Trying some Chinese herbs for dry cough

This dry cough has been ongoing for nearly 4 weeks now. I have had enough of this! Yesterday I bought a pack of Chinese herbs called Tan Ke Qing Fei herbal tea from a Chinese medical shop. The preparation was somewhat tedious in that I have to boil and simmer the herbs with six bowls (Chinese rice bowl size) of water, boil and let it evaporate till there was one bowl of liquid left and drink it.

Seemed easy enough until I tried. Somehow it didn't evaporate as plan and I still got about 3-4 bowls of herbal tea. My entire house was filled with the typical herbal smell though I am ok with this kind of aroma, as I kinda like it. The herbal tea preparation may not have gone according to plan, but after taking it, I felt a little better with less coughing. So I was going to give this another go tonight.

My wife was a little sceptical but if it worked then why not give it another go?
Strange was the fact about this dry cough. The Sinseh said the cough could 'turn' from cold to heaty and the heat could be buried within the chest waiting to break out. Hmm... Whatever that means. Anyway as long as I can get rid of this cough no matter the method I'll go for it!

Finally found cure for dry cough using this Chinese herbal drink

Streamyx kinda slow today

I wonder if Streamyx/TMnet is back to its old tricks again. I find the broadband speed today to be rather laggy and slow. I tried to reset the router modem. Also checked whether my colleague was surfing any YouTube sites, but there weren't any heavy downloading. So the main culprit is Streamyx is slow today!

The school holidays week is underway and as usual there would be a lot of kids surfing the internet downloading stuffs or watching movies online. But that should be no cause for TMnet/Streamyx to do their ungly thing and slow down everybody! I thought that period was passé when competitors like P1 Wimax with their "cut the line" slogan and recently the YTL YES Wimax broadband should shake up Streamyx into improving it services.

Perhaps Streamyx want to make more money by selling their more expensive UNIFI broadband service and give the slower bandwidth guys like us a hard time!

Bah! In terms of speed per payment, Malaysia is still lagging behind many other countries. We should be getting faster bandwidth speed for the amount we are paying! I guess the get rich quick mentality is still alive and kicking in Malaysia. So much for Malaysia Boleh…!

Baby milestone 9 - 10 months old

With so many in family sick, it's a wonder my baby still got the attention. Now at 9 months to ten moths old baby, he finally was able to crawl forward! Initially he could only push himself backwards, now he could propel himself forward to just about anywhere!
So I made a little mini play area by using two sets of foldable mattresses surrounded by the sofa set and TV bench. Where there are gaps in the furniture fencing or danger of hard surface I line the place up with cushion pillows from the sofa set.
Now he got a fairly spacious play area to crawl around! Better than my mom-in-law who just use bare marble floor. Baby knocked on the hard floor so many times already whenever he misjudge his movement and ended up crying a lot!
And from crawling, baby is now able to pull himself up to a standing position too! And he loves to stand up so much!
So, to celebrate he is now able to clap hands too! I'm spying that he could do some waving as well but not sure if baby knows it is for waving goodbye. And when the Disney Playhouse channel breaks into any lively songs, baby would lift both hands and wave them! Wow!
He is also a very curious and inquisitive young child exploring any items that you pass to him or seek out by baby. If his crawling was more steady, bet you that he is going to crawl into every nook and cranny!
Now is the time to learn for the baby as the brain development is the fastest and my wife has bought some expensive language learning kit. Forgot the name, but I'll be sure to blog about it later!
Cheers!

Still coughing but getting better

This itchy dry cough of mine is finally on the road to recovery. I'm still ccoughing pretty hard when the throat gets irritated. However the frequency of coughing bout is less frequent now.
When to see another family doctor. This time he prescribe some cough tablet for phlegm control and a very drowsy cough mixture for night time use so I can sleep better. Woke up a bit drowsy though. Perhaps that is due to coughing fits halfway through the night and I have to get up to change my sweaty clothes and take some medicine to sooth my irritated throat to prevent further coughing.
Sigh! I really hate this dry cough. I use to get it every year, but managed to keep my flu package at bay for a couple of years now thanks to my weekly 20 minutes run rounf the park. The jog really strengthened my immunity against the flu package which usually consist of sore throat, cold, fever and then that long winded dry cough which takes several weeks to cure.
This time round the sore throat and cold didn't strike but went straight to the dry cough starting with a slightly mild fever.
Oh, well i'm getting my voice back but I still cough whenever I speak on the phone or do any extended talking. Still sounded like Rod Stewert with that sexy raspy voice!
I guess another few more days should do the trick! Hope so too coz i'm teaching Sunday school and the following week, worship leading! Had to swap my schedule because of this terrible dry cough which disrupted my planned schedule!

