nightmere come true...

 

It was the first day of my straight night shift. I had an afternoon nap and felt a little warm on my waking up. The condition had worsen through my shift and I had a feeling that I had caught it. It sucks as I had a streak of shifts pending to be done. I did not take any medication and waited until the passover. I told my colleague that I needed a PCR as I am not feeling well. The next 40 mins of waiting was a pain in the axx. I called up Ving that I might be positive and might need to go to the shelter to protect them. She was worried but nothing much could be done.

The result came out as expected and I had called up our infectious controller; she told me that I could only be placed in a shelter when the authority started to process my data; it could take 1 day or more. So I given up the idea and told Ving that I would be quarantine in Xian’s room on the 3^rd floor for the rest of the period.

I had started myself on Paxlovid and taken the medicaiton before I driven home.

When I finally hit the house, I had sprayed a load of alcohol on my body before I headed to the bathroom for shower.

After sanitizing the bathroom, I retreated to Xian’s room. My whole body sore despite of taking paracetamol. I dipped into dreamland after taking some NSAID. The sleep was poor and I had awaken from time to time.

I was not febrile however the body ache and headache was irritating. I did not get better despite of taking the antiviral regimen; instead the mouth bitterness was very disturbing.

I spent most of the time helplessly on the bed, unable to do anything during the first 2 days. I sealed my balcony by using plastic trash bag; I transformed it into a temporary toilet/bathing place. As Xian’s room did not have a bathroom attached to it, I had intended to leave the room as least as possible. The urinal, bucket, water dipper , balcony had become part of my bathroom the next few days.

I had suffered from most of the symptom described and the medication had only partially work.

Soreness was the most annoying symptom that affected me. I was disturbed by nasal congestion, bloating leading to poor sleep in the night. Sorethroat was noted but tolerable. However the mouth bitterness from Paxlovid was like thorn in the back.

My symptom had markedly improved on D3 though and I had referred to my infectious controller about early return to job. I followed the protocol and two antigen rapid test swab was done on D4 and D5. The back to back negative test had allowed me to return to work on D6. I was 5 shifts short due to the quarantine order.

Catching up the shortage was problem but yet the sequelae from covid19 was the most horrifying part.

I had problem climbing to 3rd floor; persistent bloating was noted from time to time. Insomnia was noted and I constantly waking up at 3am in the middle of the night.

Long way to recovery….

But I still praise the great one, Ving and Xian were not infected. I had a high CT value when I was tested; I was not infectious when I left for my night shift. I had refrained from using the bathroom and only countable time that I left the room. All those factors are vitals leading to a successful isolation.

renewl run 4....

 

4 months had passed since the renewal run. An agony though, but I would not want to share the fear with any of the family members. The call from the visa division came in April informing the arrival of our new passport.

As XX and Yun had their college project to run, I could only squeezed a window around early June.

It was a similar routine as the previous run. Early stopped at HSR station and hit the visa office by 11 and head back to HSR station by noon for lunch; catch the express ride by 12:30 and reach K city by 3 something.

Everything was smooth until the passports were handed to us for final checking and acceptance. While Yun was glancing through her detail, she discovered that her height was not properly stated on the passport.

The staff had retrieved our application forms and found that they had mistaken the 5 as 3 on the form; Yun was 20cm shorter than her actual height.

The staff had tried to persuade us to accept the passport and signed a papers claiming that we acknowledge the mistake and agree to accept it…. three letter words ending with F almost burst through my mouth. But, at that point, I knew that no one should be offended to facilitate the process. They told me that we could go to the IMI office for correction when travel back to the homeland.

I politely tell them that I cannot accept it and requested for a correction by IMI office back in Malaysia. I kept the “our old passport photocopy clearly stated Yun’s height and how could an adolescent loss 20cm in 5 years! you all should have double check it !” in my throat.

I told the staff that I had my passport lost and encountered an unpleasant experience dealing with the IMI staff in the past; once I signed the acceptance paper, we would be on our own and may be very helpless during the process back in homeland.

The counter staff had then called up their in charge and told us that they would returned the passport and told us that no new passport would be issued mostly and correction would be done on the pemerhatian page. I told them that I am not particular of getting a new one but at least every detail should be correct or appropriately cited. They tried to talk me off by telling me that it might take six months to get it back and I told them that we would not be travelling in the near future and as PR holder we are not worried about our resident certificate renewal.

The counter staffs had finally accepted my decision and agreed to return the passport for correction. As MAS was flying inconsistently since the beginning of the year. The mailing process would be markedly delayed due lack of flight.

We left the office with only three passports at the end; however it was an great experience to share with Yun and XX. I told them about the right attitude when dealing with such situation.

We had a great lunch at one of the classic Japanese Italino restaurant at the T city station. The curry rice was superb as we had previously tasted in Kansai. The return trip was uneventful…..

It would be another run in the future and the only thing I could do is pray to the great one.

renewal run part -3

The office was filled with people as expected. It was just like old days when we presented to da imigresen; someone will checked you papers before a number is handed out to make sure no time is wasted when you hit the counter.

