In Memory of Alex Lee -- Mystery Cause of Death

This month, after going to Lisa’s funeral early this month, last night Mummy attended Mummy’s colleague’s funeral. He was Mummy’s colleague in Mummy’s previous team before Mummy moved to current department in March 2010. The whole team was shocked and didn’t expect him to leave all of us suddenly. We knew he was sick for past few months trying to get treatment. All the doctors could not find the reason of his sickness. It was an unsolved mystery.

He was 41 when he passed away leaving his wife who was only about 30. They had married for some years but yet to have any kids. It was until last night when we went to his house for funeral; nobody knew the actual cause of his death.

His lung was found to be totally destroyed. Doctors managed to take some sample from his lung and there were no trace of TB, Cancer or Bacteria. Some time ago, he even went to hospital to have whole body check-up including cancer marker test which came out as negative.

One of the time when he was in the company medical centre, Mummy happened to be there taking some medicine. He really looked very sick with thin body, messy hair, pale face with red patches skin on his skin which was suspected as medicine allergy. He was on high steroid medication for quite some time that he decided to put a stop when he could not bear the side effects of hair loss, stomach cramp, nausea and loss of appetite.

About 2 weeks ago, he admitted to Hospital A for about 1 week but the doctors could not diagnose the problem of him sickness that he discharged with big packets of multiple type of medicines. Then within short period, he re-admitted to Hospital B when he still did not get better, hoping the doctors in Hospital B would be able to help. In Hospital B, he was put into HDU and later to ICU as his condition deteriorated. He passed away yesterday early morning in Hospital B due to insufficient oxygen and his lung was damaged. His liver was also found to be not in good condition, maybe due to all the medications intake but we didn’t know the exact reason.

Nobody knew who to be blamed for unable to diagnose him properly. Would the family members able to bring this case to the law like how personal injury lawyers Tucson did?

Mummy joined the team colleagues to his house for the funeral. Up to this morning, we still couldn’t believe that he was gone. He would always cheer up the whole team especially when the team in stress rushing for deadlines. He was also Mummy’s regular breakfast partner. We would have our breakfast together and chit chat a lot of things. He was an experienced and knowledgeable person in technical whom we would get his advice all the time.

He would be buried tomorrow morning.

We prayed that he would rest peacefully. We hoped his wife and mum would be strong.

2010 Mooncake Festival

We don’t really celebrate Mooncake Festival in a big scale like some families but just wanted the kids to have fun carrying the lanterns. We also hardly buy mooncakes except one box (less sweet one) just to eat for fun.

The kids played lanterns a few times this year. AL was not scared of candles and carrying her lantern and swinging it around. She even kept blowing the candles off wherever PaPa lit any candles to set-up the lanterns.

AL would always say, “I want to play ‘Teng Lung’.”

They played their 1st session on 11Sept2010 (Saturday) at Mummy’s friend’s house in Puchong. JL and AL together with Mummy’s friend’s two kids walked to a nearby playground and had some lantern walking around there.

Then on 15Sept2010 (Wednesday), PaPa, Mummy and AL joined JL’s kindy with the night rounding the housing area within the kindy area. That night, JL had a sleepover at the kindy which was organized for all the 6 years old students. They made their own lantern and also learnt to make mooncake too.

On 17Sept2010 (Friday), Mummy’s poly classmate who stays in the same apartment brought her princess to play lantern at the apartment’s playground.

On 21Sept2010 (Tuesday), we had dinner in KongKong and PohPoh’s apartment with Yi Yee, Sam Yee and Sam Yee Cheong. After dinner, we went to the apartment’s playground to play lanterns. Each of the kids played 3 different types of lanterns:

1. The traditional big one

2. The traditional small one which AL loved it because it was light and JL would put up to 3 small lanterns on one stick.

3. The cartoon ones where AL was carrying JL’s old Mickey Mouse lantern bought by Sam Yee many years ago for JL (even before AL was born). We got JL this year a Donald Duck lantern since AL wanted the Mickey Mouse.

