Category Archives: Medicine/Health

TB Chapter – Part 2

Posted in Everyday Life, Medicine/Health by

I am taking Akurit-2 & Pyridoxine. My regime will be completed by the end of next week at Day 90.

I experienced mild nausea during the first few days on the meds. It reminds me of the bad morning sickness I had in my 2nd pregnancy. My urine did turn a hue of red and orange in the immediate 2-3 hours after swallowing the pills. Initially, I had thought that it would take me a few days to develop that sign. I also had horrible flu-like symptoms which is unpleasant to have during this pandemic. Coincidentally we had staff screening at the clinic that same week using the RTK-Antigen. I tested NEGATIVE for Covid-19.

I noticed I had nightmares too in the first week. I had horrible dreams of Covid-19, dengue fever and other weird disease management. Not sure if it is an after-effect of stress at work or the meds. I did not have insomnia. Instead, I have terrible somnolence. It was as bad as taking Actifed for my occasional runny nose. I did not experience major peripheral neuropathy (so far). My liver function was monitored at 2 weeks and 2 months after starting the treatment. So far, it has been normal.

The paramedic in-charge of my regime allowed me to bring home 2 weeks supply of the medicine. I don’t have to take it at the same time everyday but it would be helpful to stick to one. Akurit-2 is best taken on an empty stomach for better absorption unlike pyridoxine where you can take it at anytime you want. Obviously, I take them together.

I have had people asking me if this would KILL ALL THE TB BACTERIA in my body.

The thing is, Medicine is never 100% guaranteed. There is always a small percentage of patients that will still have active TB one day. On my part, I am doing this for myself, my family and the people around me. I also took my Pfizer vaccine shot whilst on the treatment. I did not experience any major side effects from being on the regime and taking the vaccine. Yes, I did have malaise and a mild fever 24 hours after the 2nd dose of Pfizer but that’s it. Now I feel fine.

Cost of treatment for latent TB

As a Malaysian citizen, I only need to pay RM1 for registration and for every visits to see my attending doctor. I have had two visits. That means on top of the initial RM1, I am paying another RM2. My blood works are FREE. My consultation fee is FREE. My medicine is FREE.

The after effects of Pfizer’s 2nd dose of injection

Posted in Medicine/Health by

The ideal window for the 2nd jab is within 21 days but my batch of 6 people were deferred to a different date because of work commitment. But it is still within the 42 days stretch permissible. After the 1st dose, I only had minor discomfort on my injected arm but the 2nd dose made a quite an impact.

The effect started exactly 24 hours after the 2nd dose.

I had my shot in the evening around 3pm. When I woke up the next day, it was just that recognizable discomfort on my arm. Later on in the afternoon, I felt some body ache. A mild one cause I was still able to go to work. I was still able to joke around. But things got worse later in the afternoon. Coincidentally I had to wear the PPE as I had to take some PCR samples from suspected people with Covid-19. throughout the sampling I was OK but after – I felt like I had been hit by a lorry. That is the expression somehow Malaysians use when they describe severe muscle pain. Not that they’ve been hit by one and survived anyway. Or is it a universal expression? I don’t know.

My body was heating up. I had to use my kids paracetamol since I couldn’t find an adult tablet. After my shower, I felt stiff as in I just want to lie down on the bed and watch Youtube (hehe..). And so I did for about half an hour. After that, I went to the kitchen to cook dinner in slow motion. I was dying for a home cooked meal even though I am not a terrific one at it. I managed to cook up a spread of Basmathi rice, scrambled eggs with mushroom, fried chicken and vegetable soup. After the meal, I continued to lie on the bed stretching my body like a kitty cat and ended up having an early turn in for the night.

I wanted to report the symptoms on Mysejahtera but found out that the button is not available. Not to find fault with it but more of a notification so that the vaccine provider could collect this data and analyse the stats. This means I need to report it on the website under consumer vaccine report. I woke up this morning feeling better though. Even the discomfort on my arm has worn off. I guess the worst part of the 2nd dose is over.

