will i am's delayed diary

After a year of soreness and discomfort in my left thumb , and one useless trip to the orthopaedic specialist,  I decided to let my chiropractor look at the problem. Judging by the way the chiropractor tried to diagnose my condition, I don't think that he had the expertise. Still, that didn't stop him for trying dry needling on my palm. He chose 4 points-- 2 at the fleshy base of the thumb, and another 2 above the webbing of the thumb. Dry needling of the hand is very different from what I experienced for my back. It felt like an immense pressure going through my palm, bordering on pain. My left hand felt kind of numb after the treatment. And after I got home, there was some bruising at the area. Felt more sore than usual, but after a few days, the familiar chronic discomfort returned. Guess it didn't help at all.   

COVID-19 quarantine wasn't too bad for me. Thankfully, the symptoms were mild. One day of sore throat followed by several days of intermittent low-grade fevers. And my sense of smell wasn't affected. Most of the day, mum would be away at my sister's place. I would drive over to pick up lunch, and she would pack dinner for me in the evening. Good thing was that mum was spared the infection. Can you imagine, I didn't take a single day off. Still worked from home. Could still function, just that getting out of bed in the morning was more difficult than usual.   Caring neighbours boiled TCM soups for me, and I received a pint of ice cream from Gratitude via GrabFood. Within a few days, the second line faded. Everything went back to normal except for a slight nagging cough that went on for a month.  

COVID was seemingly getting better, so mum, KH, and I went to get our much delayed annual body check ups done at a clinic at Taman Equine. No red flags from the resting ECG ( just some love bites on my chest ) and abdominal ultrasound. Would have to wait a few days for the blood work to come back. Finally went to the pet shop to get some fishes for the water hyacinth outside. Needed the fish to be hardy, can survive without a water filter, and suitable under the sun. Got some guppy-like fishes in red and yellow. According to the owner of the shop, business was much better during the MCO because people who were cooped up found more time for hobbies like Betta fish and aquarium landscaping.  March is KH's month. Arranged a pre-birthday celebration in Kepong. Being too early for our dinner appointment, we loitered at a nearby cafe called KAPE . Very popular with the young crowd. I was happy with their RM8 Americano. Our dinner appointment was upstairs, a Peruvian Japanese restaurant c

Every quarter, mum would visit her medical specialist for a follow-up. The clinic is located on the second floor, so she would have to climb up a couple of flight of stairs before registering at the counter. During registration, her blood pressure is also taken. Her blood pressure was high during the last visit, but I shrugged it off as a one-off thing. Unfortunately, it was the same during her subsequent visit. Wouldn't want to leave things to chance, so I brought her to a GP to check it out. The doctor diagnosed her as having hypertension, and started her on an initial dose of blood pressure medication. To start at age 76 is considered very lucky I guess. Also started monitoring her blood pressure at home to see if the medication is working. Mum had a perception that she could stop the medication after her blood pressure normalized. After a few rounds of explaining, she finally understood the medication wouldn't cure the root cause. 

Mum received her vaccination booster appointment via MySejahtera in January. I fetched her to the center at Dewan Bankuet, Universiti Putra Malaysia. The banquet hall is part of the Faculty of Science and Food Technology's food services division. They even have a cafe there but the students seem more focused at cleaning a cafe, rather than other operational aspects. The vaccination went slowly, and mum came out triple AZ-ed. On the other hand, my vaccination appointment was handled by KH. He managed to get me a Pfizer jab at a clinic at Taman Desa. In and out of the clinic in less than half an hour. The doctor even asked me if I had any other friends who wanted a booster shot. Guess the uptake wasn't that good, and the stock was expiring. Both mum and I didn't have any side effects.   

Ever heard of Pure for Men ? You may have seen ads on the internet, or watched reviews by gay influencers. Basically, its sold as a magic pill that makes you an ever-ready bottom. In the real world, bottoming takes a lot of preparation ( read up on my routine here ) and thing can get messy. This is where Pure for Men comes in-- a fiber supplement that keeps your bussy clean as a whistle. Eat all the spicy sambal you want, and have seconds on that kari kepala ikan ! Pile on the dhal too! Haha. Anyway, KH bought me a bottle from Shopee, and I gave it a try. The recommended dosage is 3 capsules, twice a day. And its recommended that you not take it together with your vitamins. That being the case, sometimes I end up just taking it once a day due to timing. One bottle later, I wasn't really wow-ed by the results. I guess one really needs to take it very regularly. I started with 2 capsules, twice a day, and that sure as heck wasn't enough. And with 3 capsules, make sure its twic

