After surgery

Continued - Day 2 

While the doc had initially informed us hubby would spend the night in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) after the surgery and I would stay on in our room, the nurse told us we can't 'keep' the room and I'd have to go home first.  Hmm not an ideal situation as how then would I get news of hubby?  Also some logistics problems as we didn't drive there and had brought a lot of things so it would be difficult for me to transport everything out and back.  And I would need to take a Covid swab again.  There wouldn't be cost savings either as the room cost of RM238 would be offset by the Covid swab of RM95 and Grab rides back and forth.  Finally... phew they agreed to give us a room near the HDU.

The anesthetist visited at night to explain a bit about the surgery.  There would be a breathing tube so hubby might experience a sore throat when he wakes. Should there be excessive bleeding, he would be taken to the ICU first in an induced coma.

Day 3

He was taken from the room about 9am.  I moved to the new room a couple of hours later.  It was near the HDU so I could easily walk over to look through its glass walls for hubby.  No visitors were allowed in.  At 130pm, surgery was over and I was very happy when he appeared in the HDU - yay, he did NOT need to go to the ICU!  First hurdle of many cleared.

Zzzzzzz

When he woke up, he appeared totally himself (very important after a brain surgery).  We could message and call to communicate.

 

Talk, talk

Unfortunately, our relief soon ended.  Hubby discovered he couldn't feel the right side of his body.  His right arm was totally unresponsive. Doctors visited and said that wasn't supposed to happen, he was supposed to be able to lift the arm right after surgery.  Tried waiting for some time and still the numbness continued.  He could move the right leg although it didn't quite function properly.  He could move the right thumb slightly if he concentrated - we took this to be a positive sign he wouldn't be permanently paralysed.  But he couldn't sit up as half the body was a deadweight.

It was a bleak evening and night indeed. 

So it was a pleasant surprise to be greeted with this sight the next day.... 

He was vertical and he was actually taking some steps with the help of the physiotherapist.

Days 4-7

However our hope for a quick return to normalcy wasn't fulfilled.  Hubby didn't wake up and suddenly regain normal usage of his right side.  The next few days were of ups and downs.  There was definite progress - he got limited movement back in his right index finger and later the wrist.  Some numbness subsided from his face and chest.  He had good appetite and none of the other complications explained by the doctors.  However progress wasn't always upwards. Some days he'd say his mobility had actually gotten worse.  He kept saying the neurosurgeon must have cut too much and kicked himself for choosing this doctor.

Day 8

Discharge day.  Things could have been worse but they could definitely have been much better.  His right arm remained useless.  He could only walk like a stroke patient - very slowly and uncoordinated - and got very tired from moving.

Going home

 At least, going home.

A major challenge

I have been away for a very important mission: To get hubby well again.  It has not been smooth.  The story was like this:  At the beginning of November, hubby had numbness and some shaking in his right arm.  He didn't think too much of it but went to get it checked out just in case. It turned out to be a large brain tumour.  The shaking was actually seizures.

A few opinions later, all were unanimous an operation was necessary and quickly.  Hubby decided on early Dec to have some time to settle his affairs in case he didn't make it.  

Last minute, the doc postponed due to some urgent matters.  So finally we arrived at the hospital mid-Dec for the surgery.  A week's hospitalisation was expected.  JE and SE would stay with my parents.

Ah pek waiting for admission

My bed 

JE asked, is Mama's bed a bunch of chairs?  Haha.  It was a foldable contraption which can open out to be horizontal - good enough for sleeping.

Admission was 2 days prior to surgery.  

Day 1: ECG and Echo tests for the heart in the afternoon

Day 2: Embolism procedure in the morning (ohhh that's why needed to be admitted 2 days earlier) to reduce the risk of bleeding during the brain surgery.  A tube is threaded from the groin area going up to the brain where medication will be inserted to stop blood flow to the tumour.

No issues with any of the procedures although the second day one carried its own risks of stroke and blindness.

Documenting down our experience.  The situation isn't stable yet at the moment.  Stopping now to get some rest.

Chinese food

Went for Chinese food on a weekend.  If it's up to the kids, Chinese would never be their pick.  Especially at a 'basic' coffeeshop.  I decided we must check out new places occasionally and Chinese food IS very nice.  Hmmfff.