Minci, the results came back positive

Posted in Everyday Life, Medicine/Health by

Apart from a positive UPT, the last thing you want to hear as a patient is that you are positive of something. (for the record, I am not pregnant). Especially now in this pandemic when it is dreadful to be positive of Covid-19. This is because the pathway upon diagnosis here in Malaysia is such that you would be whisked to the hospital and isolated for at least 10-14 days with monitoring in between. It is ugly if you have small children that are dependent on you and that you will have to be separated from them for a while. So yeah, now is not a good time to get Covid-19 eventhough you feel fine.

Anyway, I did the Covid-antibody test a few weeks ago. It was negative. So this entry is not about Covid-19.

The only positive investigation that is pinning on me now is my IGRA test. At the end of last month, a colleague was tested positive for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). It was initially just a screening test everyone had to do upon reporting themselves to a new workplace and this colleague coincidentally had symptoms as well. Once the colleague learned of the diagnosis, naturally, all close contacts at the workplace have to be tested including me since we share the same small room for prayers, eating and gossiping during lunch hours.

All the girls did the Mantoux test and chest Xray. Out of 8 girls who did this test, 2 of us had a positive Mantoux test (one of them is me of course) but we are asymptomatic of TB meaning we have no cough whatsoever. In fact, both of us have a really good appetite and a big waistline to begin with. We don’t look like the typical patient with active TB. Or maybe we are atypical? lols.. we could be.

Anyway, all 8 of us were asked to proceed with IGRA – an Interferon Gamma Release Assay blood test. I think both of us were kind of prepared to accept that the results might be positive. Indeed it was.

So, what is next?

Despite being asymptomatic, we still need to make sure that we have no active TB going on. That means reviewing the Chest Xray again with an extra pair of eyes to look for cavitation and taking a sputum AFB sample (if we have sputum to give- which we don’t). Once that has been excluded, then I would need to make a decision on whether I would agree to start on treatment for latent TB.

Latent TB is not infectious.

It means that at one point in life I was exposed to the bacteria which did not have enough capacity (gosh) to launch a full attack on my body to exhibit the TB disease. It’s like I caught the bug and it decided to go to sleep somewhere in my body. Waiting for the time to wake up and become powerful and active. So it will be up to me to try and kill it now before it decides to become evil and create havoc in my body. Anyway, I will only decide once my colleague in charge of TB review my Xray again later. We really need to make sure of this because the type of medicine and length of treatment regime differs.

This TB ball will start rolling next week into the new year. I guess this is the first chapter of my interesting 2021. I guess my WORD for 2021 has a big purpose this year. My word is RESILIENCE. My word for 2020 is THRIVE. Maybe that’s why the bacteria is thriving. lols.

I will give this chapter in my blog a hashtag. It will be #MinciBerTB

Weight watching. #BLS 2020.

Posted in Everyday Life, Good Things, Medicine/Health by

My weight loss support group BLS 2020 just had our first weigh in a few days ago. This is after a month into the programme. It’s basically us girls who are trying to lose weight with a coach minding our progress. The coach is none other, also our friend of the same study batch. HA ha ha.

We are free to choose whatever fitness programme we like. Be it keto, paleo, GM diet, Intermittent Fasting and what not as long as it supports the idea of a CALORIE DEFICIT.. We can do whatever physical activity to our liking. The ultimate goal for the support group is to motivate each other, exchange recipes (if any) and hope to lose at least 10kg within this 6 months. Just in time before our reunion in April 2020.

For the past one month, I find that I am more obsessed to understand my eating habits and food of choice. I did not do much on physical activity yet. I incorporated a bit of the Smartlife programme I did back in hospital as a facilitator. Part of the strategies from Smartlife include;

  • Calculate your calorie requirement per day in line with your lifestyle. I lead a sedentary lifestyle now that I am working in a clinic setting and my requirements came up to only 1285kcal/day. Knowing that, I should aim for a deficit.
  • Having a food diary. Everything is online now. Find an app and just record your meal intake/calories. I use the inbuilt Samsung Health app. There’s not much Malaysian food in it so most of the time I just record it manually.
  • Set a small, achievable, measurable health target every week. Two, if you’re ambitious. It can be an eating habit, a lifestyle change, a spiritual boost et al. If I could go beyond, I feel great.
  • Physical activity log. I still have a lot to improve on this area.

