More on Eryn's tooth

I thought about Eryn a lot today. It makes me wonder whether she's tolerating the pain or has the pain really gone away. She used to cry and complain of pain, but now, she doesn't feel any pain at all.

I am quite worried over the big bump on top of her gum. Though she feels fine, I can't help feeling the pain myself. Gosh, my mind is running wild.

I called many dentists today and through the phone conversations, most of them would either recommend that I keep it as it is (which is fine, if there's no complication), extract it (if it's infected) or go to see a specialist. My main purpose now would be my search for a child-friendly doctor and one who can give good advice - not one that gives me scary thoughts. Some of them don't seem child-friendly to me.

Dr Shirley Lim in PJ, Chanel's hubby's aunt, gave me some good and friendly advice over the phone. She shares my negative thoughts of root canalling (as suggested by another dentist) which can be traumatic. She suggested that extraction might be a better option if the tooth is badly infected, which may affect the growth of the new tooth in the near future. But extraction might also cause the closing of the gap, which may hinder the growth of a nice, straight set of front teeth. I'm considering letting her see Eryn's tooth and gum before deciding the next course of action.

On the other hand, I'm also considering visiting Pristine Dental. My experience with Dr Raja of Pristine branch in Hartamas is a very pleasant one when I had my two, top wisdom tooth extracted some time last year. It was basically almost stress-free and pain-free.

Rina recommended Dr Suresh at Pristine Gasing. I called them when they're about to close and the nurse, Ms Prima, was kind enough to speak to me. She did some fact-finding and was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. She mentioned that root canalling is not the option. She gave a common option done at their centre in similar cases, which is to undergo pulpotomy, under local anaesthetic, to lessen the trauma and the ordeal which might be frightening. Apparently, one of their dentists is also a specialist at U.M. Thus my confidence in them.

I'm monitoring Eryn's tooth every single day, hoping that the pain wouldn't come back and at least hope that her tooth can stay as it is for as long as possible. Well, still have to do something about that bump, which I believe is abcess in it. Yikes!

Eryn's visit to the dentist

Approximately two months ago, Eryn was jumping on the bed and and chipped off a small part of her tooth. I wrote about it here.


About one month ago, she had been complaining that her tooth is pain, each time she tries to bite on something hard. It frustrates her a lot when she can't bite into a a biscuit or a piece of hard chocolate, or a chicken drumstick.


Later, we noticed that the chipped tooth was slowly turning a darker colour. We decided to bring her to the dentist for the first time. She was very brave about it cos she says that she wants to look like a princess with nice teeth.


We took her to our family dentist which I've been going to as a little child. Dr Chin told us that her tooth is quite 'dead', thus the change in colour. He also told us that it shouldn't pose any problem. The pain was probably caused by biting on a hard food or probably the fact that infection could have set in.


Today, we took her to another dentist here as we notice that the gum above that tooth is bulging. The doctor told us the same thing - that the tooth is dead. He doesn't advise us to remove it as this may cause problem for the new tooth to grow when it comes out in about 3-4 years' time. As other teeth are growing, this may affect the gap in-between and provide limited space to the new tooth.



About two weeks back, she accidently bit on something hard with her chipped tooth and the next morning, the gum above the tooth was so swollen that her whole lips swell as well. She didn't feel any pain on her tooth and even had the cheek to joke with us, saying "My lips got a lot of meat". We all laughed at her remark as she didn't know the reason for the swelling. By night, the swelling was totally gone.

Lately, she's not been complaining of any pain. I can only pray that we do not have to bring her to a paediatric dentist for root canalling to maintain her tooth till it reaches maturity in 3-4 years' time.

Oh, my poor little girl.

'Health attack'

What? Melamine in 17 biscuit products in Malaysia?! What's next?

Oh well, no wonder health problems are growing at an alarming rate. With pollution, processed food, unhealthy lifestyles, work stress, superficial diets, chemicals in our bodies and all, how can a person not face with health problems?

