Monthly Archives: March 2009

March 31st, 2009
post by admin | | 5

Baby C Has A Swollen Bum

After getting a total of 5 jabs on her upper buttocks yesterday and today, both of Baby C’s buttocks are swollen. The injection sites feel hard and swollen and I tell you, my heart is crushed. During her bath just now, I used ice wrapped in a hanky to apply on the injection sites in the hope of reducing the swell. My poor sweetiepie is indeed a trooper and really a tough nut. She’s going to grow up to be one very strong and tough lady! She’s got 1 more Gentamicin jab to go tonight and 3 more Rocephin jabs for the next 3 days. All the doctors who administered the jabs on her could only shake their heads seeing the pain and torture my sweetiepie has to endure. The doctor this morning said that even we adults would yelp out in pain when given the Gentamicin jab. Gentamicin is known to cause burning sensation when it touches the muscles. Sigh…..

Share Button
Cassandra, Kidney Reflux, Urinary Tract Infection
March 31st, 2009
post by admin | | 4

Jabs, Jabs And More Jabs :(

My poor baby had 3 jabs on her buttocks today. In the morning, she had 1 Rocephine jab (which contains a huge vial of antibiotics, around 25ml) on one side of her buttock and 1 Gentamicin jab on the other side of her buttock. I pleaded with the nurse to do it really gently and slowly so that my sweetiepie would not feel much pain. The nurse told me that if she administered the jab slowly, my baby would suffer longer, thus it’s best that she administered the jab really swiftly, so that the pain is just a quick one. I cannot tell you how terrible I felt when the nurse jabbed my sweetiepie on her buttocks one after another. That feeling really sucked big time. I held my baby really tightly and she cried with all her might. I think my poor poor sweetiepie is pretty immune to all these pains as she has to endure them every single month…. coz she only cried when the jab was administerd to her and stopped when everything was over. Many babies and kids would cry non-stop for hours after the jab. She’s really one very very tough cookie. I think I suffered more than her coz my heart would shatter into a zillion pieces each time I see her suffer like this. This time, my eyes were teary coz my poor baby has to endure such pain twice at one go. When I removed the plasters from her buttocks just now before her bath, there was quite a bit of blood on the plasters and the 2 holes were a tad swollen too. At night when we brought her to a nearby clinic for the GP to administer the 3rd jab on her, she cried longer coz the doctor told us that the Gentamicin jab has to be injected really slowly… like 3 minutes!! I protested and said NO, how can my baby endure such torture for 3 minutes?! When she screamed her lungs out and struggled, even the doctor could not endure hearing such cries and quickly hurried off with the jab. That jab only lasted less than a minute. I tell you, anyone who hears my cute sweetiepie cry in pain from such torture, they would feel like crying too. The nurse who administered the jab on her this morning told me that she felt like crying too.

Tomorrow my sweetiepie has to endure another 3 painful jabs and the next 3 days, one jab a day. Sigh, sigh, sigh….. shake head…. I hope the operation will take place really really soon and that after the op, all these miseries will be behind us.

Share Button
Cassandra, Kidney Reflux, Urinary Tract Infection
March 29th, 2009
post by admin | | 0

Fish, Fish And More Fish

Whenever I have buffet lunch or dinner, the dish that I will attack first is more often than not fish. I normally attack the salmon, cod fish, unagi (Japanese eel), mackeral and pomfret – the expensive fish and fish that are high in Omega 3 fatty acids. I need plenty of DHA (one of the acids from Omega 3) coz after giving birth to 3 angels, I find my memory failing me many times and I need to stock up on my DHA intake so that my brain will function better!

I can never resist my temptation when I see plates and plates of salmon cooked in a variety of styles being served at the buffet line like this one:

That’s the salmon fish served at the buffet lunch at Sudu Coffee House @ Hilton Sentral Hotel.

Fatty fish fills your tummy up very quickly and it’s a good thing coz you will have very little space left to gorge on empty calories and desserts!

Share Button
Healthy Food
March 26th, 2009
post by admin | | 4

It’s The Thought That Counts

This Disney Pumbaa sticker is very special, both for Baby C and me because Alycia took it from her precious collection of stickers she got from Hong Kong Disneyland recently and gave it to Baby C.