Going for Chinese Medicine Remedy for Dry Cough

I have enough of this cough, cough, cough! It is so irritating! I decided to try Chinese medicine remedy for this dry cough instead. Since the antibiotics and other Western medicine is not working may as well try the Eastern medicine instead. It uses herbs and ginseng for treatment.



So a quick pop in to Vie Onn in Section 14 PJ, a quick consultation with the Chinese sinseh and he recommended this Chong Choe Hou Pui Loh cough syrup. Never heard it before but he says it is more effective than the Pei Pah Gou. Well I was using Pei Pah Gou and it did help to sooth my sore throat and reduce my cough at night, so if this was more potent, so let's give it a try!

Next he recommended some herbs call Pou Sam So, the English translation is American Ginseng Root, which didn't seem to translate it correctly. I guess the West still got a lot to catch up with it comes to Chinese herbal medicine, or I suppose there wasn't a proper English name equivalent for this medicinal herb. I was to take this RM10 pack of herbs, boil it with a pinch of salt and drink it. Since I was a little more desperate than that, I decided to just use the office kettle and pour hot water over it. It may not be so effective to extract the essence but will have to do for now. I got another pack to really give it a boil when I went home.

Later I'm going to give this coke + salt drink to sooth my sore throat. It helps some. And it would be much better than taking whiskey neat which I think would really make my throat more sore than cured though the alcohol would kill the bacteria just the same except that it's going to be tough on my throat!

Let's see if the above remedy will do its job coz I'm rather fed up with the cough!

Dry cough and sore throat getting bad

Can't stand this dry cough anymore. It is beginning to become sore throat as well. This persistent dry cough means I must stay away from air condition room as that would aggravate it. The doctors prescription was completed and yet there was no remedy and relief. The antibiotics should have done the trick but looks like this strain is resistant to it. May as well don't take antibiotics after all that might make the bacterial resistant to it and I don't want that to happen.

Now trying home remedies like drinking apple cider vinegar, herbal drinks and sometimes going to extreme when I can't stand the coughing any more by gargling with super salted water or mouth wash. And the most extreme method by gargling with whisky (and drinking some of it). The burning sensation and hopefully the alcohol will kill the germs. However I don't think doing that was good for my throat either.




Just went to Tesco and bought a couple of Coca cola. Plan to chill it, then mix it with salt and drinking it. However cold drinks are not good for the throat either although it soothes the throat for a little while. The concoction of salt and Coca-cola it seems will provide some relief.

With the help of some off-the-shelf cough medication I hope to kick this dry cough outta my system at the very least.

It's been a long while since my last bout of terrible flu package. This time there is no running nose, which was usually the beginning. Now it just jump right into the cough with a quick mild fever, then the sore throat comes. Symtoms sequence pretty much in reverse compared to last time. Sigh! Of the entire flu package that I usually catch, the dry cough is the most irritating of all the stages!

Why so many in the family got ailment?

Why the men in the family are sick? Perhaps we are under spiritual attack or something. My elder brother-in-law has been fighting the tumour in his head for the past 2 years and seem to hanging on with his mostly vegetarian diet and supplements boosting. All of a sudden the sky was thrown at the family and now comes trial and tribulation.

During CNY my dad-in-law has a nasty fall resulting in brain trauma though finally he is given the all clear and checked into a nursing home. My brother-in-law has his Still's Disease flare up during CNY and now still fighting it pretty hard. And myself, maybe consider it mild, but this dry cough of mine is certainly very irritating and I had it for a week already. I'm beginning to suspect that I may have picked up some strong bug while visiting the infirmed in UH.

