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Last Saturday, I had sent my son, Mika, for the mandatory circumcision by Dr. Tahir at Crescent Clinic. Alhamdulillah, everything went smoothly. Both P and I were not allowed in the surgical room and we had to wait outside until the whole procedure was completed. This is opposed to the time when I had sent my first-born daughter to Balkis clinic for her circumcision (where I was allowed to hold her legs and witness the procedure).
Whilst outside, I heard his cries and I felt a tinge of pain in my heart. But his cry lasted only a few minutes. After that, he stopped, and I was dying to know what happened. After about 15 minutes, one of the doctor’s assistants brought him out of the surgical room and handed him to me (along with his foreskin tightly sealed in a piece of plastic). Surprisingly, my boy seemed to look alright and managed a smile. How brave.
Back at home, I was very curious to know how the procedure was done. Looking at his foreskin through that piece of plastic triggered my inquisitive mind, so I googled and came across this site.
Seeing THAT, I thought to myself, thank GOD I did not witness it at all!
Yesterday, I had brought Mika to the clinic again for his follow up check-up, and the doctor said everything’s normal and the area was showing sign of healing. The plastic ring on his penis is said to “drop off” within 5 to 8 days, and he said I should continue to bathe him as normal.
Alhamdulillah, semuanya dah selamat.
Here we go again – a nerve-wrecking moment we haven’t had in a long time. For the past two days, my girl has been extra clingy, extra whiny, extra cranky, and extra mad (mad at me, mad at P, mad at her toys, her food and everything else imaginable). Even her mood swing changes faster than the eye could blink!
We tried to console her and put up with her needs, but nothing seemed to work. Ada time tu dah geram sangat tangan ni pun jalan jugak. But that made things even worse. We couldn’t figure out why the sudden change in behaviour – until we saw her stuff her fingers into her saliva-covered mouth right to the back of her teeth. Now why hadn’t it struck us earlier? She’s growing her last set of baby teeth – the second molars!
Recalling her previous bout of teething incident some long months ago (the first molars), I remembered it wasn’t a pleasant experience at all. I’m talking about excessive crying, sleepless nights and things of that sorts. Her temperature had shot up to 40 degrees celsius, and she was *nearly* rushed to the hospital. And now we’re probably about to go through it again! *Oh, horror* Thankfully she hasn’t had a temperature this time (so far), however her nose has been running mucus all day long.
Tomorrow it’s gonna be a day off from school and a visit to the doctor. I’ve been giving her gripe water for now. Can’t think of any other remedies to try except letting her munch on some cool carrots (which she disapproves).
Let me know if you have any other working remedies for teething – I’d love to hear them!
“Mommy needn’t forcefully make me cry this time. I did it on my own.”
I think Misha is showing signs of teething. Mom said that for the past few days, she hasn’t been sleeping soundly in the night. Dad would stay up till very late just to ease her and put her back to sleep. All of us did notice her frequent obsession of putting things into her mouth. Normally, she would just pop in her thumb for the occassional thumb-sucking. But nowadays, it’s her whole hand (well, almost!), her toys, her pillow, spoon, wooden railings of her cot, baby powder, towel, new diaper, etc… and the list goes on. Whatever she could get a hold of, she would just put them into her mouth and bite on them. She could even bite off a huge piece of KitKat bar with her gums, mind you (!!) The other day, she came crawling to my feet and started ‘biting’ on my ankle! And when I carried her over my shoulder, my shoulder was covered with drool.
P & I visited her at Mom’s place after work today, and found that her body temperature was higher than usual. It was measured at 38.1ºC. Initially we thought it could just be a slight fever, so we dabbed a wet towel all over her head to cool her off a bit. At the same time, we pulled down her lower lip just to be sure. No signs of any tooth yet, but her gums did show a little bit of whitish-ness and looked slightly swollen.
I hope she won’t drool all over her pretty little gown next weekend during Yati’s wedding dinner, and act cranky and all…
I had sent Misha to a nearby clinic on Sunday for her six months check-up, and came to wonder if the doctor is actually doing his job. The first few things he did was measure her head circumference, put her on a balancing equipment to record her weight, then allow her to lie on the bed so he could take her height measurement. As we were sitting back down on our seats, he asked…
Doc: “Does she make any sounds such as ‘da da da…ba ba ba’…?”
(And all these while Misha was doing just that – making more sounds than just these few syllables)
Me: “Oh, yes she can. She can say ‘ma ma…pa pa…ya ya’ too.”
Doc: “Oh, that’s good. And can she pass an object from one hand to another?”
Me: “Yes, she can do that too.” (She can also pass things from her hand to somebody else’s hand!)
Doc: “Good, good..”
And with a split second, he started ticking whatever checkboxes there are in the two-page checklist of her health book.
Me: “Is that it?
Doc: “Yup, that’s it. Now it’s time for her Hep B third dose immunisation.”
I was pretty upset. Upset at the doctor for not giving her the chance to show what else she could do.
I’m sure she will be able to demonstrate if he had at least given her something to hold onto. Or at least allow her to lie on the bed again, and see how fast she could turn herself and crawl a distance. Even better, prove to him that she could climb herself up to a standing position and hold it for a few seconds.