I'm getting bored

What can I do?

Good thing kakak came prepared with pen and paper.

Draw draw

This place is Mei Kheng at Sg Buloh new village.  My objective was this seafood porridge, which was pretty good.  Other dishes were too salty for our taste - noodles, iberico pork ribs (my first time trying Iberico!), curry stingray.

 

Don't like porridge. I'll eat noodles

SE said the place wasn't nice.  Told her this was a 'no frills' place where focus is on good food and not the surroundings.  And she complained the food wasn't good anyway.  Meaning we must dine out more at this type of shops hehe.

Waiting time

I go through some Bahasa with SE on weekends.  The time spent vs results is extremely low.  A lot of my time is spent WAITING.  While SE does this.... (after I ask her to open the book)

  

Lie on floor (here squeezing a toy)

Continue lying on floor

After oh, 15mins, finally she gets going on the book.

Opens book

After a very short while she slouches off to the chair and remains in this position for a few minutes.

Slouch

After patiently waiting a while, I eventually find out she's slouching over the iPad and secretly continuing her game.  If I hadn't been entertaining myself taking pictures of her, my patience would have run out much sooner.

AND after all this, she very quickly forgets whatever she has learnt. Wonder whether it's worth continuing this but obviously can't leave her alone either.  SIGH.

Where to next

Since dine-ins were allowed, we have gone to The Ship...

Cheese!

These sizzling things are so smoky

We have gone twice to Gangnam88 for Korean food....

Cheese

The girls were thrilled with the stuff from Squid Game.

Card game and Dalgona cookie!

And we have gone twice also for Japanese...

Yums!

Initially it was difficult to pick the places we missed most after the months of MCO.  But quite quickly, we have run out of places to go! Haha.

 

Teddy!

Got to post about this place - I was so excited! Probably more than the kids haha.  This place had teddies all over.  Teddy bears...

Teddies, SE and mummy

Teddies on the wall too...

Teddies, JE and SE

On the drinks... here's a 3-D teddy on the smoothie and a 2-D one on my cappucino.

Peace with teddies

And on the food too! The buns were painstakingly baked with the teddy images.  A big one on the burger, little ones on the western breakfast:

Peace! Peace!

Omg... can this get any cuter?  There were 3 teddy bears on the dessert. The head of the bear is actually a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream.  That highest one is the cutest ice-cream cone I have EVER seen.

Us with more teddies

Close-up pic of that ice cream cone.  A bear sitting on the cone, with a ring of colourful sprinkles on the chocolate:

Ahm the teddy

In spite of the cuteness, the food was actually good.  And cheap.  Took back part of my burger as portions were big.  Extension of cuteness to my breakfast the next day haha. Below this bear is actually a patty as two came with the burger.  

CUTE!!

I so want a revisit!  Not all food have teddies on them - maybe next visit I will go for some non-cute food, this first trip I just couldn't resist.  The shop name is 'The Teddy' at Kelana Zenith.

Oh JE and SE had a good time too. :)

Outsource homework

SE keeps accumulating a mountain of homework.  This girl would just leave things she can't do - she either doesn't know how to do, didn't catch the instructions, didn't have the equipment needed, forgot about it... the mind boggles haha.  Then while the growing mountain causes her increasing anxiety, she continues making it grow.  Tried to make her see that she's causing the problem for herself, but I don't think it sunk in.

Last week she was lucky and JE was willing to help on a piece of art homework.

Jo! Help me help me

*grins* Happy to have JE helping

JE producing a lantern already. SE doing something unrelated

Measure, cut... (where is SE?)

Oh here she is. Happily drawing something

In the end, one more piece of art homework done. JE did two for her.  It's art so... never mind, close one eye that she's not doing her own work.

Back to school

After I-lost count-how-many months, school has re-started.  The class is divided into 2 groups.  One will go to school while the other gets homework via Google Classroom. There are no more online classes since teachers will not be able to handle two groups at once.

I'd been hoping that somehow online will continue. But since that wasn't happening, decided to send the kids back to school. I'm sure lessons are way more effective when conducted in school.

Need to get our hair neat

Look presentable?