 

 

Generally, in our opinion, the traditional paper lanterns look nicer and also we didn’t need to re-light the candle until it finished burning unlike the shape lanterns, it was easier for the wind to blow the candle off.

On 22Sept2010 (Wednesday), it was the actual day and PohPoh’s elder brother invited us to their house for dinner and also lantern session in Sunway. Coincidently, Ah Chor (Mummy's PohPoh) was there from Alor Setar with PohPoh’s eldest brother. They would be leaving for China the following day. It would be Ah Chor’s first time going back to China since she was 8 years old. Ah Chor just turned 85 years old. They would be visiting Ah Chor’s village and also my late great-grandfather’s village too.

JL’s Eczema

JL never had any eczema when he was a baby till when he was two year old, he started to develop eczema which puzzled us too. Then we found out from doctor that there was possibility he was allergic towards the adult detergents.

Instead of changing the detergents, the doctor suggested that we try to go for extra rinse on the clothes and see if it worked before going further on other eczema treatments such as steroid. We did not like the idea of steroid. We started to put some aqua cream which we got it cheap from pharmacy on JL each time after his bath to keep his skin moist.

After some time, JL just outgrown from detergent allergy and we did not need to do any more extra rinse during washing his clothes via washing machine.

Supplement intake….

There are too many supplements to choose either from off-shelves or via multi level marketing (MLM). Will reading the supplement review work or checking on friends’ testimonies work better? Or will these create more confusion rather than understanding? Generally MLM Supplement tends to be more expensive than off-shelves but does this mean it is much better?

As for Mummy, supplement will just be supplement. The all time best solution is to make sure balance diet especially in fresh fruits and vegetables.

Something for each one of us to thinks and ponders. It will be a perpetual non-stop debate on supplement intake.

Weaning AL from breastfeeding….

There was no fixed rule on how to wean a child from breast. This would just be Mummy’s experience and please take note that Mummy didn't graduate from any medical assistant school on breastfeeding. This is just sharing…

PaPa discussed with Mummy that Mummy would need to wean AL off from night feeding. This was because Mummy might need to go to outstation in future that PaPa wanted AL to be able to sleep throughout night without getting comfort from the breast. Besides that PaPa wanted Mummy to get back the sleep because Mummy had been waking up walking from room to the kids’ room to feed AL a few times. For the past few months, AL was not on breast on weekday office hours except night time. Sometimes weekend she would still ask for comfort during daytime. Mummy managed to wean her off from breast when we were not at home. It was a slow process of weaning her off.

The biggest challenge was the night feeding. The first night was on Saturday night 28Aug2010. AL cried and slept the whole night. Mummy was facing night engorgement and feeling so sad. Emotionally, Mummy really missed the breastfeeding attachment with AL. It was hard for us. Then on Sunday night 29Aug2010, AL was also crying and holding Mummy’s bra strap to sleep with her pitiful face.

On Monday 30Aug2010 4am, AL woke up and said “Mummy, I want Mummy’s ‘nok’ “. (Note: ‘nok’ meant milk). Mummy said “No more AL”. Reluctantly, she said “’Nok’ with spoon”. AL rejected bottle since she was 1+ years old. She had been drinking with cup or with spoon. So, at 4am, Mummy set-up the mini Japanese table on the floor for AL, wore a bib (just in case) and mixed about ¼ cup of milk for her. Mummy dozed off on the sofa when AL patted Mummy with the cup and said “Mummy, no more and want some more”. Mummy made another ¼ cup and then continued dozing off when she said “Mummy, AL full and ‘bou bou’ already”.

Mummy’s engorgement was quite bad and Mummy wanted some photos of the last breastfeeding with AL. On 31Aug2010, Mummy told AL how about last breastfeed and she nodded her head. PaPa took some of the photos to keep as memory. With these photos (which would be posted later…), that was AL’s last breastfeed. That night AL did ask for once and when Mummy explained she reluctantly accepted it. JL also helped to explain that AL was already big girl.