I know of many women who have problem conceiving due to the food they eat and their lifestyle. I know of a young woman who contracted lung cancer even though she doesn't smoke. I know kids with health problems. I believe all of us know of someone who has serious health problem in one way or another.

Based on some information I gathered sometime last year, I found the following :

• medical inflation is rising at 15% per annum
• the 3 giant killers are - cancer, heart attack and stroke
• 1 in 3 Malaysians age 30 and above suffer from hypertension!
• Only 6 out of 100 peple have their blood pressure under control
• 10,000 deaths a year linked to stroke, heart attack and kidney failure
• 6,000 deaths a year due to heart disease
• 3 million have high cholesterol, which lead to the above stroke, heart problem, etc.
• 25% of malaysian are overweight, and for obesity, we're no. 1 in Asia.

The numbers might vary, but the truth is that most people are pretyt much ignorant about all these. We know the importance, but do we really take heed?

Yikes! .... and I'm going for a Raya open house tonight, makan session tomorrow, Deepavali open house on Monday and dinner on Monday night... Time to exercise...... zzzzzz

Brendan is 5!

Brendan is 5 day! I brought a small cake and some sweets, chocs and jelly to the principal to celebrate it during his morning tea break together with his classmates and teachers.

Brendan is quite cool about it and didn't even ask me for a present. We intend to give him a small surprise family celebration on Sunday. I am actually quite glad that he's really quite humble not to ask for anything at all. He was more than happy to have the tons of birthday wishes from his kong-kong, poh-poh, his favourite uncle and auntie (my siblings) and of course the 2 birthday cakes he had today - one in school and a special one made by the nanny.

I almost bought another one just now, but decided that he would be feeling very 'jelak' after all those cakes.

My boy is five. It just seems like yesterday when I carried him as a little baby in my arms.....

Credits here

Kluang food galore

Each time I go back to my parents' place, my dad will cook lots of food for us. Mum will make kaya for us and boil us soup and dessert, while dad takes care of the meals for lunch and dinner which is always so yummy and fulfilling. There's always different sort of dishes each time we go back home - from something simple like chicken porridge which taste really yummy or mee hoon soup with lots of 'liao' (ingredients), to food with more requires more preperation and effort like curry fish, home-made otak-otak, mixed vegs with all sort of 'liao' and others. Home-cooked food always taste yummy.

In our recent visit back to Kluang, hubby and I, with the kids tagging along, went for more by going on a makan spree! Before lunch and in-between meals, we'll be eating in Kluang's yummy favourites. Lots of Singaporeans make a trip down to various towns in Johor, such as little Kluang, just to do some grocery shopping as well as to makan and makan and makan. Hubby is just like that - makan, makan, makan...

Hubby's favourite place would be a stall in an old hawker area, called the Botak Curry, an old-time favourite. Served with spicy home-made chilli, cooked till perfect, hubby will never fail to visit this place each time he goes back to my kampung. So, off we went to our favourite Botak Curry stall.

Dad also introduced us to another curry mee stall somewhere towards the Nyior town which also serves very nice curry mee! So, it was 2 different yummy curry mee for me over one weekend visit.

Well, there's more... We also had beef noodle at the Tong Jiat Beef Noodle shop, which is also one of my favourite, and Beef Noodle at this place in Kluang Baru which we call Beef Ball Lai. There's another beef noodle in Kluang which served it dry and with peanuts in it, but nothing beats the Tong Jiat beef ball noodle which is filled with lots of 'liao'.

The kids have developed a liking for the beef noodle and can actually finish a bowl each, though nothing beats the kong-kong and poh-poh's cooking and their all time butter and kaya bun at the Kluang Rail Coffee located at Kluang's railway station.

When dad doesn't cook, we'll head to a restaurant which serves really nice food with extremely reasonable price. Can't remember the place though but it's located somewhere in Kluang Baru.