Finally it was my turn to get vaccinated. On the fourth of July, at World Trade Centre (WTC). Did you notice the name change? I don't when they decided to throw out the word "Putra". The drive there was smooth, with little traffic on a Sunday afternoon. Zero police road blocks too. I parked at Sunway Putra Mall, and that was easy too. Plenty of available bays at the basement. I took the elevator to the first floor and lucked out because the lift lobby was just beside the link bridge to WTC. Plenty of signage, with stickers on the floor, and some on the ceiling. A short walk later, I arrived at the main entrance. Traffic flow into the vaccination center was not as smooth as I expected because they required an updated health assessment to be done in the MySJ app. And so people were standing around the entrance tapping their phones, with the RELA personnel needing to give instructions on what to do. There were three stations which basically meant three lanes. My station was

For the past couple of months, the intermittent pain in my left thumb had progressed into a chronic pain at the base of my thumb. Must be from my smartphone habit of single thumb swiping. Stretches didn't help anymore. Icing the area did help a bit though. But the pain would return pretty soon. I read that I should the thumb, so I bought a thumb splint on Shopee. When my package arrived from China, everything was there, EXCEPT the thumb splint. The seller tried their hardest to waste my time when I asked them about the missing item. In the end I raised a case with Shopee anyway. The seller kept asking me to weigh the items without telling me the weight of the missing item. Anyway, Shopee returned my money in the end, and my made my purchase on Lazada instead. Hopefully, this will give my thumb enough rest for it to heal. If things don't get better, I'd have to go see the orthopedic specialist. 

Age has caught up with me. Ever since my 39th birthday, my vision had been deteriorating. I had begun to notice how annoyingly high the screen resolution of colleagues' laptops were. The lines of code were so cramped and tiny that I had stick my head to the screen, and look over my spectacles! Aiyoh , like uncle jor . Suffered for a year. Guess the least straw was when I couldn't read the bill at Pepo Pizza . The small text and the ambient light really gave me a hard time. A week later, I dropped by an optical shop at Aurora Place and got my eyes checked. During the eye test, my hair kept getting in my eyes, so I definitely had to arrange a visit to my hairstylist too. The results: Near sightedness increased 50 in both eyes. Astigmatism was reduced by 50 in one eye, so its all balanced now. Reading power is 125! With this, I had upgraded to multifocals ( some call them progressives ), something that allows me to see near, intermediate, and far. Unlike single power lenses, I was

Mum and I marked the end of 2020 by doing a full body checkup at a clinic at Equine Park. A good thing really as I was overdue for check on my blood lipid profile. My colleague recommended me to the clinic because the package it offered was dirt cheap. For MYR195: Blood test with 77 parameters (inclusive of H. pylori, tumour markers, and PSA) Urine test Abdominal ultrasound Resting ECG And the pathology report is from Gribbles, not some little known lab. And the good things is that the clinic opens at 8 AM, so one does not need to go hungry for too long. Haha. Got everything sorted out in about an hour. While changing, I discovered love bites on my chest. When did KH do that? Oh wait, it was the ECG electrodes! Got my results back a few days later. Thank goodness everything was within parameters. Total cholesterol was borderline, so I guess I should exercise more? :D.

Took some time, but KH finally managed to arrange KV to meet his 'sir' from college days. The reunion was held at Jack & Steve Grill , a midpoint for all involved. 'Sir' did remember KV and they hit it off pretty quickly. Always fun reminiscing about the old days. Names and events long forgotten. KH and I let them do their thing while we focused more on the food. Funny to note that Jack & Steve Grill now has a special wild boar menu. I was quite impressed with the wild boar ribs aglio-olio. Halfway through dinner, KH complained of a headache. But it was quite bad that he eventually asked for painkillers. I remember that he has an allergy, but BOTH of us couldn't remember what he could take. So we took a gamble. I ran over to the nearby pharmacy and got him something. He took one tablet, and we paid the bill. Our next stop was Mykori for some dessert. Before I managed to order, KH started showing signs of allergy. I noticed some inflammation around his eye l

Covid-19 first made headlines in Malaysia when several infected Mainland Chinese tourists in Singapore crossed the border to Johor during the final week of January 2020. The general public was quite dumbstruck on how the tourists ( without a care in the world ) decided to travel around knowing that a few of their family members were down with the deadly infection. From then on, some Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur had already started taking precautions, especially those who take the LRT and MRT. Truth be told, during those initial stages, I only wore a surgical mask once. My travel times to and from the office were quite off-peak, so I was spared much crowding. Just took the precaution of not unnecessarily touching the train surfaces, and refrain from touching my face. Also had a bottle of hand sanitizer handy in my backpack. As the days went by, and things got more alarming, more and more people started taking precautions. Most wore surgical masks. The more discerning used N95 masks. '