This morning, I told Alycia that tomorrow I have to bring baby to the hospital to get an antibiotics jab.  Alycia knows that her baby sister has ‘kidney reflection’ (kidney reflux but Alycia keeps saying kidney ‘reflection’) and always needs jabs.   In the past, I’d borrowed her toys to bring them to the hospital.  She knows that I need toys to distract baby when the doctor gives baby a jab.  So this morning, just before going to school, she ran to me and said lovingly to me “mummy, I give baby something.  This sticker is for you to bring to the hospital tomorrow.  When the doctor give baby injection, give this sticker to her to make her happy”.  At that time, I was busy tying up my princess wannabe’s hair and just said “thank you” and didn’t really look at the sticker.  But my caring Alycia insisted that I kept the sticker and she put the sticker into the pocket of my shorts.    When I saw the sticker after they had gone to school, I chuckled looking at the sticker.  On one hand this caring cheh cheh was thoughtful enough to have given her baby sister her precious sticker but on the other hand, she picked the ugliest cartoon character for her baby sister LOL!   It’s the thought that counts right?  She’s still a very, very loving and sweet cheh cheh to Baby C.

Share Button
Alycia
March 25th, 2009
post by admin | | 5

Alycia Gave Us A Scare

On the night Alycia returned from her vacation in Hong Kong 2 days ago, she gave us all a scare. When she got home from the airport, she appeared very frazzled and her cheeks were very rosy. After her dinner, she told us that she was very sleepy and so she went to bed at around 9ish pm, which was very early for her.  At around 1:30am, she got up from bed and cried… which was a very rare incident.  She hardly cries these days.  First she said that her hand was very painful. There wasn’t any swell or any scar on her hand so daddy massaged her hand with his Perskindol deep heat   cream for pains in the muscles and joints.  After crying for about an hour, she told daddy that her leg hurt.  First pain in the hand, then pain in the leg.   Worried, daddy wanted to bring her to the hospital.  I told him that it’s not necessary as the doctor would probably just give her some painkillers and tell us to observe her.  I know those MOs in the ER too well!    I told daddy that we should just wait and see what happens the next morning.  After telling us that her hand and leg were achy, Alycia then complaint that her tummy was painful this time, haiz!    Minutes later, she said she wanted to eat biscuits!  I said no to her request as I didn’t want her to eat sticky and sweet food at 3am.  I then fixed her some milk which she finished.  After finishing her milk, Alycia requested daddy to play cards with her, which dadddy did at 3:30am!   After playing cards, it was already 4am and daddy could not open his eyes any further. He told Alycia to lie down on the couch in the living room and turned on the TV for her to watch Disney channel, whilst he slept on the floor to accompany her.   Alycia watched TV for about 2 hours before dozing off on the couch like this:

Daddy was so dead tired that he slept until 10am the next day.  As for Alycia, she woke up at 9am, then went back to bed after breakfast and slept all the way until 2pm.  When she woke up, I asked her if she had anymore pain in her hand, leg and tummy and she said no.  I think Alycia most likely overworked her legs and hands when she was at Disneyland!  And she really gave us all a scare that night!

Share Button
Alycia
March 23rd, 2009
post by admin | | 3

MAG 3 Scan Report

The MAG3 scan report showed that Baby C’s left kidney is perfectly normal and the right kidney is also funtioning pretty good.  However, our nephrologist is still of the opinion that the upper pole of baby’s right kidney be removed since there is obstruction in the ureter connecting to the right upper kidney.  FYI, Baby C has a duplex kidney.  It means she has double ureters on the right kidney, making the right kidney separate into 2 poles.   Our doctor told us that if the surgeon tries to reconstruct the ureters and bladder, complications like infection may occur and there will be a huge scar on the body.  If infection occurs, another surgery may be required.  Each surgery costs over RM10k!  Removing the upper pole of the right kidney (which makes up to about 15-20% of the entire right kidney) is still the best option. 

The hubs had couriered the MAG3 films and report to his uncle who is a cardiac surgeon in London.  His uncle will then pass the films and report to 3 pediatric surgeons who will study them.  We can expect an answer from them by next week hopefully. 

Share Button
Cassandra, Kidney Reflux
March 23rd, 2009
post by admin | | 4

My Breakfast – Gourmet Cheese And Charcoal Bread

That’s my breakfast today:


A slice of bamboo charcoal bread, spread with generous amounts of yam kaya. Notice the huge chunks of yam on the yam kaya? This yam kaya is absolutely yummy…. and fattening too but oh well, eat first and exercise later. That’s my motto 🙂

Hop over to my other blog to read up more about bamboo charcoal bread and yam kaya.