Gosh, now I'm craving for the Botak curry mee and the 'gu-bak' mee (beef noodle).

Kluang Botak curry noodles



Tong Jiat famous beef noodles from Tangkak.

Kluang Rail Coffee

Brendan loves kaya. In our recent trip back to Kluang, we took the kids to the Kluang railway station one of the morning to have breakfast as well as to take the kids to see the train.

The kids have eaten a hearty breakfast at kong-kong and poh-poh's place but wanted to tag along to see the KTM train. We ended up ordering toast buns after toast buns as Brendan and Eryn loved them so much and ate two toast buns each!!

Hubby and I settled for the usual nasi lemak, 'kopi' (coffee), half boiled eggs and toast buns.

Teambuilding!

Last weekend, I joined this group of young and vibrant people for a teambuilding session in PD. They're so dynamic that I feel old.

The sessions were just wonderful. The programme moderators were Shankar Santhiram, Dr Susanna Brida-Hofherr and Andy Gerald Ho from the EQ Training & Development team.

Shankar and his team developed a superb programme, infusing their workplace experiences, leadership and management experiences plus wisdom gained from experts like Bob Proctor, Stephen Covey, Napoleon Hill, Anthony Robbins, Robin Sharma, Alvin Toffler and more.

It's simply one of the best teambuilding sessions I've ever been, but it's quite heavily scheduled and hetic. The many indoor discussion and outdoor activites, comprising of heavy-duty stuffs and light and fun moments really require tons of stamina, lots of thinking, participation, etc.. the real teambuilding stuffs!

On Saturday night, the whole group went for night trekking in the Tanjung Tuan (Melaka border) for approximately 3 hours, starting at 9:30pm. It was a unique experience, but one that I would forego if given the opportunity again. We were to go without torchlights, but some had terror but everyone managed to go through the trekking as a team. We had a long walk in the forest reserve, to the beach, back to the 'jungle', up to the beautiful lighthouse and back to the hotel.

It's just too tiring for me and having to only come back to our hotel at pass midnight, and having to get up at 7am the next morning only added to the lethargic body and mind that I was facing. haha

Sunday morning was even more challenging. After the tiring and long night trekking, we were required, as a team, to build a raft from zero, using bamboos and four empty drums to be used as floaters. That was actually quite fun, just like a scene from survivor.

Everyone was just tired from the whole process but I'd say it's definitely an experience to remember.

Someone collapsed in front of me!

I'm feeling very tired right now, but I can't go to sleep. I keep thinking of that man that passed out right in front of my eyes.

I drove all the way from Johor to KL today. Hubby was tired, so I offered to drive. We had gone back to my hometown for the long Raya break. It was raining quite heavily on the highway and traffic was heavy too.

By the time we arrived KL, it was dinner time. Halfway through dinner, I noticed a man who walked towards our table in a drunkard way. I was observing him and saw that his face were red and his eyes were rolling and I thought that he was going to knock into our table and start vomitting on us.

*PLOP!* That man fell onto our table, knocked his head and collapsed. He lay on the floor under our table. My hubby, kids and I were extremely shocked! Everyone one were looking and I just didn't know what to do! His family members came over to him and suddenly, he just got up and stood up, took out his glasses, walked to his table and continued having his dinner with his family members all staring at him, and at us. He was totally ok after that. The waitress mentioned to us that he said he didn't know what happened cos when he opened his eyes, he realised he was lying on the floor under our table!!

Everyone was blurred as to what suddenly happened. It could be low blood pressure or a sign of more serious health problem to come for the man.. It's the first time I come across such a case like this. I happened to watch an episode on Grey's Anatomy of an elderly man who have the symptom of passing out and sitting up straight just after a few seconds. Can't really remember what's the condition called.

Here I am, wondering and thinking about life, once again. I thought someone died in front of me. It was scary. Life is just unpredictable sometimes. I've been taking my health for granted. I'd better start exercising.