End of April 'Eid Visits

Thought I close this April with another posts. Most Malaysian are still in holiday mood due to 'Eid that also coincides with school holidays. Apart from the 'Eid visits we have mentioned in the previous post, we have not made any further visits, mainly because we are mentally preparing ourselves with the forthcoming surgical procedure to treat my other half's problem with spontaneous CSF leak (see article here). Instead, we had a busy weekend receiving 'Eid visits by others.

Beginning with Saturday, families of in-laws from Bandar Tun Hussein Onn and Taman Keramat came. Some photos here:

Today (Sunday), we had the family of my sister visiting us in the late morning/afternoon. Here are the photos.

Later in the evening we have the family of in-laws came to visit us.

We must express our thanks to them coming all the way from afar, particularly knowing full well that they will be met with heavy traffic as people started to come back from holidays.

Due to the aforementioned surgery, we also had Izhar coming back home in the morning and Ihsan later in the evening. We will all travel to Ara Damansara, God willing, on Tuesday.

End of Ramadhan and Shawwal 1444

It is time for me to update my blog since we are now past one week of Shawwal 1444. Let me track back to our final days of Ramadhan 1444. As I have mentioned earlier, the fasting fatigue set in earlier this year, perhaps due to our earlier umrah trip just before Ramadhan. I was hoping to get some form of spiritual uplifting and enlightenment by the end of Ramadhan, but I'm just my own old self in a way looking forward to celebrate the forthcoming 'Eid. The improvements I made this time is perhaps my Qur'an reading, though actually I have targeted much more (some of this, I am implementing now with breaks, of course). My tarawih prayers are mostly at home, in congregation with my other half. During the first few nights we were at the mosque until some other people in the congregation noticed her dripping nose. She also had to break her fast many times as she was getting headaches and imbalances. I hope we do get the chance to observe Ramadhan again next year.

In fact for 'Eid, I preferred to have stayed home and let her get as much rest. However she wanted to spend her 'Eid with her sister in Segamat. So on Friday, we travelled to Segamat. Normally, I would have stayed at Station Inn Hotel (avoiding crowdedness at the Bukit Siput house) but this time round, all the favourite hotels are fully booked. Instead I was at Ching Hua hotel situated near the intersection leading to Bukit Siput home. It was quite unique. As I opened the door to the hotel room, it led me to small stairs up to a 'wooden' platform where the beds are and 'chairs' are replaced by 'cushions' on the floor, likened to a Japanese setting.

On the 'Eid morning, we were at Bukit Siput. We went for 'Eid prayers at the local Surau Abu Bakar Al-Kherid. Thereafter, we had the usual ceremonial seeking forgiveness from each other and of course family group photo. Unfortunately, our second son Ihsan, could not be with us as he has taken up most of his leaves during umrah and was working that day. So here is our group photo (with two daughters of our niece)

Here are some other photos including Izzuddin supervising his nieces playing fireworks.

We went back to Seremban on the second day of 'Eid, after my other half got to see her elder sisters who visited Segamat that day. On Monday, my son Izhar went back to his place in Seri Kembangan for work the next day. On Wednesday, we went to visit my sisters-in-law in Kepong, wives to my late elder brothers.

On Thursday, we send back our youngest son Izzuddin back to college in UiTM Jasin. Since Izzuddin will not be with us when my other half undergoes surgery next week, I decided to take some photos as well.

I sensed a little of his sadness then but God willing, things will go well. Ihsan and Izhar will be with us during the surgical procedure. We will be staying in the same Z Hotel as before, perhaps taking turn to be in the hospital, taking care of my other half.

Belated Birthday & Ara Damansara Trips

Last weekend, my third son Izhar came back home (he does this every alternate weekend) and we decided to celebrate belatedly his birthday (it fell on the normal weekday which is a working day). Here are some pics.

Update on my other half's health problems. We have been to KPJ Seremban Hospital now a few times but it seems that we have to go to Ara Damansara Medical Centre for a more experienced specialist that has treated CSF leaks before (Dr. Abdul Fattah). An appointment was set up by Prof. Primuharsa (the KPJ specialist) on Tuesday. Apparently spontaneous CSF leak is relatively rare (or under-reported as the linked article says) and we were informed (later) that there are only two practicing doctors in the country that can do surgical procedure. Since we are travelling from Seremban, we booked Z-Hotel in Ara Damansara on Monday to avoid the rush the next day. The hotel had good ratings and it was the first time that we had to do a self-check-in done at a kiosk. Pretty sophisticated. Here are pics at the hotel.

The last pic was taken when we first arrived at the hotel and she was still feeling well and cheerful. Generally, she tend to have headaches (usually later in the afternoon) as her CSF level becomes low. On some days, she essentially has to break her fast for at least some fluid intake.

On the next day, we went to Ara Damansara Medical Centre to see Dr. Abdul Fattah.

Dr. Fattah was really friendly and he explained to us in detail regarding CSF leaks and the surgical procedure to mend the leak. He was actually 'excited' to have the case of my other half but later apologised for his 'apparent joy'. See the following article for some images. We showed the CT scan and MRI images that we had from KPJ hospital but he suggested that we do another MRI focusing on the sinus area, which would help the surgical procedure. Initially the MRI was scheduled on the same day but since the MRI specialist was not around and it had to be rescheduled on the next day. So we had an unexpected extra day stay in Z Hotel. Since we did not bring any extra clothes, we went back to Seremban briefly just for this. Before the MRI on Wednesday, my other half was not feeling well since she began to experience episodes of dizziness and giddiness. We enquired first if it is ok to carry out the MRI under the condition and we were told that they will be monitoring her before and during the MRI scan. She was given a bed to lie down before the MRI scan.

As I am writing this, it seems that my other half continues to have these dizziness and giddiness episodes on top of the headaches. Today, the clinic called her that she will have to be warded on 9th May and have the surgical procedure the next day. Worried about her worsening conditions, we asked whether this can be done a week earlier and the clinic set up for the 3rd May instead. So God willing, we will be back in Ara Damansara on 2nd May for another stay (which will now be extended).

Another Ramadhan Weekend and A Goodbye

The last weekend, my other half decided to bring our youngest son Izzuddin home to spend Ramadhan (breaking fast and tarawih prayers). Her wish is probably related to her current condition; particularly if it so happens that she has to undergo surgery before 'Eid. Here are some pics:

Izzuddin was with us for only a day. On Sunday, we sent him back to his college. I decided to take some pics of him together with my other half.

Another thing happened this week is that we decided to let go our blue Aveo car away to a scrapyard since its engine has problems. This car was bought by my other half for her own use to go to work. It was later, that I decided to use the car to go to work, mainly because I travel a longer distance than her. Later, my second son, Ihsan used the car while he was still in college until he started work in Pulau Indah and later with BP lab at KLIA. When Ihsan had to move to JB for his new workplace, he then got Perodua Ativa for better reliability. The blue Aveo car then was used by my third son, Izhar to go to work in Seri Kembangan. Given that the car has been heavily used for nearly twenty years, the car broke down a few times during Izhar's use. Finally, we decided to get him a Myvi for him to go to work. 

Once we found a scrapyard operator, we took photos of us with the car for memory sake.

So today, sometime before 2pm, the scrapyard operator came to take the car away.

Thank you for your great service, blue Aveo and goodbye.