Still have a bit sticking out

I'll just sleep first

Their regular transporter quoted full fees for the half-month attendance.  Fetching them there in the mornings isn't any problem, since I was already walking them to my parents' house around that time for online classes earlier.  Fetching back from school, I'd have to adjust my lunchtime.  Decided to try it for the RM40 a day saved haha. 

Overall... the kids prefer online classes.  But we have survived the week!  Now for a week OFF school, yay.

Study?

Su Ern, you have a lot of homework.  Better start on it.

Su Ern!  You want teacher to scold later?

SU ERN!!!

She has endless patience hiding herself from things she doesn't want to do.  Which will result in a mountain of undone work.  Which she WILL worry about.  Yet when nudged to start on the work, this is what happens.

I have decided to change her from the current Chinese stream to a dual language one.  Nobody else has the time or patience to push this girl every step of the way. 

BR Ice cream

The girls have been the happy recipients of ice-cream cones from my Shopee vouchers.  We have ice-cream all the time in the freezer but guess it's way more fun to be able to go to a shop and choose your own flavour.

Sampling of flavours isn't allowed in these Covid times.

Mint choc chip, Lunar berry

Citrus sorbet, 'mystery flavour'

Choc chip cookie dough, raspberry sorbet

Good thing this place constantly introduces new flavours so looks like they will never run out of new ones to try.

Little Beggar

There is a little beggar in our apartment who appears in the mornings...

Beggar here again

See, she has her begging cup beside her.

Just SE with eyes closed

This SE... is so difficult to dig out of bed.  When JE goes to brush her teeth, this one will still be snuggled up in her blanket.  Usually needs me to go to the room again and yell at her to get up.  When she finally goes to the bathroom, JE is done and out.  Then SE 'doesn't want to be lonely' and brings her stuff to that corner where she can see us at the dining table. Then she will brush her teeth there with her eyes closed.

Art class resumes

With the loosening of MCO SOPs, the kids' art classes have resumed. Seems the two of them are the only ones actually in class though.  Smart of the teacher... they offer online classes which I see no point in attending.  So they open class just for us hahaha.  At least they get two extra sets of fees.  They conduct online class at the same time while attending to these two.

JE doesn't like the classes and says she doesn't learn anything.  I'm not sure whether I should take that with a pinch of salt since she's negative about most things anyway.  SE said she liked the first class.  So I keep to my principle... if I'm sending one kid, might as well send both.  A different activity besides screen time and they must be learning SOMETHING.  They don't have attend anything else now - no more tuition, swimming, gymrama, hip-hop (the last being a very short-lived thing).

Took them to McDonald's after class.

These McFlurries are pretty good

Ah Mah's birthday 2021

At least we could celebrate this occasion, with everyone in attendance!  Better to exercise some caution though so we ordered in and ate in.  The choice was easy - the Thai food we tried and liked for CNY this year.  It was good again. :)

Food, approved!

We haven't had a meal together for ages!  

2 grandparents, 7 grandkids and 1 cake

Too many candles, cannot see the cake haha.

Cake by itself

Happy birthday to our beloved mother and grandmother!

Tapau

Tapau-ed from my favourite nearby restaurant which wasn't open for dine-in yet.  Nah, definitely not as good as eating there with everything served fresh out of the wok. 

Also don't have proper serving dishes at home.  There is actually a 'cheong cheng' (spicy gravy style) steamed fish which in the shop would come in a grand steaming platter with warming candles underneath.  At home my maid unceremoniously plopped the fish onto a round plate and plonked all the gravy on top.  Haha.

This is mehhh.  I prefer McDonald's

Overall still tasted good enough.  And the price was hardly more than McDonald's since we didn't buy rice or drinks.  But won't bother to take away again. 

Out

We have started venturing out for meals.  Individual outlets for now, not yet malls.  Also those which aren't so crowded.

What to eat, what to eat

Everything's good!

Hubby was taking photos of his drink, the food.  He'd been really house-bound for MCO and for someone who normally goes out a lot with his friends, it was a big change.  At least I'd been out and about a bit, and happily ordering food and other things.  He was paranoid even to collect deliveries.  So ended up he became slightly down and depressed. 

Take photo first...

And a nice waffle ice-cream dessert to finish

We totally enjoyed the outing.  Will be (cautiously) going out more.