Dianah’s Blog

Just 2 months after the first signs that he was ill, my eldest uncle passed away early this morning. He was only 55 this year. A hardworking, silent and unassuming man, he never got to enjoy the fruits of his labour. I am just devastated at the suddeness of it. He, who had been healthy and hearty his own life, reduced to a mere fragment of his normal self. I feel so sad and frustated about the inevitability of it all. Most of all, I pray that he would rest in peace now, free from all his pain.

Last night, I learned that my uncle, the strong, silent man who had been my father figure since I can remember, had on stage 4 of small bowel cancer.  He had admitted to SGH on Friday, 15 October 2010 for stomach pains, vomiting and constipation.  They had diagnosed it as pancreatitis in the first place but after they performed an abdominal CT scan on him, he began an entire series of other tests as well.

It was so bad that it had already spread to his liver as the surgeon was telling us there were numerous shadows from the CT scan.  They could not even operate to take it out cause it was at the start of the small bowel.  They could only offer a bypass and, hopefully, he would response to chemotherapy.

As I fought to look cheerful but the enormity of the news overwhelmed me and I fainted.  Yes, I, who had thought myself a modern, strong and capable woman fainted.  I was ashamed, not because I fainted but that I alarmed my uncle, who really needs to stay cheerful at this point, my mother and my aunt.  I joking claimed that it was due to me skipping a meal as I was dieting.

Googling on the subject did not ease my fears.  It only confirmed it.  It seems that when the cancer is so advanced that it cannot be operated, even with chemotherapy, there was only a 37.5% chance that my uncle would make it.  Worse, the median life span was only 1 year.

I wept at the fatality of it all.  My uncle, the simple man that he was, simply trusted the surgeon to take things 1 step at a time.  I suppose it is for the best that he did.  I can only leave it up to God to show his mercy on him.

I met up with Esther from Singapore Cord Blood Bank today.  I was late as my hubby did not want to have lunch at Novena and went instead to the small coffee shop opposite Thomson Medical Centre to have his lunch.  I ate alone at the KopiTiam at Novena Square and felt so miserable eating alone. 🙁

Esther very patiently went through a questionnaire with my husband and I about our health, our family’s medical history, our sexual history and our family background.  Thereafter, she went through the donation agreement with my husband and I answering all our enquiries much to our satisfaction.  We signed the donation agreement and she reminded my hubby to bring the agreement along to give to the nurses during my check-in for labour so that they would make the necessary preparations.

Dr Adrian was as friendly as ever and when I asked him to confirm the gender of our baby, he tried to view it through ultra sound again.  However, our baby was crossing her legs (from the last time it was still a girl) so he was unable to give a confirmation.  He reiterated that since our baby was so shy, it was likely that she is a girl.  😛

I telephoned the Singapore Cord Blood Bank again this afternoon.  Someone picked up and transferred me to the relevant department to answer my enquiries.  I told the lady of my interest to donate my baby’s cord blood and informed her that I would be delivering at Thomson Medical Centre.  She asked me quite a number of screening questions.  Mostly health related and also some personal ones like if either my husband or I were adopted etc.  These questions helped them to screen out anyone who was not suitable for donation.  She agreed to send someone to meet me at Thomson Medical Centre before I had my gynaecologist appointment.  I think that is good service.

The web site of Singapore Cord Blood Bank is www.scbb.com.sg.  Do visit it if you are thinking of donating your baby’s cord blood for more information.

After doing some research on cord blood banking and cord blood donation, I decided that I would donate my baby’s cord blood to the Singapore Cord Blood Bank.  This is due to the fact that:

1. If the child is already sick, s/he cannot use back his/her own cord blood, so I felt that there was no point in wasting money to bank the cord blood.
2. If the cord blood can benefit others who may be in need of hope, I think why not?  After all, if not donated or banked, it is simply discarded.  An utter waste if you ask me.

I telephoned Singapore Cord Blood Bank but there was no answer.  I tried to email for more information to info@scbb.com.sg.  However, I also did not get a reply.  Hmmm…  I decided I would try again on Monday.

Today was the last antenatal class conducted in the auditorium at Singapore Chinese Girls’ School.  Wow!  The schools these days so modern and large.

The first session was about labour and was conducted by Dr Beh.  Personally, I felt that most of the material he went through was already taught/shown during the other antenatal classes so my mind wandered a little and my hubby scolded me.  “Why you bother coming for antenatal class if you are not going to listen?”  So I have to pay attention. 😛

The second session was about care for baby and some of the more common illnesses and symptoms they would get.  This session had my full attention as the paediatrician was very humorous and the topic was more after my own heart.  After all, I would be delivering in less than 2 months time!

Today’s class was focused on feeding. Nurse Chong first played a tape on breastfeeding that looked suspiciously like it was from Avent. It had a few ladies talking about their breastfeeding experiences.

She also displayed PowerPoint slides on the benefits, different positions of breastfeeding and structure of the breast at its various stages. The PowerPoint looked like the one showed by Mrs Wong Boh Boi during the Avent event.

Thereafter, she displayed a PDF file on bottle feeding and demonstrated how to prepare a bottle feed. However, this segment was the shortest as she had spend nearly 2

I was on half day today to visit the gynaecologist. Met up with hubby at Kovan and had Teochew fishball noodles for lunch then went to CK to purchase 2 packs of 20 Pureen maternity pads.

It was still quite early but I was afraid that the clinic would be crowded being so close to the end of the year and asked my husband to go earlier.

