lost the child.
Rest more, don't fret.

None of those really help to ease the pain and only serve a brutal reminder of the painful memories.

So the best bet is to let the subject pass and avoid the topic altogether.

Even my parents and my parents in law have learned not to broach the sensitive subject in front of me, and they are anxious to be grandparents.

Our parents, they have every right to ask, but NOT anyone else who are not even our flesh and blood.

So, who are you to ask and be so nosy to ask if my husband is a father already or me a mommy already?
We will announce when we are, so please don't hurt my feelings even more.

We are trying very hard and God knows how much that hurts to think back of what happened.

So please, spare me the heartache when we meet anywhere by avoiding this topic.

Yes, one year on, it still hurts. Everytime I think it's gone and think back of that bit of history, a part of me in my heart starts bleeding again. I guess you never outgrow such a painful memory.

Update: August 2012 - It will be exactly five years since I lost you, next month in September. I still mourn silently. I feel exactly the same way today, just that I have learned how to control my emotions and not let the dam of tears break everytime I think of you. I have changed gynae as I do not wish to be reminded of my loss. Trying very hard to move on. TRYING TO MOVE ON - A POST ON MY RECENT FEELINGS