In the process of learning about food intake and calories, I discovered that;

  • Healthy eating need not be expensive. Yes, you see people take shakes, almond milk, organic this and that, avocado, berries, greek yoghurt and chia seeds. If you’re on a budget, then my advice is go for real food. Meaning tak salah nak hirup sup bayam as snack. Nak telan tofu ngan sos tiram bawang putih masa lunch. Nak minum kopi O satu sudu teh gula as breakfast. Nak minum smoothie jambu batu dan epal. Cause we know in Malaysia, things like avocado and berries are kinda premium purchases, apatah lagi almond milk. So choose food according to your own budget. Make it local. Yet healthy. I think there are more and more trainers/coaches in Malaysia that are trying to make meal plans more local, more Malaysian. If budget is not an issue, then go for it. I personally loved Velvet’s Almond Milk with that nectar thing in my morning coffee.
  • Hydration is really important and is a miracle. Apart from water being good for your skin, it suppresses hunger and make you eat less. Sometimes I add a drop of doterra Grapefruit EO or Lemon inside my drinking water for a tinge of flavour.
  • I need to slow down and be more mindful of what I eat. I have always been fast ever since I was a houseman. Including my husband. Back during the times when we were dating, we’d be walking in the mall like we were tracing blood investigation results. Laju semacam. Makan pun laju. So having to consciously remind myself to sit at the table and have my meals S.l.o.w.l.y kills me a bit, knowing that it is important for proper digestion to occur. I even find 7 mins to make my perfect half boiled egg very agonizing.
  • When you are just starting, try not to have cheat days first. Cause it’ll kill the momentum. It is undeniably difficult during long weekend holidays. But, TRY.
  • Food prep helps. A LOT. When you plan ahead of what you want to eat, it keeps the motivation high to see the numbers on the scale change. You are less likely to give in to the temptation of tapau-ing food or grab fast food. Come to think of it, I haven’t had McDonalds for quite a while now. But I still have KFC from time to time. The breast part without the skin in my sandwich.
  • I should eat less bananas and less snacking on almonds if I want to use my calorie bank for other food items. 13 almonds is 100kcal. I can have like 2 kiwi fruits to substitute for that. In other words, I learnt to switch and prioritise my meals.
  • Once I am firm and consistent with my regime, my family especially my husband tends to follow suit. Lately, he has been getting less portion of food from pasar malam and is more thoughtful of the types of food he wants to buy for dinner. Of course he still buys Tam Tam and Super Rings but not as much as he did before.
  • I can still eat out but I must be smart with my food selection.

To warm up my engine, I just made sure I was eating on a calorie deficit and that my meals were before 730PM. It’s because I tend to reach home just before 6pm and would need to do prayers first before I prep dinner. I wasn’t confident nor ready to commit to a GM diet or a keto yet. Once I get the hang of eating on a calorie deficit on top of HYDRATION with light exercise ( a bit of dumbbells and planks) – I feel I am ready for more.

So I tried Intermittent Fasting. I downloaded an app called Zero to help me get started. I managed it for 3 days in a row until I got my period which kind of tipped things a bit differently. In a way, I need to modify how and when I eat so I wouldn’t get symptomatic anemia while I bleed for the next few days. I figured eating regular meals on a deficit would be better for now. Until I find new ways of how to diet safely while menstruating. Ha ha ha.

Wish me luck. I have 5 months more to go.

Meet ‘harle Quin’

Posted in All in a days work, Hobby/Interest, Medicine/Health by

It was one of those moments when I felt blessed to be able to witness a rare miracle in life. I had a choice to initially go for another teaching session but I opted to stay because casualty looked busy.

Then she came for a runny nose. She survived her neonatal period. It was an interesting life encounter. And to see her mother being this unwavering pillar of strength kept me in awe. I hope this little ‘Harle Quin’ would get to live a long life. Amin.

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