At Prince Court most of the afternoon

091024.08, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

The picture above was taken yesterday when Idlan had his sketch done at AU2. I was really glad that he did not freak out when the crowd was building up.

My brother-in-law just arrived from Moscow on a business trip. Since lunch on Wednesday, he was down with diarrhoea. Unfortunately while he was there, getting medical attention was a big problem. He tried explaining to the local doctors, but unfortunately, their English was really sketchy. To make things worst, he was not keen to be admitted after hearing about the experienced his friends been through in hospitals there. He is not really keen to stay any longer than necessary in a foreign land.

He arrived in KLIA about 3 hours ago after a transit in Dubai. Even though he travelled business class, the journey had really took a toll on him. He had hardly eaten anything since the diarrhoea started and looking at him, he has easily lost 5kg. It’s good if losing weight is what you have in mind. What was ironic was he was due to be taken on a tour of Moscow before his flight. He was just keen to get the trip over and done with, so he just did the customary shot of the Red Square and Kremlin. He called me straight away when he arrived, obviously concerned. Traveller’s diarrhoea is not something to be taken lightly but he appears to be OK. What he probably need is a spot of rest and some drip. Since he is a Petronas employee, we decided to head to the shiny hospital that is the Prince Court. My initial impression, my God, this place is empty! He just gor himself checked out. They are giving him a couple of drips, then he should be able to go home on antibiotics. They are doing some panel of blood as well. He should be all right …. and I have a couple of hours to kill ….. Maybe I’ll go to KLCC for a coffee.

p/s: The blood results came back and his potassium was low from the diarrhoea and all. The doctors decided to admit him for some hydration. He needed the rest anyway, but as you can see from the pics, the place is more of a hotel than a hospital.

Conundrum at home

Day Out at Hartamas 7, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Idlan had another asthma attack this morning and everybody was rather hesitant about getting him back to school. We decided to miss today. Anita was worried that his classmates had been abroad during their 3 weeks off and may have contracted the flu. She wanted to 'quarantine' Idlan in the first week the school started. I thought that it was an overeaction, but after reading stories about how the young ones that contracted H1N1 being casualties, I can understand how Anita felt like that.

It seems that there is another U-turn in the government's effort to combat the virus. It seems that school closure is now back on the agenda. No throat swab for everybody unless they are really high risk needing hospital admission etc etc. Unfortunately the definitive and up to date information source is still lacking. This is an area that resources and effort needed to be put into.

To a certain extend, the damage has already been done with the clear panic amongst the general public. Even the health professionals are getting confused with which guidelines needed following. There are too many revision and it seems that the goal-post is being shifted on a day-to-day basis. For example, what is the government's stance on the use of PPE (personal protection equipment - facemask etc)? Is the normal surgical mask good enough. Do we need N95s? Are the mask needed at all? Everyone seems to think that the measly surgical masks are godsend and my local chemist is selling them for RM1 each! Easy money eh? I should just rid my ward cupboard and still a box of N95s .... easy bucks to be made there.

I can't stress this more, we need a portal for an accurate and consistent information. We are bracing ourselves for the second wave, and still I am waiting for the selsemababi.com.my to be launched!

Tale of the Index Finger

Work Essentials 2 - The Juice, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Monday. Such fun. I woke up this morning with Irfan having high fever. Coughing and unable to sleep all night. Luckily Idlan slept through, otherwise it would have been double trouble.

We had to have a change of plans then as I had to do the school run. It turned out to be a treat even though I arrived around 8.30 for work. Idlan was really beaming when I took him to class, and insisted on me actually going into his classroom.

Monday has traditionally been a busy day for my unit. We start with the grand round, followed by a busy-than-usual day care, when we may see up to 40 patients starting just after 11. It turned out to be around 30 today. Straight after lunch is the transplant clinic. I had the referrals to wrestle through after that and I manage to finish all of it by 6 today. Thanks to DUKE, I was home 30 minutes later.

For the last couple of weeks, my right index finger has been playing up. I think it is an old badminton injury. It causes a stinging pain on the finger joint every time I try to smash or hit the shuttle hard. According to my orthopaedic friend, I have to rest it for 4 weeks. No badminton tonight then.

Anita took Irfan to our GP earlier. He is on antibiotics at the moment. By the evening, he has got his appetite back and up to his old tricks! I am with him at the moment while he is watching the 'Disney Channel' as Anita is putting Idlan to sleep.

Idlan's Concert

Idlan's Concert 1 - The Preparation, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Yesterday, I sneaked home early to attend Idlan's piano recital. Since the beginning of the year, Idlan has been attending a nearby Yamaha Music School. He has been making progress, and with his piano that he got for his birthday he has been knocking them away almost everyday.

Idlan delivering his piecePresent from teacherThere were a few other children in his group. They sang a couple of tunes at the beginning. After that each of them introduced themselves and play a couple of pieces solo. Idlan did fine. After that, we had some snacks. All the parents brought something along. Anita got some cupcakes from the The Curve earlier in the day and it was gone in double quick time!

Happy Birthday Idlan

The Piano, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Delivery for the piano arrived yesterday and we did well to hide it from Idlan. Surprised him when he woke up this morning, even before he brushed his teeth. He seems to be enjoying it, and I managed to connect it onto my MacBook. Walla, Idlan has started recording on Garageband.

We stayed at home throught the day since we were planning dinner tonight. Should be fun. Will blog later.