Day 1: Landed

Assalamualaikum wbt..

I am now blogging live from United Kingdom. 

My first day here was terrible!! First and foremost, it was a dreaded 13 hours flight with poor in-flight entertainment facility and impolite cabin crews. Luckily my medical discussion with Alya for almost 3 hours terasa perjalanan lagi cepat. Soon after we landed at London Heathrow Airport, I quickly purchased an international sim card via a vending machine. It turned out to be so difficult to use. I was only able to make phone calls after repeatedly reading the manual and to date, I still haven't figure out how to send text messages! I wish I can ditch this one and just buy another simpler O2 sim card but I had to remind myself again and again that I have already paid 30 pounds (RM150) for it!

I had to totter around with 6 kg of stuffs in my backpack and another 20kg in my luggage, changing 2 underground tubes and another train to Southend.  It was not a good experience at all as there was no elevator or escalator for us to move around the stations! We practically have to help each other, mula2 both of us carry her luggage up and then it was my turn. Let me tell you that it was more than 5 flights of staircase that we had to ascend!! One helpful chap did assist us and that's about it. We almost sprained our back!

Rain greeted us on our first day on the Queen's land. It was cold, the sky was grey and gloomy. We reached Southend at round 10pm, that is around 4am Malaysia time. That means, we have travelled for almost 18 hours! 

Alhamdulillah, I am thankful that we have each other. I don't think we have made this far it if we were on our own, seriously! We almost drop down and cry, partly because we were homesick and missed our love ones a lot, secondly we were unwell and down with flu and thirdly, we were just darn tired. Nak menimba ilmu ni kira berjihad juga kan. I guess nothing comes easy bila nak berjihad..

Waiting for C2C train to SE. Apparently we waited at the wrong terminal.
OMG, there were lost of mishaps but luckily we hop on the right train after all..
See all the heavy luggages!
That's why you can visualize my grim look all plastered on my face!

Alya, trying to figure out her HTC phone.
We were so exhausted..

Anyways, sampai2 kat Southend, at 10pm, it already appeared like a dead town. All shops are closed except for bars! There was no taxi around the train station and again, we walked aimlessly down the road, with the hope to find a cab. Luckily, we encountered 2 very nice young brits who contacted a taxi driver. Alhamdulillah, in 5 minutes, the taxi who is an Iranian brought us to the Hospital switchboard to collect our key before we headed to Balmoral Road where our hostel is.

Did I tell you that more than half of people that I encounter in London were bukan orang puteh? Majority were Indians/Pakistani/Bangladeshi and few Asians. Southend is a bit different. Banyak locals than non local though. Terasa macam kat Malaysia pun ada as ramai penduduk from Indonesia, Myanmar etc kan? So in a way, Malaysia and UK are quite similar :)

It is already day 2 in UK and I'm jet lagged, still -___-  It is 1am in Malaysia and 5pm in UK. My daughter and my husband are surely fast asleep. I miss them terribly and just chatted with my loved ones few hours ago. I virtually kissed my daughter on her cheek sans her wonderful smell :( I am grateful to whoever that created Skype though.

 I'm yawning as I type. I miss Malaysia but I would rather be here than to be oncall :)

Cheers mate! Till we meet again. 

Separation anxiety..

I'll be leaving to UK in 10 hours. I'm supposed to hit the sack early but here I am, still wide awake. I'm definitely suffering from separation anxiety. My heart races and my hands are numb. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about tomorrow.

 Gonna leave these beloved people behind for 5 weeks!
Sob.. sob..

Brief updates..

Dear abandoned blog, sorry for the long hiatus. These days my life revolves ONLY around family, work, preparation for exam and my mission in losing weight. I don't think I have any spare time for blogging, movies or novels. Owwh, how I miss my coffee break @ Starbucks. I'll otherwise left with guilt should I ever indulge in the aforementioned activities.

Alhamdulillah, my one and only child, Hana Khadeeja Ahmad has recently turned 2! Yes, I know, how time flies. This not so little girl surprises me more often than not, with her excellent vocabulary and clear pronunciation. I would say her language milestone surpasses my expectation. 

With her favourite cousin, Abang Umar
She loves eskim, that's why I got her ice cream cake for her birthday..