Then my baby fell from our bed because missus was overly concern with her brother when she pick up a phone call and completely neglected to place baby in a safe place like the baby cot or surround the bed with pillow barrier and he just rolled over to the side. To ensure she don't jump out like that I've muted the fax and phone in the master bedroom. So only the downstairs phone will ring.

Trouble seems to come in waves and this wave is a nasty one. Some dark forces is at work here like a predator hunting for its prey and looking out for weak links in the family to strike and cause terror. Going to have to weather this dark storm till it blows over and let it settle down.

Looking for a good nursing home

Finally my dad-in-law was discharged yesterday after the doctor gave the all clear from his MRSA infection. However he still needs care and the best option now is check him into a good nursing home where they can give the attention and care to him.
Lena brother and sister has scouted a few and decided to check him in to a nursing home just opposite of UH. It was reasonably affordable at about RM1200 per month.
However on the second day while checking up on her dad, they find the care given was rather deplorable. Although this nursing was recommended by an aunt who has stayed there previously perhaps her condition was not as serious as my dad-in-law.
He was almost neglected due to his immobolized condition and the nurses, though qualified did not seem to know what they are doing. They didn't call us when they have run out of his clean clothing and just let him covered with a thin layer of sarung.
Because of the many complaints she decided to look for another good nursing home or bring him back to the house. I think the best bet is still nursing home as there isn't any place on the ground floor unless we do major reorganizing of the furnitures. Besides we don't have the strength and manpower to carry him from the bed to the wheelchair and do physiotherapy.
Anyway will just have to check out the other nursing homes which are priced higher which hopefully provide better nursing care.

MRSA Superbug

My dad-in-law is getting complication after complication. The doctor now says he has MRSA superbug which is an antibiotic resistant bacteria. So any who comes into contact with him must really scrub their hands before they leave the hospital and change their clothes for washing when they go home. MRSA I believe is very dangerous for those who has weak immunity, seniors and children. Because of the bacteria resistance to general antibiotics, there is only a very limited arsenal of antibiotics that can fight off this bacteria.

IE visiting your general doctor in the clinic won't help because the antibiotics have to be dispensed very carefully and in controlled manner in order to avoid bacteria becoming immune to the medicine. Losing the antibiotics ability to kill the bacteria would be a major blow and would bring us back to pre-antibiotic medical age.

The doctors want to discharge my dad-in-law as soon as possible to avoid getting further complication from infection as the hospital has many bacteria and viruses flying around. With my dad-in-law's weaken condition, it is very susceptible for him to catch just about anything.

Because MRSA can be fatal, we need to consider our children's future too and avoid catching such a dangerous superbug. That means my mom-in-law, my wife, the maid who are all involved in looking after toddlers (well she is running a nanny service besides looking after my son and my niece) should not visit the hospital at all. My brother-in-laws too have to avoid as they themselves are fighting off illnesses so their immunity is low. That leaves only my sis-in-law. She will have to avoid visiting the house in USJ after a hospital visit.

This may sound cruel to my dad-in-law with not many visitors but given the circumstances of MRSA superbug risk of exposure and fatality, it is better not to risk it passing on the germs to the young children.

Sometimes it is a tough choice between one whose life journey is at its twilight against another whose life journey has barely just begun. To show love and compassion and yet there are considerations to decide balancing the future of one against that of another is pretty tough.

No choice now but to wait until the doctor gives the all clear against this MRSA superbug before visiting again.

My PC is rather slow on certain aspects

I'm not sure whether it is due to Windows 7 which is rather slow in my AMD 64 computer or whether my 2 year old hardware is aging, but I feel the hardware part is rather unlikely as I tried booting up the system using Ubuntu Linux and making a comparison. Although I don't get to use Windows 7 in my office, a quick check on my colleague's Windows 7 and her PC is running quick as a breeze. Not every job or application is slow in my house box, only certain aspects of the PC is slow. Boot up speed is expected whether at home or at work, Windows always loads up lots of applets and services which tend to take up some 5 minutes before you are ready to go.