When we reached home, I went through the checklist in more detail. I looked at the last 2 items (#22 and #23) and was disappointed that he had given a ‘no’ to which should have actually been a ‘yes’. It is like looking at your Maths paper and spotting a correct answer that was marked wrongly by your teacher. I felt like returning to the clinic just to inform him – to tell him that she’s one of the 10% of those who can actually perform these. But on second thought, why all the trouble? I could just circle them and mark a ‘yes’ at the corner. So, I did just that.
Misha: “Next time when I can talk, I’ll be sure to tell him my new trick Mommy had taught me.
Like shopping for jeans, for example.”
One month. It’s been that long, huh? 
I had my wisdom tooth removed last Friday. It was my lower left molar to be exact. Somehow the surgery was much less painful than it was back then in 2002 when I had my lower right one extracted. It’s basically the same procedure since both cases were in-growth. Trouble is, this time around I was having a chapped lip in the left corner due to dryness, hence when the Doc pulled my lip in order to have a good view of my wisdom tooth, it actually tore slightly. Ouch indeed! And now the ulcer-like wound on my lips is hurting more than the stitched-up gums I’m having. But thanks to those pain-killers, the pain is tolerable.
Funny though just three days into my surgery, Liz called me up to ask me if I knew of a dental clinic that opens 24 hours. I recommended the clinic I went to. When asked, she told me that she was having pain at the back of her upper and lower left jaws and wanted to have her wisdom teeth removed. Yes, TEETH! So Monday was her appointment and I accompanied her throughout the process. Hai, apalah nasib…beranak sama time, sakit gigi pun sama time…
ps: I’m so tempted to put up a pic of my wisdom tooth, but I’m afraid I would gross you all out! :p Haha.
I’ve just completed my marathon of The O.C episodes. The whole of Season One, in fact. The Cohens are possibly the best kind of family one could’ve ever dreamed of. The more I watch, the more fond I was of Seth and Summer. They are just so bloody adorable, it even beats my liking for Michael and Maria of Roswell. “It has always been you, Summer. It always has”…*awww*The season finale is just so cruel and so…wrong! To me at least. *dabs eyes with tissue* Anyway, I’m not going to spoil it for those who haven’t watch, so I’m shutting up now…
On a much sadder note, I came to know that my aunt is suffering from mouth cancer 
. The news really came as a surprise to me. I dropped by her place for a visit and she seems to be coping well and is already going for therapy. She finds difficulty in eating whatmore swallowing since areas of her mouth are really getting dry and patchy. I really hope and pray she’ll get better soon.
I am on medical leave today and will also be tomorrow. Doc said I had slight throat irritation, and gave me two sets of antibiotics, cough mixtures, some capsules for the throat and also some for the blocked nose. The fever had died down a bit because of the extra Panadols I took. Strange that it works this time, and not the last time.
Feeling bored at the moment. It’s mind-numbing with nothing to do at home.
Thinking of doing some window shopping and looking out for some new digicams.
Oh, and I’ve also reserved tickets for my second viewing of King Arthur. It’ll be at Plaza S’pura instead because TM doesn’t have 10 p.m screenings. I just love late night movies.
The flu bug is on the loose and my nose is totally f*cked (not literally). This bug normally has a strange way of tweaking my nerve cells the wrong way. I went from angry to furious to f*cking worried. Already I’ve yelled at P over the phone for no apparent reason and I felt really bad now. I think I ought to go for some anger management classes (apart from the clinics).
Earlier today I’ve sent my fabric for tailoring at Joo Chiat (finally!). I decided not to go to Kota Tinggi after all because I just felt there isn’t much time left, and P and I just couldn’t compromise on an available date to do so. I don’t give a shit anymore. Whatever it’s turning out to be, so be it. This may be the last time I go to the tailors anyway. Ready-made ones are obviously the thing for me. It should be ready by end September.
Something I realize today is that I’ve gained a lot of fleshy meat on my tummy as well as my thighs when Mdm Tailor was measuring me up. I really ought to burn those off, and I don’t think those weekly nights of vigorous dancing has helped my cause.
edited to add: I can’t believe I’ve totally forgotten about the most-awaited first Sex and the City episode here on Friday.
Damn you, nose! Will you ever stop sneezing?! I hate it.
*said she while stuffing rolled tissue-bits into her nostrils*
Finally it’s Friday! ..erm, Saturday morning technically, but hell I am sooo longing for the weekend!
P and I could go out for a movie tomorrow (after we send the cat to the vet). Still we have not yet decided what to watch, though ‘Paycheck’ would be your best bet. But it’s such a turn off seeing Ben Affleck on screen – I don’t know why. I hope the show is good. I have not read any reviews yet.
Hmm, I think I must’ve had a stick too many today. Now I’m feeling my throat itching.
Anyway, I badly want to visit Wai Mun at the hospital and see how she’s coping. The poor girl. She got rammed by a truck from behind and was trapped between it and the taxi she was going to board! That had happened earlier this week, and she was admitted to Singapore General Hospital immediately and warded in intensive-care. But the damn new hospital policy only allows visits by close relatives due to the SARS preventive measures (Bah!). I feel bad for her. I really do. I hope for her speedy recovery.
