My Bible

This is my 'bible' during my pregnancy. I discovered it when I was in week-7, in Kinokuniya when I followed my husband for his business trip to Singapore. However, I didn't buy it with Singapore dollar. A week later, I got it from Popular at The Curve, Mutiara Damansara. Its price was RM49.95 and Popular card holder entitled additional 10% discount.

It is full of details, explains your body changes from week to week, easy to read and most importantly FUN to read. I highly recommend this book to all expecting mothers.   

The Little Red Book

Some of my friends told me if you get yourself registered with the government health centre (Pusat Kesihatan) at your area , you will be entitled free monthly maternity check-up and more importantly, your baby will enjoy free injection throughout his/her childhood in the future. You just need to flag the 'red book' at the registration counter every time you do your check-up. The red book is a book that recorded all your medical records about your previous visits.

Many of us hold negative perception about the services offered by government hospitals and clinics.We think that the nurses are rude, the doctors are inexperience, the hygiene level is low and the queue is long.  The only good point is the charges is low.  Thus, many of us, especially those who can afford above middle class lifestyle, don't even bother to consider visiting government health care institutions when in need, even though that is one of the basic citizen welfares that the government invested millions of dollars to maintain annually. All Malaysian that hold a valid identity card are entitled to enjoy this welfare. However, most of the tax payers choose to let go their right. Instead, they spend more money to visit private clinics or hospitals for better treatment. Sorry to say that, I was one of them.

I decided to apply for the 'red book' after I had a conversation with one of my friends, whose husband is an eye specialist in a government hospital. According to her, both her son enjoy free injections by the government. They never paid a cent to get the jabs. However, she honestly told me that she delivered both her sons in the private hospitals. The reason being if you choose to deliver in the government hospital you will never know which doctor will deliver your baby as it depends on which doctor is on duty during your delivery date. Also, in most cases labour is done by experienced nurses instead of certified doctors. I do not know how true is this. I just know that all my family members objected when I 'tested' them by saying:" How about having me deliver the baby in the government hospital?"

When I was in week 17, I visited Pusat Kesihatan Taman Ehsan to apply for the red book. This is the nearest government health care centre from my house even though it is really not that near. Bringing along our marriage certificate, electric and water bill (to prove that we stay in the right district in order for me to visit this particular health care centre), my husband and I arrived at the health centre at 8am on a Wednesday (new registration only opens every Wednesday).

Pusat Kesihatan Taman Ehsan

Upon arrival, I was shocked by the number of the crowd. There were so many pregnant ladies, infants and their family members of all races.

The waiting hall

After submitted my details to a nurse at the reception counter, I was ordered to weigh myself and measure my height at the weighing corner. Yes, this is completely a D.I.Y system, either you weigh yourself and remember all the readings or you can ask your companion to help you.

After that, I was directed to provide urine sample for glucose test. So how to do this by yourself?   Firstly, go to the rack in the toilet, pick up an empty bottle with number written on it, provide your own sample, put the bottle back into the rack and then remember the number on the bottle. Honestly, I was quite amuzed by the system as it reminded me my secondary school time where we got the chance to organize all kind of science experiments in the lab.

What I did next was waiting, waiting and waiting. My husband had to leave me alone by 10:00am as he had a meeting to attend. I didn't dare to leave my seat because I knew that I would lose it immediately I stood up. I was given a queue number, but at the same time names were being called by nurse too. The waiting hall was crowded and noisy, filled with the chattering sound of the patients, the cries and giggling sound of the kids....And in the midst, we have to pay attention to the nurse whenever they call a patient's name. There was no public announcement system, you had to open your ears and pay attention. I was confused. Should I just look at the number showed on the electronic display board or listen to the names being called?

By 10:30am, I heard my name being called. I woke up from day dreaming and quickly walked to the nurse, who was stationed at a table. I was welcomed with a smile, a very sincere one. She asked about my medical background and jotted down my weight and height before measuring my blood pressure. Next, she asked if anyone had tested my urine earlier that morning? I said no.

It gave me a shock when she suddenly stood up and raised her voice at the crowd:" Siapa yang belum uji kencing, sekarang ikut saya pergi toilet!( Whoever has not tested her urine now follow me to the toilet!)" 

Upon her announcement, about 10 pregnant ladies made their way to the toilet to take their own urine specimen and began to queue up in front of that nurse. I was so worried if someone had mistakenly took my bottle. Luckily this did not happen. One by one, the nurse put in the diabetes test strip into our bottles to observe if there was any colour changes on the strip.