I stroke the first coral during the document checking session. I did not remove the cover of yun passport when I photocopied in the house. There was this small edge printing of the cover at the edge; what the four letter word with F; I grumbled. There were total 4 documents in that condition and Yun had to do the run at the convenient store round the corner.

Form downloaded from the net was not appropriate and cannot be used !!!!!!!!!!! A chop to write the address need to be chopped at the end of the form…

So double jeopardizes; refilling the form and photocopied some of the document.

After 40min of struggle, we were finally called and luckily our photo will the mild grin were accepted….I opted for the express with a charge of NT250 each. The staff was nice enough to combine the mailing parcel and lifted the fee by half.

We walked out from the office by 11:00am and rushed back to the station to catch the 11:46am train. Xian had to rush for the class at 3pm.

We bought bento from the outlet and enjoyed a good meal. The sushi bento from the sushi shop is great and the fried pork chop bento from the railway bento shop was a must try.

I had fallen asleep soon after I finished my meal. It was truly a relief for me after worrying for the past 2 weeks. Anything could go wrong and wasted all the effort and money. It remind me 5 years ago when I presented to UTC Kuching where we just hand on our document and got the passport in 2 hours. Nothing to worry about.

Yun had gotten off at T city and we arrived at K city station on time. Xian had made it to the class and I headed home for another good nap.

It was just a temporary relief for me as I had to worry about the trip up to pick up the passport. It would be another challenge to coordinate such travel.

worst fear ever....

 

March and April were the changing point, government had started to lose grip of the Covid19 control. Quarantine period was shortened and finally the sharp curve arrived. Case broke the 1k mark and later 10k marks. Daily mortality had increase to over 100. The control center had finally announced that we should co-exist with the Covid19. People raced to buy rapid test kit as if the kit could save them from the disease. It was chaotic as load of patient had rushed into ED showing their positive rtk and queuing for PCR test. The heat was rising in our department as our designated zone was a mix of clean and dirty area. We had to don PPE to see patient in the open and later removed it to the clean zone for charting. The putting on and taking off process was the most dangerous part where you would accidentally contact with the virus during the removal process.

The fear of contracting disease had haunted most of us. There were some staffs who are very keen of being infected as they claimed that getting infected will means immunity. But most of us didn’t think so as re-infection was possible according to report. I had to sprayed and rubbed my exposure surface with alcohol before I left ED.

We had colleagues infected since the start of the biggest wave ever; one after another, our staff being isolated and it had become worst as time passed. Rosters were being revised and revised.

We believed that most of us will be infected sooner or later as the vaccine apparently is not working for the O variant. However we strived to become the last batch to be infected as no one could predict if we would be asymptomatic or not...

At the end of May, I was hit by what I fear most….

Renewal run - part 2

 

My anxiety increased over days; anything could go wrong and I just couldn’t imagine about squeezing through the agony again….

At D-1 days, I had gone through everything again after I woke up from my sleep. Everything was in order; red book, birth cert, myKAD, copies…We headed to the HSR station and have our late dinner at a Japanese food joint. To be honest, I did not enjoy the meal; my brain was all over the renewal event.

The journey to TC city was uneventful and we had checked into Kloud hotel as planned. I met Yun and help her to photocopy the final piece of document at the convenient store nearby; final stone dropped and I was able to have a nap after all those stresses. It seems that everything should be fine but yet I had started to worry about the return trip. Xian got a class to catch and we would need to get on the HSR by noon to make it happen.

I sunk in the bed and woke up after 5 hrs of blackout. I prepared myself and woke up Ving and Xian one by one. By 7am, we had gathered in front of Yun hostel and waiting for the Uber chartered car to arrive. I had been using Uber for the past few months while travelling up north. Simple interface and good service it was. I chartered a RAV4 hybrid as I was sourcing for my next car. It had been ten years since we had Fefe and it is almost time to move on. The ride was average and RAV4 would be at the bottom of the list at the moment.

We had successfully caught up the train and arrived at TP city on time.

I opted for taxi as I did not want to squeeze with other in the LRT at this Covid period.

The ride seems forever from my point of view; moment of truth and the worst is to do it again next month….

On arrival we found that the visa division had shifted to another location 700m from the mission. My fault as I did not read the instruction properly and just took for granted that the visa division is located at the same building.

It was another fast walk for us and we were almost stressed out when we arrived at the building.

The visa division was located at 12F and as expected, the office was packed with people who wished to renew their passport….

The renewal run....part 1

The renewal of passport was one of the crucial events for me every 4 years. I need to properly plan the trip so that it would not be too early or too close to the expiration date. My earliest renewal was 8 months prior to the expiration date and ended up being questioned by the officer for the reason we chosen to renew it early. The officer had told me later that they had flipped through our passport carefully just to see if I have any specific reason that I did so and they found nothing; the process had taken them more than 2 hours to do so. Those who had come later than me had picked up their passports and we were still waiting. The officer let us passed when he knew that we had planned for a travel 3 months later and was unable to return to homeland for passport renewal as the kids were schooling.

When the pandemic started, my passport was far beyond its expiration death. However as the pandemic dragged on for more than one year, I had begun to worry about my passport renewal.