Through her connections, mum signed us ( including the Monsters and a couple of their friends ) for the Merdeka Fun Run for Sayangi Sawitku that was slotted a week before Merdeka. The run was jointly organized by Taman Desa Resident's Association (TDRA) and Majlis Perwakilan Penduduk Zon Wilayah Persekutuan (MPPWP). The meeting point was at the Taman Desa community hall where we did some warm up yoga. YB Teresa Kok flagged us off at 7:30 AM. The kids ran at first, waving their mini flags enthusiastically, then lost their steam. Little Monster lagged behind a bit and looked so red in the face. We reached the finish line at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Taman Desa (SMKTD) at about an hour later. Collected the goodie bag, then headed to the hall for breakfast. The kids had instant chee cheong fun , and we also tried some African food provided by the Ghana High Commission of Malaysia. All of the activities were lined up by the Malaysia Palm Oil Council (MPOC) to promote and educa

Piles is quite a common problem these days. I went to see a doctor about it a few years back and medication seems that have controlled the situation. Recently, mum starting complaining about it. The pain made her really irritable. The GP didn't do much for her situation. The suppositories were expensive, yet useless. Before the problem got worse, I made an appointment with a specialist at Sunway Medical Center. At 8AM, we were the first in line. The good doctor arrived 2 hours later. He did a quick scope to assess the situation and gave mum some options. We went off with two boxes of Daflon. Coincidentally, mum also had a quarterly follow-up with the gynaecologist, so I drove to Bandar Puteri Puchong. Just a very short visit. Finally we could have breakfast. Tried YOU Fishball Noodles, a shop specializing in well, fishball noodles. The soup was piping hot, truly a breakfast that warms the belly. Simple but satisfying. In the afternoon, mum went out to her society meeting

Even before my Colombo trip , I was feeling unwell. A lingering illness deep inside my torso that couldn't quite manifest. Like an annoying piece of meat stuck between your teeth, that you can feel with the tip of your tongue, but can't quite dislodge. Couldn't take it anymore, so I decided to see the TCM practitioner at Happy Garden after mum's trip to the wet market. After a long wait, it was finally my turn. Her diagnosis after feeling pulse and sticking a tongue depressor down my throat : heat and wind. She diagnosed me three doses herbal soup with complicated cooking instructions. And while I was taking the herbal soups, I had certain dietary restrictions. In general, eat pork ( yay! ), and avoid white vegetables. A truly nasty concoction with a whole lot of dregs which I had to swallow as well. Once I was done, it was time for lunch. Mum and I ate at Wonton and Pho, just a short walk away from the TCM. Between us, we had a banh mi , and a plate of wantan noo

Mum had been coughing for weeks and I thought I was immune to it. As she got better after several visits to the TCM at Tai Onn Tong, I caught her coughing bug. By the end of July, the cough had reached a sort of crescendo. My ribs were aching like crazy with each wheeze. Sometimes I woke up in the middle of the night gasping for breath and feeling my rib cage seize up. Horrible! Not exactly in the best of health, but I still attended my stylist's new shop opening at Kuchai Lama. A whole bunch of regulars came over for some makan-makan . Unlike the usual hair salon, he has a cafe at the front serving coffee, cakes, sandwiches, and cupcakes. In the evening, mum and I went to Taman Bukit Jalil for some fresh air. The exercise didn't help my condition. Had a rare vegetarian dinner at Jujube in OUG. Ordered wat tan hor and pan mee . A flour-filled meal. Avoid the pan mee at all cost. Horrid.

Mum was back at the dentist again for further fitting on her chrome cobalt dentures. Only the little one was with us because Big Monster was at a church camp. But later on, my sister picked up Little Monster as well. Since we had the time, mum and I went to settle some AirBnB chores. Had to pick up the dirty linen and pay the cleaners. All that running up and down really gave us a healthy appetite. We stopped for lunch at Restoran Goon Wah as we were lucky enough to find parking. Shared a bowl of their XO fish head noodles and stir-fried intestines. I think the quality of food has gone downhill ever since the business changed hands. The weather looked perfect for a run in the park, so mum and I changed and drove out to Taman Bukit Jalil. The moment we set foot on the jogging track, it started to rain heavily. We found shelter a nearby gazebo and waited the rain out. Forty minutes later (-_-), the rain let up, and I just managed to put in a 15-minute run before it got dar