A slice of apricot and almond cheese. My sil bought this wedge of cheese from Hong Kong.  I’m a bread, butter, jam and cheese person and I only like these for breakfast and nothing too heavy like nasi lemak or noodles.

What did you eat for breakfast today?

Share Button
Food Review
March 22nd, 2009
post by admin | | 0

Home Remedy For Cough – Double Boiled Fresh Olives Soup With Lean Pork

After being healed completely from a chronic cough twice this month, I now swear by fresh olives and their amazing healing properties for cough. It’s pretty simple to prepare this home remedy. All you need are fresh olives and some lean pork and a pot or a double boiler. BUT the problem is finding fresh olives. My mil got them from Hong Kong and I’m not sure where you can get fresh olives here in Malaysia. Also not sure if bottled preserved olives also have the same effect on healing a cough.


Here’s the fresh olives soup double boiled with lean pork in a double boiler ceramic pot.

The soup tastes a tad sour and sweet and has a rather pleasant taste too.  Thank goodness Alycia and Sherilyn who were having cough drank the soup too.

Share Button
Cough, Home Remedies
March 19th, 2009
post by admin | | 9

MAG 3 Scan Done Today

My guess was right. Baby C needed 3 doses of sedation meds to knock her out completely. The moment we arrived at the hospital, my maid and I fed her with 2 types of sedation meds. One was for 3ml and the other was for 7ml!   After fussing and struggling for about half an hour when we fed her the sedation meds, she knocked out and went into a deep sleep.  Thank God when I placed her on the bed for our doctor to insert the brandula (IV line) on her hand, she was still asleep but she woke up and cried when she felt pain. Thank God again that she only needed to be poked once and not between 3-7 times like in the past.

When my sweetiepie was jolted up from her sleep after the insertion of the IV line, she kept fussing though she was still groggy. Since Baby C is to remain absolutely still during the entire scan, I was worried that she would wake up.  If that happens, the scan would have to be cancelled and repeated all over again!  So we gave her another dose of sedation meds. This time, it was a struggle to feed her the sedation meds as she was sleepy and crabby. Thank God she did not puke, though she coughed and choked a few times and almost puked. After the 3rd dose of sedation meds, she was totally konked out. She slept like sleeping beauty throughout the half an hour scan. I was with her in the Gamma Picture Room at the Radiosurgery and Cancer Center of the hospital and witnessed the entire procedure. Also saw many cancer patients at the Chemotherapy Daycare Center. My heart really goes out to all those patients who have to undergo radiation and chemotherapy.


My little sleeping beauty.


The intimidating looking machine dwarfing my little sleeping beauty from above.  Baby C was wrapped up in a thick blanket and a special plastic sheet with velcro.  The sight of her lying so still and motionless and wrapped with a plastic sheet on the metal bed with the ginormous machine hovering above her sent shivers down my spine. 
Notice the double screen on the left?  Images of the kidneys and bladder are shown on the screen.

Permission was granted to me before I snapped the pix.

Total bill came up to over RM1,600! And all the medical bills related to Baby C’s medical condition will NOT be covered by our insurance 🙁

Baby C has been feeling groggy and sleepy since she took the sedation meds this morning.  As I am typing this post, she’s still sleeping.  I have expected my sleeping beauty to sleep for days since she took 3 doses of sedation meds!   We will see our pediatric nephrologist again tomorrow for her to explain the MAG 3 scan report to us.

Share Button
Cassandra, Kidney Reflux
March 19th, 2009
post by admin | | 39

MAG 3 Scan

Tomorrow  is our scheduled day to bring Baby C to the hospital for the MAG 3 Scan.  The scan will be carried out at the Radiosurgery and Cancer Center of the hospital.  In layman’s terms, a radioactive chemical will be injected through the IV catheter and the radiologist will begin imaging the kidneys. As told by our doctor to us, the radiation used is very, very minimal. It is even lesser than the radiation used in the MCUG and IVP scans, of which Baby C did about 3 weeks ago.

I am hoping and praying hard that this time, Baby C will be completely knocked out during the procedure coz for this particular scan, the child has to remain still so that the best quality images can be obtained. If there is too much motion during the procedure, the study may need to be repeated. I just have a strong feeling that Baby C will require 2-3 doses of sedation meds to knock her out completely.

Click here, for more information on the MAG 3 scan.

Share Button
Cassandra, Kidney Reflux
Older Entries