Fall sick..*Updated 24/1/09

It was Tuesday dinner that started the ill. Bunch of us went to eat bak kut teh at Taman Connought. The rice given was in a barrel, a new thing in the restaurant and the amount given was far enough for 10 of us. Bak kut teh can be considered as my favourite food perhaps all edible foods are my favourites. Dun laugh at me. So, I drank a lot of bak kut teh soup as it was kept added to the pot when the volume went low. After finishing my first bowl of rice, I had another one but this time it was purely eaten with the soup only. I would say it was a nice one but the restaurant at Setapak is better. Things just went normal without any indication throughout the day. In the next morning, I had a sore throat which most probably caused by the heatiness of eating bak kut teh. In addition, I do not have enough hydration as i drank less water that day. The sore throat was a mild which I thought it will rid off later on the day. However, it did not. I felt my throat a little warm. I bought Strepsils with menthol but I doesn't seem to work well. It only provide temporary relief. It was hard for me to get into sleep as there was burning sensation in my throat. I tried to swallow my saliva repeatedly but it just do not work.

In the next day, I started to have periodically cough. Wei Ling supplied me with Difflam, an anit inflammatory lozenges containing benzydamine HCl 1.5 mg, cetylpyridinium chloride 1.33 mg and pholcodine 5.5 mg each. After the first lozenge, it slightly improve the burning sensation. Then, I wanted to have a second one. It really test our memory as in how many permittable doses in a day and the frequency of intake. We made our wild guess. In that particularly night, I somehow felt a little weak. Before I slept, I took one Difflam lozenge and one paracetamol 500 mg tablet. In the next morning, the sore throat had improved dramatically. However, it got worsen later on the day preferably due to not enough of rest and the things I did on that day. After I woke up, I went out with Alvin, Tomas and Wei Yau to look for the venue for upcoming pharmacy night. The weather on that day somehow make me felt uncomfortable and lethargy. I knew I shall have more rests due to the minor illness but I just couldn't provide myself with that. We went to Sri Petaling and then to Ampang to look for the best venue for our event. At each stop, I do a lot of talking as I needed to deal with the person in charge namely in banquet. Besides that, I also need to take photos so that I can show to the rests of the team for the selection of venue. During the journey, I had numerous shock of my life that somehow made me felt not good. If I do not have enough sleep and drive with my specs on a sunny + glary day, I will feel very dizzy. That's what happened to me even though I do not drive. This was complimented with the shock of my life. After the class finished, I tar pau salad chicken rice for my dinner and did not join the rests for the Tesco + Station One dinner. I really need a rest. The coughing worsen till I lost my voice. Due to repeatingly invitations to join for a 'mamak' session, I told them to give me an hour ++ nap before I re-evaluate my condition. However, I had disappointed them. After the nap which was about 9 pm, I watched two movies continuously. The first one was the Bolt, the dog while the second was the Black Hawk. I watched the first part of Black Hawk before online and started to blog. After then, I continued to watch the second part. In that particular night, the burning sensation was unbearable till I woke up at about 6 am ++ to get the balm and rubbed on my neck. Surprisingly, it do get better later on. I still can speak clearly later on in the morning class. The next things were worsening the improved conditions. After class, we went to 1U for a shopping spree. We had our first stop at Zanmai Sushi for lunch and we drank many cups of green tea. I had a hot one. Then, the main group went to look for clothes while my group went for a movie entitled Mama cop papa crook. The cinema was very cold. The movie ending was confusing. After the movie, I started to lose my voice slowly. I don't think it was because of the cinema but more likely lack of rests. After the movie, we had about 2 hours ++ window shopping and I spent my time more in capturing photos for the lion dance performance at the mall. After that, we went to CB house for her birthday celebration. Numerous events had carried out that further worsen my conditions. The main catalyst will be setting up the bbq fire. We took quite some time and I inhaled a lot of the smoke. After that, I no longer can speak even a word. It was totally out of tune. Later on the day, we had red wine drinking session. The concerned people asked me to drink honey but now I drank red wine instead. Don't worry as I do not take any BBQ foods. We spent till 1.30 am ++ before heading back to Cheras. I slept at about 3 am searching news for the victory of PR and PAS candidate against the corrupted UMNO. In the next morning which is today, I woke up at about 8 am ++ to evaluate my conditions. If it is ok, i shall joined MF, Tomas and Alvin to go Pandamaran for the PHC to support the juniors. At 10 am, I decided not to go as it is not getting better. All the time I am checking my voice by saying 'testing 123' and it turns to be an ugly one. I hardly speak a word. Then, I continued to sleep till 12 pm ++. After that, I had my hot instant barley. Then, Suk Yen and Vun kept asking me to rest more. I somehow feel a bit dizzy which then I decided to get back on the bed. At about 3.30 pm++, I started to write this post and it took about 1 hour. Sick people need more time to think what to write. After this post, I will get my brunch. I am not sure where to get porridge. Then, I will pack to go back home. *Updated I reached home in the late afternoon. No porridge for me as I had no idea where to find one. On the other hand, I bought myself a bitter Chinese traditional herb drink which was Wong Lo Kat added with powder. It costs me RM 3.00. Aiks.. really bitter. It do give me relief.