From that day onward, it took her some time to change from “Mummy’s ‘nok’” to “Spout” or “Spoon”. She was slowly willing to accept drinking mix of Enfa+Susta (Chocolate) as long as not white color. Now at least she would drink about ¼ to ½ cup of milk at night from cup. According to KongKong and PohPoh, during daytime, sometimes she would take 1 to 2 times of ¼ to ½ cup of milk.

Since her formula rejection, we didn’t force her because we didn’t want to create phobia and total rejection by her for the rest of her life. However, we were happy with her progress now that at least she would take min ¼ of cup of milk per day. Also she would finish up about almost ½ box of UHT Strawberry milk when we were out.

On and off, she would still hold on Mummy’s bra strap for comfort…

Officially it is almost one month AL totally weaned off from breast. Mummy’s breast still had some engorgement till now but not that bad. It was time to get back to Mummy’s old bras. Mummy had been breastfeeding AL since she was born on 20July2008. Mummy started to breastfeed her within the 1st hour after delivery.

It was a memorable journey and with no regret because AL’s immune system was much stronger than JL. Having inverted nipple and with the entire initial painful journey had taught Mummy with a lot about breastfeeding. Mummy would not ever forget all the wonderful Mummies who supported Mummy throughout the whole journey… Thanks a lot…

Other related posts on Breastfeeding Experiences.

Women vs Men

Women are always known to be physically weak but then we are not a total weak. When come to facing circumstances, women can be outstanding and strong in managing crisis. Mummy has seen before how a man can just break down when facing problems.

So, there is where women and men compliment each other by supporting each other with different strength and weakness. Even there are vitamins for women and also just for men too.

Hari Raya Open House

There would be many Hari Raya Open house for us to go which meant more food and more food. How could we resist all those delicious food and say no to such a great hospitality? Aren’t we so blessed to stay in such a colorful country to enjoy all the variety of food?

The disadvantage would be the shorts, pants and skirts were getting tighter, not due to clothes shrinking but than unnecessary body expansion. Help…in such a short period, the body expanded so fast which would take ages to get rid of it… Would thermogenic fat burners work and worth the investment?

Pregnancy’s extra Kilos

Mummy’s colleague who just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl four months ago was very upset that her weigh loss project was failing on her no matter how much she kept to healthy diet and exercise.

She was asking, “May I know do diet pills work or not?”

Mummy said it was hard to give because some brand might work miracle on a person but not on another person. As for Mummy, Mummy had no time to think about diet because Mummy’s hand was occupied with office work, house work and kids. It took Mummy more than 6 months before Mummy could slowly fit into Mummy’s actual office clothes. However, the problem Mummy would always face was flabby tummy and big thigh…

Credit cards points…

Due to the new tax ruling, PaPa and Mummy cancelled a few of our credit cards. We might have own many credit cards but fortunately, we managed to maintain using the credit cards without owing any plus zero annual fees. We made sure that all bills were settled before the due date to avoid late charges and interest. However, instead we maximized the benefit of the Visa reward card system by changing for many items over the years. Yes, we had been loyal to Visa for many years. Since the points earned were free, so the items we got were also free.

Old car but …

Our old car was old but quite well maintained because the car was being maintained every 5000 km. PaPa had been diligently keeping track on parts replacement and so far he was happy with the job done by his current mechanic who was as good as Dallas auto repair . The current mechanic did a good job from timing belt, tires to brake job replacement. It was a good thing that the parts were quite reasonable. If not, we would sure face problem paying for the parts if we were to own a more expensive car like Chevrolet Silverado.

Since the car had not gave us any major problem even though it was almost 11 years old, we decided to keep it rather than selling it off as the price to sell it less than RM10k. The mechanic suggested us to overhaul the whole car which would take only less than RM1k.