I have two issues with my AMD/Windows 7 setup, large file transfer and shutdown process. My external hard drive, the WD My Book using firewire connection is especially slow when it comes to large file transfer. And the Windows 7 shutdown also takes ages! It takes as long as 10 minutes to quit! Now that is far too long! Even my Windows Vista at work takes less than 3 minutes to shutdown.

Strangely when I tried my PC with Ubuntu Linux live CD, the file transfer was so much faster. With my Puppy Linux, it was blazingly fast! Perhaps too fast as it started to have errors when transfer huge amount of files. So I decided to stick back with Ubuntu Linux for a more stable file transfer environment.

I suspect installing Windows 7 in the 64bit mode is not as good as I thought and might have compatibility issues with an AMD system. The only way to know for sure is to reinstall Windows 7 in 32 bit mode or change my hardware to an Intel based system. I'm neither keen on either mode the former being tedious and time consuming while the latter cost money and I'm not ready to throw in good money for a hardware upgrade just yet.

Since the issue is just file transfer and shutdown, I opted in to install a Linux system using Ubuntu to resolve the former while I just have to grit my teeth and wait for the shutdown process for the latter. I could always just flick the off switch on the mains if I didn't want to wait which is not always a good idea as Windows 7 may be writing something into the hard drive and might risk corrupting the data.

Anyway, just have to work around the slow Windows 7 issues and a good excuse to install Ubuntu 10.10 which I have not come around to do!

Dad-in-law on the way to recovery

My dad-in-law is on the way to recovery. Being a senior I guess many complications can happen while being warded in University Hospital. The head trauma by doctor reckoning is stopped based on observation. However the aftermath of that fall and brain injury caused his kidneys to temporary stop functioning. Now his kidneys were resuming its function, but due to the hospital environment, my dad-in-law contracted pneumonia. Which after a strong dose of antibiotics he is now well into remission.

One thing about the doctors in this neurosains department, they seem rather fatalistic and give worst case scenario causing family members to be anxious that the end is near. Eventually my dad-in-law pulled through. I'm not sure why they give such negative news causing everybody to panic. There was one instance where they told my friend to please urgently come to the hospital because they need to tell them something face to face and not through the phone. My friend rushed over expecting the worst but turn out to be just a decision making question regarding whether to proceed with a certain procedure if something happens.

I think these doctors need a lesson in PR and social etiquette. They might be full of knowledge in treating diseases and ailments but had no idea on how to disseminate information in a tactful way to family member who were filled with anxiety, with situation that was more grave that it actually was.

Anyway, my dad-in-law is recovering and it would be good to discharge him asap as the hospital environment is not good for him to stay. With his liquid diet he is developing stomach ulcers.

The only thing left is to decided on how to go about for his physiotherapy as he has not walked for 2 weeks now and would need to strengthen his muscle to enable him to walk again. There is a possibility that he will need to stay in some nursing home for a short while to regain his strength again. So this will be decided when the time comes.

Pneumonia - a turn for the worse

My dad-in-law was recovering from his head trauma and kidney was going back to its function. Then the situation took an about turn and he was infected with pneumonia! Now that was not good. They have to wheel my father-in-law back to the high dependency ward again for constant monitoring.

Pneumonia is not good for seniors, because bacterial lung infection is one of the leading causes of mortality for seniors. The doctors have given the most potent available antibiotics. We can only hope and pray that the antibiotics administered will do its job.

Proton cars more expensive in Malaysia than in Saudi Arabia

My Dad-in-law recovering

This was rather good news. Received text message that my dad-in-law condition is stabilizing and they have shifted him to a normal ward from the high dependency ward in University Hospital.

 

His glucose level has been reduced from a high of 14 to 9. Still high but not so high. According to the neuro doctor, his kidneys are functioning although initially there was a worry that it was affected from his head trauma brain injury. Seems like all the prayers from everyone helped!

 

There is still a need to take care as he was already suffering from type 2 diabetes and never controlled his food intake resulting in a skyrocket high glucose level. What to do? Stubborn senior who care more about enjoying food then making sure his glucose level is within limits.

