Thursday, May 28, 2009

A deserved break

When was the last time I ever done spa?

That was eon ago. The last time was when Ziv was about a month old and we did it while we were at Taiwan and that was it.

Last Sunday, Kevin and I went on another long awaited session, a good 2 hour and 20 minutes relaxation. I love it; spa gives me a sense of equanimity, especially with recent events at work and home.

We had chocolate massage, wrap, scrub and Jacuzzi. At the end of the day, I smelt like a walking Kinder Hippo.

I want to do it again next time.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Mt Alvernia CHEYYY!!!!! BOOOOO!!!!

I need to vent my frustration and disappointment about this PRIVATE hospital.

About 130pm reach Mt Alvernia Hospital to register, managed to see a doctor minutes later. The doctor is a GP, he asked if we want to do a blood test for Ziv. We promptly agreed.

Waited, no blood test, took medicine. We requested for the “call-a-paediatrician” service whereby we will call a paediatrician who is on standby to come down to the hospital to see Ziv.

We agreed to pay $250 to $400 for the consultation fee (note, ONLY consultation fee).
About 3pm, was told that a paediatrician was available. His clinic was located on the 2nd floor of the hospital (parents reading this remember, avoid that floor by ALL means), so we went up there. To our horror, there were so many kids and parents waiting to see the paediatrician and there were no nurse around. I was pacing up and down the counter, waiting for someone for assistance. Finally, a nurse came out of the room and immediately I asked if I need to join the queue and the arrogant nurse, looked at me like I was from Mars and snapped, “Of course.”
Instantly, my patience snuffed out. I asked sarcastically, “We are referred from the hospital below, we called for a paediatrician, we paid $250-$400 for consultation and we have to queue, do you mean it?!” I snapped back audibly for everyone in the room to listen to our conversation. Obviously the nurse wasn’t happy that I talked to her in that way, to pissed me further, she asked, “Oh is it H5N1?” I tried very hard to control my annoyance and really wanted to give her one tight slap to ask her to shut her gap, however, I told her calmly, “NO!!” She disappeared in front of me and said she will get back, waited for a few minutes. To a mother, whose son is ill, a minute is like a day. She came out of the room and said, “You are next.”

Went in, saw the most unprofessional paediatrician ever, he hadn’t even started talking and I already know that he is a TWIT. Twit from hell. His table has no computer, no notebook, or any writing material and the table is just empty with half of his arms stretch out on top. I knew it straightaway that he is hopeless and inept, but since I was there, I decided to try him out.
He talked with no confident, dare not make any diagnose and asked if we wanted blood test. My blood was BOILING. I don’t know who is the doctor, he or me? He simply wanted to get over with our consultation and moved on to the next patient, and I asked about the medication, he told me, “See it yourself.” That’s it, I was thinking, why do I have to spend so much money to tolerate nonsense. Since his tone is not exactly professional, I reckon that I don’t have to treat him with much respect, hence I retorted, “Since you are the doctor, why don’t you tell me?” I forgot how the conversation ended, but I left the room, cursing him, hoping that his already sparse hair will drop off soon.

I left the room, without paying a single dime and I said loudly for everyone so that they didnt have to eavesdrop, “The doctor is a joker.” And I left. All the human beings in the clinic heard me, saw me and they feared/hated me. But I don’t care because I was cheesed off.
I went down, ticked the nurses off and asked them the definition of “call-a-paediatrician”. No answer. I told the Head Nurse my very own DEFINITION and she agreed. And I told her, why is it that they didn’t do a check before asking us to go up there and furthermore, the clinic is still in operation. My definition for “call-a-paediatrician” is that a paediatrician who is at home, in the midst of a movie, sleeping on bed, bathing half way through, mending his/her own kid to stop whatever he/she is doing and rush down to the clinic as soon as he/she accepts the call.

But that didn’t happen to that twit up there. He seemed to be “moonlighting” in the daylight. And I am not very happy with that.

We were given a bed to let Ziv lie down, but it didn’t help, Ziv is a particular boy who doesn’t like to sleep on foreign beds except our bed and he is not having his milk, his lunch, his dinner, his sleep, his shower, his rest, cause of the torturous moments in the hospital. I felt sorry for Ziv as his fever got worst.

Finally did a blood test and called a paediatrician in. Blood test/urine test took 1.5 hours to generate report and hence the paediatrician would come in later to see the report and see us. He reached at about 6pm.

Got everything done, and was asked to wait for Ziv’s medicine.

Antibiotic ran out and the nurse said that she needs to send someone to the main pharmacy to get it and it will take 10 minutes. Well, 10 minutes becomes 30 minutes and I told myself to CONTROL my temper. While waiting for the medicine, I saw someone that looked like the twit, he came specially down to see me and asked me to PAY UP. He should be a beggar not a paediatrician, cause he certainly has got the quality to beg shamelessly. I told him, I will ask the hospital to settle the bill, not me.

We reached home 8 plus, tired, angry, hungry and HOT. Ziv’s fever shot up to 40 Degree Celsius. On my way home, I already swear to God that if I don’t complaint this to the hospital and medical board, my surname will not be WONG and I will call myself BASTARD. And if Ziv is not going to get well, I will issue out lawyer letters to ALL those who cross my path while I was there in the hospital.

Damn, we reached the hospital in day time and we exit the hospital in dark night.
I swear that I will not go to Mt Alvernia anymore. Not even there to go see a friend’s newborn (if any). I abhor that place.

Maybe the hospital does not understand what is "Emergency". If I were to go KK, despite the number of patiences is significantly more than in Mt A, the waiting time to see a doctor is still so much faster, each time we went there, it takes us less than 3 hours to settled everything. I was so naive to think that private hospitals are better.