Coming to another week , it was up and down to me. On Monday, the air cond and the photostat paper irritated my throat and I have unbearable coughing. Then, I bought Tussidex Forte Linctus containing dextromethorphan hydrobromide , an antitussive. This medicine gave me a great relief and recovery. However, the workloads and the daily timetable up to 6 pm weaken me. There were 2 lab sessions , Mon and Wed in this week. The CNS 1 report needed to be hand in by Friday.

I felt really weak. I skipped all the dinner session with my group of friends who I used to have dinner with them. Instead, I tar pau food and eat alone in the house. After that, I would take 1-2 hours for a nap before continuing my homeworks. I finished the whole bottle of Tussidex Forte Linctus by Wednesday. My condition seem improving. However, each time when my condition was to recover, it would worsen back due to not enough of rest. It wasn't my intention of not having sufficient rests but the workloads do not allow that. In every single day, when the time reached about 1 am, I was forced to sleep because the coughing will strike back at that time although I was still energetic to continue my works. On Friday, I would say the condition was very much improved. I pushed aside the invitation for movie and lunch and etc. so that I can reach home early and had sufficient rest. It was an important day as I had my reunion dinner on that night. When I reached home, one word can describe my feeling which was FOOD. I had not taken a proper meal in these few days. During that night, I ate non stop ranging from fried spicy prawns, porks, big fat meaty kampung chicken and many more. Oh gosh.. it was like heaven to me. I also toasted my first yee sang for this new year. Sadly, I had skipped an early yee sang session with my friends on Wednesday due to my worsening condition. Next, I had a Carlsberg beer with SALT. Some people said it is good for relief of sore throat. The wasn't nice at all and I will never take it again. I preferred red wine more. My face turned tomato red. And to my worry, sore throat stroked back. Oh God! I was just recovered slightly and nightmare started again. I took Ponstan which contains 500 mg mefenamic acid and the newly bought Tussidex Forte Linctus earlier on the day itself. It was bought when I went to my mum place and took the IC photos. After swallowing the linctus and the tablet, I prayed hard that NO SORE THROAT for the next day which is today, Saturday. Please Please and Please. I have something important to do next week that requires good health status. Today. Thank God. Nothing bad happened to me. As usual, I test my voice like testing the mic 'testing 123'. It sounds clear. yahoo!!!! Everything is normal but only super mild condition of sore throat. It mean that I shall eat more yesterday. Hahahaha. I would say I am in the recovery status. So, I would like to take this opportunity to thanks all my friends and my family members for the concern throughout this hard time period. For those who claimed I had infected them, I feel very sorry to you guys. For my classmates, very sorry for the non stop coughing sounds during the class. Between, all these things are pre-CNY syndrome. It do happened every year. Haha.. Conclusion: Medicine never works without sufficient RESTS. If you want speedy recovery, I you need is sufficient rests. Otherwise, you need to bear with the hard time period like me. uh.. bad example rite?