 

Every time we tell him not to take salt (which is bad for the pancreas which produce insulin to control glucose) and not simply eat high glucose content food (like nasi lemak, roti chanai, and you know all those heavy carbohydrate foods) and he went around telling his neighbours that his family member didn't give him food to eat! Actually we want him to eat healthily like eat more vegetables (which he don't want to eat), eat less salt or not at all (so he said he never put salt but soya sauce is full of salt! Who's he trying to kid!) and preferably no chillies too because he gets diarrhoea (but he never listens).

 

Also he was given a walking stick so he can walk more stable but he refuse to take it but looking at him  walking even a strong wind could blow him over. Hopefully this hospitalization should make him realize the situation that he was not as strong as he was 20 years ago (which he use to boast often that if he can do it 20 years ago, he can do it now; refusing to admit age is catching up and much faster than others of his same age group coz he didn't take care).

 

So take note, keep yourself healthy and you can be as strong as an ox in your senior years. Be humble and be teachable when people give advice, listen and take heed. You can still enjoy your golden age even though your body is slowing down because your mind is strong, your body is healthy.

 

 

Stupid fireworks woke baby up!

I just managed to get baby to sleep and was about to take a bath, when suddenly, bang! Goes the fireworks! Baby had a great jolt and started crying! The maid also woke up too! Ya, ya, fireworks to be let out in the middle of CNY but this really made silently scream out at those bl***y stupid things! D**n, I have to start all over again and it takes a long time to calm baby and get him back to sleep!

Finally I could calm him down and settle baby back to sleep. For God's sake, no more fireworks please!

Phew hot day! Makes me kinda tired!

The hot weather has returned! I have been running around all day and with the hot weather, sure made me rather tired while running errands.

Now that mom-in-law is back, I guess she would be taken aback at the situation that was recently unfold. Only thing left is to wait for the healing process for her hubby to pull through and for her son's treatment of Still's disease. I should think my brother-in-law would recover much faster given sufficient rest.

Only my dad-in-law's head trauma will take some time. He can respond now, and the neuro-docs believe the hemorrhage has stopped judging by observation.

Since my wife has started work to rush for a proposal, I now have to rush to USJ to pick up baby so that my mom-in-law can go to University Hospital.

All this rushing about on such a hot weather too!

Lemon Cure against Cancer Cells

Lemon Cure against Cancer Cells

Received this message from my dad, looks intriguing. Haven't got time to verify this. So please read this for study and don't take it at face value till you do further research. Of course any health fitness news is welcome but there are also many misinformation in the internet so do your research!

Cheers!

University Hospital, quite a maze!

Finally found my way around University Hospital. This place is like a maze! The various faculties are link up by way of tunnels and overhead bridges and walkways. Even with the signages it is still difficult to find my way around this vast hospital complex!

My dad-in-law and brother-in-law were both admitted to University Hospital but at different ward. The former was due to serious head trauma from a fall while the latter was due to his flare up of rheamatoid athritis.

Walking from one ward to another and of course to the pharmacy to purchase medical supplies, it was such a tiring affair! But it makes for a good walking exercise and I had good sense to wear a pair of sport shoes.

University Hospital is a government hospital and they have many specialist professors and upcominng medical student and future specialist doctors. This hospital is has under constant renovations and upgrade so much that is now a sprawling labyrinth hospital complex!

For lunch, my wife suggested the Secret Recipe Restaurant located on the ground floor near the emergency trauma section in Menara Utama. Took me a long time to find it. I almost decided to have my lunch at the food court which basically serve local fare. But after walking so much I decided to give myself a treat at Secret Recipe Restaurant.

Anyway, I had my lunch now and it is back to walking about University Hospital corrodors to the wards to check up on my in-laws condition.

Serious head trauma

What an eventful Chinese New Year! It was to be joyous occassion visiting families and friends. Unfortunately it was marred by my dad-in-law accident; he fell and hit his head pretty hard on the road.