At 18 months, she could form 4 words phrases. She could picked up small little words that sometimes just put me at awe as how her mini brain works. She can count one to ten (Hana's version: one, two, thee, pour....) , sing A to Z, Happy Birthday and Twinkle Little Star. She follows when I recite Al-Fatihah or perform my prayers and she loves listening and singing to nasyid. Yang cute tu, she'll tell me, "Mama, pacang (nasyid) kuat cikit piss (please)". Haha.. I guess everyone's anak will look cute in their mommy's eyes kan..

Hana is able to jump and run. Nak cepat, she starts to climb staircase one foot at a time recently sampai tersadung kaki resulting in a small abrasion on the chin. Hana, cukupla mama dia je yang ada Harry Potter scar! Hehe..

She can show more than 10 body parts including kepala, hair, eyes, forehead, eyebrow, nose, ears, cheek, chin, mouth, teeth, neck, toes, fingers, kaki, tangan, perut and belly button.. phewh! She scribbles all over the place (including on the wallpaper at the dining hall.. erkk!!), copies straight line and imperfect circle. Hehe..Sorry, my comments on her developmental milestone is from the eye of a paediatric doctor :p

MasyaAllah.. the part that I cannot tahan most is her tantrums which occurred on daily basis now. Seriously, her temper outburst really put my patience to test. Mengamuk2 hentak2 kaki lah, scream her lungs out, scratch my face if I say no, gets frustrated easily etc.. I guess people say Terrible Two for a reason rite? My hope is that she'll get over this period of acting Diva soon.

My only worry is her weight. I'll get referral from Klinik Kesihatan for children with poor weight gain and here I am, a paediatric doctor and I don't know how to get my own daughter to eat properly. She only take plain rice, no protein such as chicken or fish as she'll spurt it out. She loves pasta but gets bored of it easily. I blamed it on her lack of  variety of food when she was an infant. Hana suffers multiple food allergy that limits her taste buds causing her to be choosy and picky now. Otherwise, she is a healthy and active toddler. That keeps my worry and anxiety at bay except for my mom who keeps reminding me to give her ubat cacing and multivitamins!

Sadly, I'll be leaving behind this cute face for 5 weeks. I've never left this girl more that 4 days, itu pun pegi course kat Penang je and I was totally homesick. Ini pulak I'll be staying in UK from 25th August to 30th Sept!!! I'm sure her hair grows longer (pray to god that Papa will not trim it short!). I just hope that by the time I comeback that she'll remember that I'm still and always be her mother!

Love you always Nana Dida (Hana Khadeeja)..

Tribute to my dearest friend

 My dearest friend and colleague, Chiam is leaving us for good, and we were all saddened by the news today. She'll tender immediate resignation to pursue a better future in aesthetics. Wise move indeed. No on-call, no emergency or resuscitation, no heart drop moments in the hospital when patient collapse, no x-file cases to ponder (and make you wish Dr House exists) and most importantly for her: no nonsense from the housemen (as she is in charge of the dreadful HO roster). Aaahhh..What a blissful life and I'm starting to envy her already!

Chiam and Me at Kota Kinabalu for a thalassemia talk

I first met Chiam when I started working in my current hospital 3 years ago after 2 years spent in Terengganu. She worked in UMMC for a year for her intership (sounds more glamourous then housemanship kan :) and was transferred here to bamboo river. With fresh face and no experience in paediatrics, she was forced to perform the work of a medical officer after just 2 weeks of tagging. Just imagine, with limited experience, she was expected to be in charge of neonatal ICU, taking care of the very little delicate premmies to the very severe term babies in shock with persistent pulmonary hypertension (life threatening condition that is). She supposed to learn to intubate, resuscitate the newborns, obtain IV access (which can be difficult) etc... and goodness me, she sure learnt fast! I could still recall teaching her to set long line (please bear with my medical jargons) and hats off to her, nowadays, she has master the skill wayyy better than my shaky old hands :(

One of the trips we had

I love Chiam for being expressive and a drama queen. She gets easily excited, tells stories animatedly and a jovial person. She is also one of those I know who is sensitive and can shed tears in matter of seconds whenever she was upset or even angry. Housemen are surely scared of her as she can screw them like h*** for the mistakes that they did. But then again, she can just tegur and said hi to the same screwed houseman whom she bumped into along the corridor.

Girls weekend getaway..