When we arrived, there were so many people that we were barely able to find a place to sit. After doing my urine test, taking my weight and blood pressure, we waited for an hour before Dr Adrian saw us. I increased another 1.2 kilograms since the last visit 3 weeks ago! Total weight gain so far is 15 kilograms! 🙁 Hope I would be able to lose it all after delivery.

He enquired on the condition on my rashes and I told him it is better. In fact, in order to determine if it was due to the products I used, I have been experimenting with using them again by themselves. However, no allergic reactions so far.

During the ultrasound, he remarked that the baby was head up with body diagonally lying across my uterus with the head at 2 o’clock position. Unfortunately, the baby was not in a good position to take any good ultrasound pictures. Her weight at 32 weeks is 1.6 kilograms. 🙂

Finally met up with the SingaporeMotherhood.com February Mother To Bes (MTBs) this evening. I was late and the human jam in the North South line was no help. I missed a train and had to give another one a miss as it was too crowded. When I finally managed to squeeze into the next one, I was so close to the door I could see the stains on it. 🙁

When I reached Somerset which was, thankfully, the next stop, it was raining. I opened my brand new umbrella to cross the street. Thinking to close it since there was still some distance to the next, I discovered it did not close properly! So I stood to one side of the street and struggled to close it. Thank god that it was just stiff and not spoiled because I bought it from a street stall that would most likely not be there anymore if I went back.

When I reached Village at Heeren, the lady usher took 1 look at me and asked “Cheryl or Daryl?” I said “Cheryl.” and she pointed me in the general direction of the tables where the SingaporeMotherhood.com February MTBs were sitting.

There were so many people! Most of them had also finished their dinner. I was so late. They were very nice about it and asked me to have my dinner first.

Most of the food was fried and I was trying not to take heaty food so I looked around and noticed the Seafood section. After asking the cashier what the grilled seafood, he replied “Green salad.”, and thinking that was very healthy, I ordered a grilled pacific dory and was told that I would need to wait for 10 minutes as the grill was full. So I ordered a mashed potato to fill my tummy first. The cashier was very nice. He told his colleague “Give her a double portion.” on seeing that I was pregnant. 🙂 The mashed potato was nice but the brown sauce cooled down too fast. It would have been better if it were piping hot. After digging into it for 10 minutes, I went to collect my grilled dory. The “green salad” turned out to be a few pieces of lettuce with the dark purple kind that was bitter. Thank god I ordered the mash potato.

As I was eating, I asked around for the names of the MTBs around me. They gave their nicknames. Blueginger, the MTB who had the same gynaecologist as me, was coincidentally sitting close to me. I listened in on their conversations while filling my stomach. Cheryl came along with a dish of crepes with ice cream and I was sorely tempted to have the same. Nevertheless, I reined in my cravings and had a single scoop of strawberry premium ice cream instead with green apple juice. The ice cream had bits of strawberries and was just nice in its mix of sourness and sweetness. 🙂 I would have had a strawberry smoothie instead but the cashier at the fruits stall told me they were all out of ice cream for the smoothies.

Eileen appeared sometime between my grilled dory and ice cream with her husband in tow. Poor thing. He was the only thorn among the roses. He served her while she ate and listened in on our conversations.

We chatted on a range of topics. The most significant one was about taking one’s placenta and preserving it for nutritional purposes. My goodness! I managed to find a web site on it though I am not brave enough to try it. 😛

The MTBs all looked so well maintained. Especially moi_dar who was really glamorous and voluptuous looking. Makes me feel very embarrassed that I did not bother to dress up for the gathering. 😛

After chatting until about 9:45 p.m., we stopped for the day and I went back with h@ppymum2b as she was living in SengKang. We continued to chat about her son, water retention, waxing and antenatal massage during the MRT trip.

It was nice to meet up and finally see the faces of people who have been providing me with advice and support. 🙂 Hope we have another gathering soon.

When I reached home, I told my husband about all the pretty and sweet MTBs I met and the topics we discussed. Could not get to sleep until 1:30 a.m. 😛

My husband injured his hand and did not want to attend the antenatal class. I was so disappointed and made a big fuss about it. In the end, he gave in and said he would meet me at the antenatal class. 🙂 He arrived at 7:05 p.m.

I made my own way to the class for the first time and realised how fortunate I am to have my husband drive me every time. The bus was SO crowded and even though a nice gentleman offered his seat to me I still felt very suffocated by the number of people in the bus.

During our 4th antenatal class, Senior Nurse Chong demonstrated how to:

• Wrap the baby with a flannel cloth
• Wash the baby’s hair
• Wash the baby’s eyes and face
• Bathe the baby
• Change the baby’s diapers
• Folding of the baby’s cloth nappy
• Dress the baby
• Burp the baby
• Do tummy massage for baby to prevent colic (to be done 2 hours after feeding or when stomach not bloated otherwise baby may regurgitate milk)

Each of us were given a baby doll to practise on and Senior Nurse Chong went round to make sure we knew what she was talking about. Really nice of her to ensure that we all understood.

After the demonstration, she showed us a PowerPoint on why babies cry and how to cope with babies crying. Thereafter, she took us on a detailed tour of the hospital wards. She also showed us how to change diapers on an actual baby that she found to have pooed in the nursery. 🙂

But my husband was very hungry as he rushed here without dinner so we left before the class officially ended. He remarked that I would not want to stay in anything other than a 1 bedder so no point seeing the other types of rooms available. 😛