He has been pretty wobbly and his sense of balance has not been good for the past many months. He fell in the coffeeshop many months ago and even fell on the stairs at home. Now this time was the most severe fall with a serious head trauma. He somehow lost his balance and fell diagonally and hit his left forehead. After rushing him to hospital, the doctor took a CT scan and found some hemorrhaging in the brain. No choice but to check him into ICU as this was rather serious. However there was not much they could do but to observe and provide medication. At his advance age and frail condition operation was out of the question.

ICU is going to cost a bomb! Although he is covered for AIG Personal Accident insurance, nowadays the insurance company like to worm their way out of any liability and may find a loophole to avoid dispersion of funds. Having had poor experience with insurance claims of late we have build a certain distrust of insurance companies.

Anyway no choice now. At least my dad-in-law got insurance cover so hopefully that would amount to something to help the medical financing.

Let's hope the internal bleeding will stop and he can be placed in normal wad and of course return home.

Eventually some decision has to be made on his daily gallivanting routine and his refusal for a healthier lifestyle.

Seniors should keep healthy both physically and mentally

Seniors should keep themselves occupied or their cognitive function goes downhill. My dad-in-law if you compare with other seniors of the same age range should be, well, mentally good. Unfortunately his lack of keeping himself healthy is bringing about poor cognitive function. His comprehension is going downhill so much sometimes you wonder what to do with him.

His stubborness in refusal to maintain healthy lifestyle has resulted in very poor cognitive ability.

Like, in the bath, he kept putting water in the body wash container so much that the entire bottle is so diluted that he may as well just bath with water.

The other day when he was in my house he thought he was in his house and wanted to drive his car into the car porch.

And speaking about cars, his driving judgement is rather poor and you can see all the scratches on the four corners which he whole heartedly proclaim that other people did it to his car!

Well, the doctors says there is 2 ways to about this. Control him and try to force him to maintain a healthier lifestyle which would make him unhappy or allow him to do what he pleases so he would be happy but his physical and mental condition will continue to deteriorate at a pace greater than those who are of his age.

This is sort of like a catch 22 situation but guess there is no good option about. Thus a senior who is serious about health should do the necessary to keep both physical and mental health in order to maintain good lifestyle and also help avoid causing people around to him to be exaperated.

Android 2.1 for Sony Ericcson Xperia X10

Finally saw the new working version of Android 2.1 for Sony Ericcson Xperia X10 on my brother-in-law's phone. He bought it for his wife to replace her old phone. The size is nice for her but she need to get use to the touch screen though.

Anyway, I wanted what were the major difference with the current Android 1.6 version of my Xperia X10 mini pro. From what I could, is mostly cosmetic wise as the usage is still the same basically with all the same function. However I'm still considering it,as some software that I have runs only in Android version 1.6. So I'll just have to think about it.

[update]
Finally updated my Sony Ericcson Android version to 2.1. It works much better now though the version is still behind 2.3 versions flying around in the market. However for the SMS text message, I'm not able to forward them. The message software will crash. The workaround way would be to copy and paste to a new message. Probably a bug in the software. Otherwise, overall the new updated version functions pretty well.

Meeting with a friend from Sabah

It's been years since we met last in Sabah. Back then my church organized a mission trip to Sabah. Since he and a several pastor came over to KL for some kind Bible study. And today is Thaipusam, so it is a good opportunity to meet up and catch up with time.

Now with baby tagging along I found that my timing is totally off whenever we want to out to meet up with friends and any family gathering for that matter.

In Malaysia we have what we call rubber time where people didn't arrive on time. Now I have to add another called baby time because time now evolve around baby preparation and other need to do things for baby. Haha!

And we have a friend who went through the process understood it entirely! I suppose if give priority for baby on the need to do things like bath, diaper change, feeding, sleeping, etc our timing just goes whack!

Fortunately ouir meeting was delayed, I suppose being a public holiday Malaysian no. 1 past time is cramming themselves for some kuala lumpur shopping! It is going to be difficult to find a parking space! Hope the security guard would be kind enough to let us park at the disabled space like last time. Will see!

I'm tired! Time to retire for the night

I'm dead tired and need to get some sleep! Especially since the night before and uneven sleep. Coupled with long journey, a good night's rest is a must! With the pitter-patter raindrops I should be getting some good shut eye tonight I hope!