She's definitely is my accomplice and BFF in the Hospital to the extent that HOD thought there was some click problem in the department. My other boss called us the M (am) sisters (Chiam and Maryam, gottit?). She help me with my work, I also help her and we go back on time together gether. We almost always end up doing the same rotation (me and Chiam in Clinic, then NICU, after that she went to general ward, I'm again down in clinic then we ended up in NICU back together again). 


We also gossip, carpooled (at one point in time when she stayed in Shah Alam before moving back to Ampang), share our love for digestive biscuits and coffee (then she converted to tea and I still stick to coffee), go out for our cherished Friday lunches, attend courses together (even stay in the same hotel room). I'll definitely miss hearing her calling me Mary!!! Lets go makan! or Mary!! I have something to tell you! She is eveything to me and I think I'll be affected the most once she leaves us.. sob..sob


Did I tell you that she is MSG addict? Yes, Chiam and junk food / instant noodle go hand in hand. She'll shop for bags full of potato chips, kerepeks (chocolate included) and the main supplier of this kind of food for our on-call room. Sigh.. who will provide us with all the stress reliever munchies after this??? 


Chiam, I love you for who you are. You are my dearest friend and you'll be surely missed. I'm sure you'll make tons of money in private practice, upgrade your free Perinatal Congress green bagpack to an LV, you white Vios car to an Audi, but please remember me and slot on your busy schedule for a lunch date with me & Za whenever you are free.

Good luck in your new endeavour, dear!!! I hope you'll be happy there..

Family holiday..

I am trying to plan a family get-together for a very long time, tapi sangat la susahnya. What with 7 siblings and weird working hours and commitments, it is next to impossible just to get us all together, even during Raya!


These are my obstacles:


1) Dad is aging and visually impaired due to retinitis pigmentosa so I have to find a proper place that is OKU friendly. He wanted to join us in Kuantan hari tu but Mommy pujuk tak payah ikut. I doubt that he would enjoy water park kan! I felt bad that he couldn't come along..


2) Abe Muttaqi, my ever so matured nephew is studying at a boarding school in Kota Bharu. He is attending a chinese school with weird holidays yang tak serentak dengan other mainstream schools. So susah sangat la kan. Plus, he is sitting for PMR so I must plan a holiday during the first quarter of the year 


3) Kak Ninie, my sister has 3 kids, Umar, entering Form 1, Sarah, going to Standard 6 and Uzair, Standard 4. Obviously kids these days are fully occupied. Their weekends are filled with tuition, Cambridge English class and kelas mengaji Quran. Furthermore, Sarah also has UPSR exam by the end of the year. So kena plan baik2 punya.


5) Abe, my elder brother is a pilot with hectic working schedule including weekends. He sometimes misses family dinners and events sebab yang paling kukuh ialah.. "sorry aarr.. saya kena fly.." okay, fine.


6) Having 3 doctors in the family also doesn't help with this planning at all. What makes it worse is one of us is a houseman in Temerloh doing shift work while the other is a Masters student in HUKM. Nak apply cuti amatlah susah sekali!


So silalah imagine kepayahan saya nak plan time and venue for our family holiday.. Haiihh... Someone should pay me to do this mind boggling work of figuring out the perfect place and time for this much awaits holiday!

Hectic!

What a packed weekend it was. As usual, I was oncall on both long holidays, the Sultan's birthday and Christmas. So I decided to take this time off and spend the entire long weekend wisely.


I don't know why but my daughter and her Papa share this odd tendency of falling sick during holidays. Both of them were unwell on 2 of 3 planned weekend getaways. Seriously, it is really beyond my comprehension. Membazir je spend beratus2 ringgit as at the end of the day, we just stayed in the hotel room and do nothing except watching TV and melayan anak yang fretful or the father yang letih, sakit badan or demam. Luckily, we haven't gotten as far as out of Malaysia coz I cant imagine having to waste thousands of ringgit on a spoiled vacation!


Anyways, we owe Hana a true time in the sun coz she was really in ill health the last time that we went to Kuantan. On top of that, the weather was definitely not on our side as it was raining cats and dogs throughout the day. So bye-bye to the beach and the pool.


Jadi, weekend kali ini haruslah digunakan sebaik2nya untuk bercuti sakan. Well, I might exaggerate a bit as we only stayed in PD for a night. It was almost fully booked the time that I called for reservation 2 weeks before due to long weekend.. Pfffts. Why PD...again? I guess the distance is a major factor here. In an hour we already reached the destination tak payah nak pit stop bagai. Senang and cepat kan!