If its you, will you complaint?

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40

40 is a scary number.

Not that I am approaching the big 4-0 (age) and not that I have a waist of 40 inch.

Ziv recently had fever which peaked at 40 Degree Celsius. Scared the shit out of us.
Went to KK A&E yet again on Thursday night followed by Mt Alvernia on Saturday afternoon, and we were all so busy and stressed out.

Reprimanded the nurses, ticked off doctors, admonished the in charge at Mt Alvernia, you don’t wanna know. One thing for sure, we are not ever going to private hospital, and for the fact that they aren’t as good as what they should be. I was trying to find time to write a complaint letter to the head of Mt Alvernia and the Medical Board.

When Ziv was having 40 Degree Celsius fever at night, he had feverish eyes, rashes on his face and etiolated body, what a heartrending sight. Sponging him and making him wail is always the last thing we want to do, but we have no choice.

Anyway, we met a really responsible and expensive paediatrician and he was so nice that he even called us up the following day to ask about Ziv. On Saturday, he advised us to admit him to the hospital after several tests, but we insisted on monitoring him until Sunday and we were glad that he heeded our decision and we were proven right not to admit Ziv because we understand that he is not exactly very sick but mainly because of the ‘torturous’ moments in the hospital that is making his condition worst.

Well, this time round we learnt something new. Ziv was actually suffering from fake measles, medical term, Roseola. With this incident, I told Kevin that I will give up my job and take care of
Ziv full time at home, anyway, the decision didn’t stay for long, was overwritten by my FIL and he advised that my MIL should quit her passion and take care of Ziv.

Either way, Kevin has temporarily withdrawn Ziv from childcare center for half a year so that we can slowly build up his immune system before he hit back to the center.

Having said that, I hope Ziv will be healthy again like he used to be. And I really wish, no more hospital trips in the wee hours.

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Chanel-ed Yet Again

Warm welcome to my Chanel Jumbo Caviar (Silverware) all the way from London.




Must really thank Kevin and two wonderful ladies, Melissa and Erica.





Alas, I hit my quota of 2 bags per year with 2 Chanel as of May 2009. "So no more bags...", Kevin warned.

When is 2010 going to come?

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Monday, May 11, 2009

What is Mothers’ Day to me?

Until this month, I finally figured out that Mothers’ Day falls on the 2nd Sunday of the month of May. Seriously, I never make an effort to remember it. Cause, I don’t initiate celebration unless my brother told me so. Not that I am unfilial, just that, I don’t see the need for celebration on that day (of all day, that day). In my mind, I thought the day is somewhat commercialised and it is just a boon to the retailers, restaurants to celebrate the day where they eke out of profit. And maybe choosing not to jump on to the ‘celebration’ wagon reduces me to a pariah or something similar.

Nevertheless, I have my own reasons.

Why of all day, vanload of people likes to celebrate on the day where there is:
No parking lots in the mall
Need to reserve a table in order to have a simple meal
Need to pay extra for all the gimmicks

So how do I spend THE ‘special’ day?

I woke up at 9am in the morning, did some mindless surfing online and made breakfast for myself while both Father and Son had the luxury to wake up at 1045am. Grab some light breakfast and off we go to Shichida.
I dread going to class with Ziv, and so happened that it was my turn and there is no such thing as take-a-break-for-Mothers’-Day. I have to grit my teeth and stayed on with him for the entire 45min or an hour (see, I can’t even remember the duration of the class after 6 lessons). And once I even went to the wrong level of the class and waited for minutes and not see Father and Son, until they told me, I was at the wrong tower, wrong floor. Back to the class, he was doing lots of somersault in the class and ignoring the teacher, classmates and me totally. I let him do what he wants and quietly, frittering away $70 per lesson.
Finally about 40 minutes later, Ziv realised that he did enough somersaults and wanted to leave the class, he carried my handbag for me, his bag and pointed me to the door. I heaved, “Okay, let’s go.”

We sent Ziv to MIL’s place and went house hunting.

Well, what a Mothers’ Day.

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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Something is wrong with me?

Me:
Kevin: So what do you think of my new hairstyle?
Me:
Me: Oh, nice nice… you are so free to go for haircut. Not bad. Its nice. (Self deceiving)

I am such a failure; I didn’t even notice that my husband has got a new haircut. Am I turning into some nonchalant men?

Ok, time for some reflections.

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Monday, May 4, 2009

No News IS Good News

Lying on the couch, hearing the susurrus of curtains luffed by the breeze. I feel tranquil, on a long weekend like this. Apart from my sick leave on last Monday and Tuesday, I am glad that we all are hale and hearty with no one being sick, especially Ziv. I hope this is not ephemeral. Keep my toes crossed.

Perhaps I was on medical leave in the beginning of the week, staying awake at work for the next 2 days seemed unattainable, often, I lulled into a somnolent state while reviewing documents. Or maybe I am senescent, or maybe its time that I slow down at work. Or maybe, its time to take a break from work. I mean, working, totally.

In separate news, Ziv is now more enthused in talking; he will repeat what I say, sometimes. And he will only say it to me and only me, not to Kevin, when I asked him to repeat for Papa. And Papa thought I was seriously hallucinating that the Son is talking. I am glad that these days, Ziv is more risible despite knowing that going school is a FACT and not a CHOICE. I am relieved to see him being in his jovial and humorous self. He inherited my humorous.

Some updates about my life:
1. Boss has given me 3 helpers at work. (Look out for a dedicated blog entry for that!)
2. Cindy has just given birth to a bouncy baby gal.
3. New Arrivals! I am getting a new Chanel bag from London.
4. I quitted exploring dinner options outside on weekdays, I have ordered Ting Kat meals that deliver to our doorstep!

Life is good!

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