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!