Day 55 A big HI to you guys from the Sungai Buloh Hospital! Yes, I'm currently tethered to my Apple iPhone. And welcome back, Maximus_Detritus! Thanks for the suggestion, guys. Will definitely look into acupuncture after her surgery tomorrow. Yes, she's now back in the Sungai Buloh General Hospital, getting ready for the embolization of her AVM and aneurysm tomorrow morning. She's scheduled to be the second to undergo the procedure tomorrow, but the first patient is apparently still not in, so she could end up being the first. They plan to keep her in the ICU for a day for observation, just in case. If everything goes well, they will move her to a regular ward after that for another day or two... or discharge her.
Day 56 They woke her up pretty early today at 7:30 am to bath and prepare for the procedure. She was supposed to be the second in line, but for some reason, a nurse came in about 9-10 am and told us that she had been bumped to no. 4 of 6 cases scheduled for the day. So, we waited... until 6:30 pm. Then another nurse told us that they have to postpone it until tomorrow! Jenny had gone NBM (nil by mouth) from 3 am in the morning until 6:30 pm in the evening... for NOTHING. A wasted day for me too as I waited the whole day with her! While I was on the way to fetch her brother and sister to the airport, Dr. Lau and Dr. Gal came by to see Jenny and talk to her. They apologized to her for not being able to "fix" her up today. Apparently, they only managed to finish two procedures today. They promised that she would be the first in line tomorrow morning. So I'm now back at the hospital, posting this via Maxis EDGE. No, I'm not recommending Maxis. It's slow and cranky, but it's all I've got. It sure beats their 3G service!
All the best, Boss. Hope things go smoothly for her! Surgeries are fickle and time estimates tends to be hazardous at best when it comes to these things. Ganbatte! がんばって！ And thanks for the welcome (= I seem to come and go once every 2 years in this place. LoL.
Day 57 They took Jenny down to the radiology department at 10 in the morning. We went home for some badly needed R&R. Then at around 2:30 pm, Dr. Lau called me to inform me that the procedure was over. According to him, her AVM has three feeding vessels. Unfortunately, two of them were too short for embolization, so they only blocked up the third. She would have to undergo radiotherapy to "shrink" those two vessels. Still, that reduced the size of the AVM by more than half, which is pretty good news, I suppose... They moved her to the ICU for overnight observation, and if everything is copacetic, they will move her back to the ward for another day or two. After that, we will have to look into her leg pain... and radiotherapy.
It might not be Maxis' fault, but the iphone instead: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/business/13digi.html?_r=1&em
I thought so initially as EDGE had always worked for me, even on Maxis' pudgy network. And the iPhone has a habit of going bonkers with some regularity. However, I rebooted the iPhone several times to no avail. Jason, who was somewhere else, was the one who told me that Internet on 3G was working, but not EDGE. True enough, the Internet was only accessible on 3G. It was also affecting him, so I really doubt it's the iPhone. BTW, I was actually connected to Maxis' network while on EDGE. I could ping their DNS servers and if I ping microsoft.com (for example), their DNS servers would immediately return the proper IP address. However, nothing was going out of their network. Today, I stumbled into Jason, who told me that he had issues with Internet on Maxis' network again. This time, it was in the heart of KL. Both his colleague and he tried all kinds of methods to connect to the Internet but failed. After blasting Maxis on the phone, they told them that daily network breakdowns are to be expected because they are "upgrading" their network. It seems like everytime something goes wrong at Maxis, it's never a mistake or a problem. It's always an "upgrade".
Day 58 Jenny was supposed to be sent back to her room this morning, but she was forced to stay put in the ICU until 6 pm this evening because they used her room as a temporary SPM exam hall for 3 students! Frankly speaking, it's highly irregular because they have an ENTIRE ward empty on the same floor. It also caused the ICU to lose one spot for a patient who may need it. Other than that, everything was generally going well for her. Dr. Lau came in to see us at 10 pm. He explained to her about the reasons why they didn't occlude the other two feeding vessels. The good news is that the AVM is now about 1 cm in size. Before the procedure, it was about 2.5x2 cm in size, so it had been reduced to less than half the original size. Dr. Lau says Jenny will probably have to come back for another angiogram after recuperating for 3 months. They will then assess the size of the AVM again and decide on the next step. This will most likely be radiotherapy in the form of a gamma knife. Unfortunately, the hospital does not have it. We will have to go to a private hospital. The neurosurgical team told me earlier that the cost would be something in the region of RM 20,000-30,000 (US$ 6,000-9,000).
No, the exams were held in Jenny's room in the Neurosurgical ward. She was supposed to return there this morning, but had to stay in the ICU instead until the exams were over.
Do you need financial assistance in terms of the surgery cost? Set up a donation fund and we would gladly donate some amount to help ease your burden.
Oh, no need for that... It's way too much. We will try to get the government to reimburse the cost. I think that is still possible, if the specialist signs off on it. It's just that I never knew radiotherapy could cost so much. Of course, the main reason is because it has to be done in a private hospital...
Day 60 This is actually a very late report of Day 59. LOL! I spent the whole day at the hospital yesterday getting her dischaged, and arranging for future appointments. She has a slew of check-ups and physiotherapy appointments coming up. There's even one on Christmas Eve! Anyway, she was real happy to get out (after 5 days in the hospital). So happy that she insisted on going out to eat and shop. It was quite a remarkable change in attitude from the last time she came home, when she only moped around the house. So we took Ryan and her mother out for dinner before shopping for groceries and an inflatable float for Ryan. It was quite an enjoyable day, albeit a tiring one after several days at the hospital so we went to bed pretty early. Reason why I'm up so early was because Ryan woke up at 3:30 in the morning and refused to go back to bed! He wanted to play!!!
Day 61 She's doing better today. She can more or less walk short distances on her own. She only needs to hold onto the walker just in case she loses her balance. The pain in her left leg is still bad, but the good news is that it's now limited to her ankle and foot. The pain in her knee and calf seemed to have "disappeared". Very good news indeed!