We chose Grand Lexis previously known as Legend International Water Homes.. ehem, coz me and hubby kononnye baru dapat bonus. If not, do not expect us to go to 5 star resort ya!  I booked a deluxe room for the price of RM522 (govt rate super peak season), supposedly equipped with a king bed and a pool. Keeping in mind that we might have to stay indoor since we are still not fully out of monsoon season. 


Well, to my delight, the new deluxe room garden view has 2 king beds instead with a more modern design which I love so much! The last time I came with my friends, this place was still under construction. The room amenities were commendable, with its own pantry, complete with microwave and plates, a separate washroom with a walk in wardrobe (very important) so you can wreck and shamble this area with your clothes without compromising the cleanliness of the bedroom. 

The room

 Hana was super excited! She jumped and ran here and there, asking apetuh apetuh repeated when she sees weird stuffs like the pelampung or the bedside lamp. 

Budak girang
(p/s 1st time using this Malay word!)

Next is the MANDI time, yehhooo. Surely, Papa yang terlebih excited than his anak! 'Swimming' sampai tak ingat dunia using his new powered goggle that I bought for his birthday. The water was freezing cold that after half an hour, Hana was biting and shivering. I quickly put her under the hot shower which she seemed to enjoy the hot drizzle more than the pool -____- Cheh!

Ribena kids!
Note to self: must get Hana a goggle as she insisted on wearing
ours pastu marah bila super sized goggle tak stay kat batang hidung kecik dia -___-

Later that evening, we went to the playground and allowed Hana to let loose for a while before off for makan2 at a near by seafood restaurant. 

Sorry, I really couldn't remember the name of the place but it was pricey and not tasty at all. The prawn rasa hanyir and luckily we did not order lobster! Initially, we wanted to go to Teluk Kemang, about 20km away for a taste of real seafood as recommended by Pak Guard Lexis but Hana was too sleepy whereas hubby was not feeling well (see, I think hubby is allergic to vacation!). 


By 9.30pm, we headed back to the hotel, initially planned to take another round of skindipping in the pool but way too tired to do so. End of day 1 and we finally hit the sack by 11pm.


P/s Hana always have night terror if she is overtired. That night she woke up twice screaming and crying for no reason. Alhamdulillah, I recite ayat kursi and 3 Qul, hugged her and she slept soundly after that..

Little rugrat

Assalamualaikum everyone.. 

This blog was not updated for so long *clear dust from my keyborard*.. As usual, I was busy doing other things like studying and doing locum untuk kumpul duit :p Anyways, a simple update suffice to state that this blog masih berempunya kan..haha.. 

Hana Khadeeja is reaching 16 months soon. You remember her right? My one and only little girl. She's smart and sassy with increasing vocabulary under her belt. Words that she says so far.. Papa, Mama, Bibik, Kakak, Nak, Dah and Apetuh. Hopefully it will keep on adding soon..

I would say Hana is daddy's girl. She's close to me but definitely more attached to her Papa. Hana just can't let Papa out of her sight or else she starts crying and screaming. But I guess all girls are like that, they are more attracted to opposite sex. Lagi satu, one of her favourite persons also includes her bibik. Sikit2 panggil bibik that I felt a tinge of envy! But who else to blame since more than 50% of the time were spent with her Bibik. Sigh..

Our baby, ikut muka papa or muka mama?
Please vote :p

BTW, she is sick at the moment, contacted the illness from my maid. It is so unusual to see her so lethargic and moody, fretful at night due to her stuffy nose and bouts of cough. She had upper respiratory infection before but it was never this severe. Her fever also seemed unsettling, reaching 39 degrees even at day 5 of illness. Geared with suppository PCM 4 times a day and voren 3 times a day has temporarily reduced the body temperature to 37.5 degrees. 


I still think that it is a viral illness though (examination is still normal thus far) and hesitant to start her on antibiotic as Hana will sure vomit lepas makan ubat. But this time around the bug is more virulent and I have a feeling that the culprit is adenovirus. I'm sooo tempted to do respiratory virus screen but it would be a waste of rakyat's money. 


So today, I decided to be the bad person, pricked my own child and sent blood investigation just to rule out dengue. I'm really hoping that she recovers soon as I miss my cheerful and happy little girl..

At her uncle's recent graduation day, affectionately known as Ayah Su to us..
3rd doctor in the family