PaPa and Mummy still thinking over it and might go for that option as it was a cheaper option for next few years than paying for a new car installment. Besides that, with the car in good condition, it would be not worth to sell it off or in another word too ‘sayang’ to sell it off. We might be able to sell even higher as scrap metal when the car really totally breakdown which would take many more years to happen. Hopefully…

What do you think?

JL & AL Shoes Collection….

Both JL and AL had a collection of shoes and sandals for different age group from baby shoes to shoe big enough to fit on kids feet. We usually keep to one pair of shoes and one pair of sandals for each size because kids grew up very fast.

PaPa always believed in getting good shoes for his kids because it was important to ensure the feet grew properly and also avoid any injuries. However, getting good shoes did not mean that we need to spend on expensive shoes. All the kids’ shoes and sandals did not cost us more than RM100.

All the shoes were purchased during sales and warehouse. PaPa would keep track of the sizes available at home so that whenever there was any sale, he would know what size to buy. Both kids had shoes at least two to three sizes bigger in the cupboard stand-by. We didn’t like the idea to rush out hunting for shoes and sandals when the kids’ outgrown from the shoes and sandals.

Some of the shoes we got for the kids…

JL got a few pairs of shoes from Treehouse. We got from the box during sales and managed to get a few different sizes for him. Most of these shoes were properly kept for AL.

This was one of the best bargain and also JL’s favourite. A Weebok highcut leather shoe which we bought for RM50 by just trading JL’s baby cloth shoe.

This was not our favourite. Even though it was less than RM50 but we found that the shoe was heavy and sweaty. JL must wear cotton sock all the time to absorb the sweats.

Now, JL was wearing a Timberland shoe which we bought from Warehouse.

AL got some girly shoes. Aunty Sasha hand sewn two lovely shoes for AL.

The top ballet shoe we bought from Baby Bliss after getting Cash Voucher for writing a review.  The bottom white shoe was presented by KongKong and PohPoh. AL had yet to get those nice pretty girl shoes with buckles.

In memory of Lisa Wan…

Mummy was speechless and extremely down when Mummy got an email from Dinah on 02Sept2010. Our brave fighter Lisa had left us to be with God at 5am on 02Sept2010.

Mummy’s heart was soo sad that Mummy couldn’t concentrate in Mummy’s work for both days until Mummy got the chance to see Lisa for the 1st time on 03Sept2010. Mummy’s greatest regret was unable to make time to visit and hug Lisa from Mummy’s busy schedule and Lisa was staying soooo near from Mummy’s apartment.

“Lisa, I am very sorry…I should have… should have….”

Mummy with Dinah, Sue, Jazzmint, Annie, Sasha and Tracy were in Xiao En on 03Sept2010 8.30pm. Thanks to Dinah who helped to coordinate all the arrangement and Sue for driving us. Also, thanks to PaPa who helped to babysit JL and AL even though he just arrived from his whole week outstation. It was a relief to see Lisa and she was beautiful. It was a emotional moment especially when Mummy saw how Matt was shaking hands to everyone saying ‘Thank you’ while trying to hide his teary eyes.

Lisa had always been very brave and positive. She inspired a lot of people including myself. She never failed to motivate all of us via her blog, facebook and also email.

Lisa, you are the greatest and may you rest in peace. I know you are in much better place in heaven now…

Daniel, Take care and be strong for the kids. I know it is hard to do but I know God will give you the strength…

Matt and Brad, Always remember that your Mum will always love you and she will be forever in your special place in your hearts.

Kids addicted to television?

JL and AL started to enjoy seeing shows regardless kids or adults shows. We had a few session of watching movie in our apartment just four of us. It was fun family time. However we still limit their television hours because we did not want them to get addicted to television. Nowadays seeing television and watching DVDs had been so common unlike the olden days. People could watch movie in the car and via iPod. Now with Slingbox, we could watch from laptop or mobile phone from everywhere in the world.