Returning home and comply to the quarantine rule would take at least 30 days [14days quarantine x 2 plus 2 days for passport renewal] provided that we are lucky enough not to contract the disease during the travelling. It would not be feasible for Yun,Xian and me. I had been closely following information about how the renewal could be done at the representative office up north.

The renewal process is easier at the homeland; you just need to present yourself, relevant documents and money. Photo would be taken by the officer and woo la .. it is over. My last renewal of passport at UTC Kuching was smooth. Even in the past where photo had to be prepared by the applicant; it was simple and all you need is walk into any photo joint and tell the uncle what you want. However the photographer here was unfamiliar with the standard of photo needed for the passport renewal. I was so anxious as there would be no margin for error as there would not be any photographer around the office trying to take instant photo making fast money out of those mischief who presented with unqualified photo.

I had to coordinate between Yun, Xian and me so that we could head to the mission and settle the problem in one shot. I started the planning two months prior to the action.

I had e-mailed the mission as suggested by most of the fellow homelanders from the web with no news for over a week. I had to call up and the call was answered by a female officer. When she knew that we were coming from the south; she had squeezed me into the appointment list even though the date I asked for was full at the time I called.

An order of “no event” was given to Yun and Xian around the date I picked; I had pre-arranged my leave and everything was set. However a small disagreement had altered my plan. Yun wanted to travel up north on the day of action. I wanted to put a night at T city and proceed to the mission without rush. I had to compromise and put up a night near Yun’s place one night before the date.

So it would be home ->HSR to TC city –stay a night->HSR to TP city early in the morning. Hotel and ticket was booked after everything was finalized.

The tricky part came later….

I download the sample photo from the website and gone to the local photo studio where I been patronized for years. I had to wear a deep color shirt which was not plain in color as it was my only deep color shirt I had. The studio owner had tried to be nice and made our photo look nicer…I was quite terrified when I saw the photo; a noticeable grin was noted on the photo. It would not be feasible to retake the photo and I had to cross my finger and live with it. Ving was actually happy with it as the photo looked nice…

I photocopied all the document needed and downloaded the form from the internet. The checklist however did specifically state that the form had to be filled AT the office….

Everything seems fine and fully prepare.....  

Double tap....

 

The work in ED is always a team work and as the lead in the team, you would surely want a group of staffs with good skills and proper attitude.

I had encountered a few taps lately…

It was a busy morning when I took over the shift. A car accident with multiple victims; a few youngster rammed their car onto a big drain along the road down south.

Two were considered severe among those victims. A 18 years old girl with T- spine fracture with another young chap sustained a brain concussion.

K told me everything was done and awaiting the family to picked them up.

I took a quick glance at the CT and confirmed the T-spine fracture(yeap it was my fault for taking a QUICK GLANCE). The two victims were surrounded by other and was chit chatting while waiting for the pick-up.

I got a call 1 hrs later by the radiologist.

“Dr L, I think I saw something in the uterus of the pt chart no 123456. I think it might be a fetus”, said the radiologist. I thanked him and cursed while I reviewed the CT again. It was truly a fetal like object in it. I pushed the sonography machine to the bed-side and asked the patient again….She missed her period 2 months ago and did not tell our staff as no one had asked her. WXF, I cursed again; no one even bother to ask the menstrual period! The EP, the nurses, the radiographer; the girl had gotten pass those 3 layers of defense and got hit by a large doses of radiation…Catastrophic incident and my most fear was being walloped by the family when I broke the news to them…

The sonography confirmed my fear, shinning spine with a heart beat was shown over the screen.

I called up our gynecologist for a consult and reported the incident to the superintendent. The social worker was called for further counseling.

One of the youngster around the girl appeared to be her boyfriend. 8+9 type of youngster.

8+9 is a synonym for “eight house general”. There are youngster involved in temple activity as dancer portraying as warrior from sky. Some of the temple had served as branches for triad and these youngster would be adsorbed as minion.

I was a little bit restless while waiting for the parents to come; hopefully they don’t appear with betel nut stained tongue and tattoo.

The father came in his working suit, he appeared like a good old man with good manner. And he was what he look like...

I explained to him about the injury and told him that the CT was done under an emergency circumstances. Father was worried with his daughter injury from his look as I explained the condition to him.

I was relieved when he mumbled that even if the child is ok, they could not afford the child. I arranged referral to a medical center where a further high risk pregnancy assessment would be done. 

The social worker chatted with me later and told me that the family was financially restraint and she had left home early to work. The father claimed that they could not afford to raise the grandson. I was not happy with the ending however it was best for all including fetus…

I had followed up the case 2 months later and found that D+C was done.

It looked like a very happy ending, parents saves RM1k for the abortion, everything was taken care of; girls and boys can go back to their life.....

How the hack did it happn? It was near passing over time, everyone rushing to complete their task and no one bother to ask seems like the only explaination and yet I think it is all act of the Great One....

It was a double tap for me as my staff had sent an elderly female with renal insufficiency for enhance CT without waiting the Cr result(her condition was not ok for that); I had gotten a narrow escape without a scratch with grace from the Great One...And this double tap had made me believed more about his grace...

However the third tap was waiting for me...