After that, I was asked to wait for my turn to do the blood test. It was another 30 minutes aimless wait before my name was called again. I was led to a room where my blood specimen was taken. Then, the nurse passed me the test tube filled with my blood sample. I learned that I had to bring my own blood sample to the laboratory, which was housed at the same building. I only waited for less than 10 minutes, before the lab assistant passed me my blood test report. That was a test for HIV, STD and hemoglobin level.



The counter of the blood test laboratory



With the blood test report, I went back to the nurse at the blood test station. She explained the result to me and asked me to wait for my turn to see the doctor. By then, I knew that when the electronic board showed my number, that would be my turn to see the doctor in the consultation room. 

Finally, I was in the doctor's room after 30 minutes. She was very young, but friendly and caring. After reading the report in my red book, she performed an ultrasound to check the condition on my baby. The ultrasound image was printed out on the spot and then stapled in my red book. 

I felt relieved after seeing the doctor and thought I can go to work finally. However, I was told that I had to go back to the waiting hall to wait for my turn to see the nurse. It took another 15 minutes before my turn. The nurse set the date and time of my next check-up in the system. Sje also convinced me that the next check-up would not take so long as they already have all my details. The date and time of a compulsory dental check-up session was also set as this was one of the requirement that I need to fulfilled if I chose to give birth in the government hospital in the later stage. Another requirement was to attend at least 2 sessions of breast feeding training, organized by the same health care centre. 

I was also given one month supply of multi vitamin, floic acid, vitamin C, and iron supplement. I asked how much and where should I make the payment before I leave. The nurse smiled and told me that I do not need to pay anything, just remember to take my supplement accordingly.

A week later, I came back to the same place for my dental check-up. The waiting time was 30 minutes. I got my tooth filled (it was painless!) and again it was free of charge.

Despite the toilets are not sparking clean and the place is a bit crowded, overall, the nursing staffs were very friendly and informative. If you do not mind to spend a morning or an afternoon each month for your routine pre-natal check-up, government health care centre is actually not a bad choice, if your pregnancy is not a complicated one. At least get a red book, leave a record in the system, so that you can send your kid for free jabs in the future, if you want to. 

My red book (personal details has been deleted for privacy purposes)

P/S: I have not decided if I will be going for my next appointment at the government health care centre as I will be seeing my doctor in the private hospital too. The purpose of my first visit is to get the red book and leave a record in the system. I have decided to deliver my baby in the private hospital.    

My new gynae, where and who?

I have to bid farewell with Dr. Prashant after I 'graduated' from my 1st trimester.  If given a choice, I would like to continue to be under his care, but since he does not deliver baby anymore ( he has chosen to concentrate solely on treating infertility since the past few years), I have to be 'deported' to another gynae.

Where to go and who to choose? After a few round of discussion with my husband, we chose to seek a gynae in Damansara Specialist Centre (DSC) due to its proximity from where we stay. Hence, after seeking Dr. Prashant's opinion, he wrote me a referral letter so I can start to visit Dr. Gunasegaran begining from week 16.

After gathered some information from the internet, I found Dr. Guna was a highly sought after gynae, even celebrity like Erra Fazira delivered her baby under Dr. Guna. Due to this, I was a bit worried about the long queue and probably his pricey consultation fees. But, why worry? Let's find out first.

In week-16, I made an appointment with Dr. Guna's clinic. I was told by the nurse to be there by 10am, but she also reminded me that it did not mean that I can see the doctor at 10am. Waiting is a norm in Dr. Guna's clinic.

My husband and my mother accompanied me for that visit. We reached DSC at 9:30am. The clinic was very crowded, easily there were 15 patients plus their family members were waiting for their turn. The nurse told me to wait (but couldn't estimate how long) because the doctor was in the labour room.

By 10:15am, the doctor was not back yet, so we decided to go to a nearby shopping mall to kill some time. The nurse looked relieved when I told her so and informed me to come back at 12pm.

By 11:20am, I received a call from the nurse who asked me to come back immediately because according to her I would be the last patient and the doctor was waiting for me before he went up to the OT room to attend a caesarean case.

By 11:30am, my mother and I rushed back to the clinic, while my husband went round to search for a parking space at the crowded hospital. I was panting as we ran all the way from the hospital lobby to the clinic. The nurse was glad to see me and told me that it would be my turn soon after the patient in the room came out.

2 minutes later, my mum and I were ushered into the consultation room to meet Dr. Guna. He was kind and patient, that kind of doctor that can give you confidence. After a brief chat about my medical history, we proceeded to perform the ultrasound without my husband. I prayed hard, hoping that my husband would rush in in time to see the baby as I knew how much he had looked forward to each session of ultrasound.

The scan was already half way through when my husband finally joint us. Luckily, the baby welcomed the father by showing some amazing stretching of his/her legs. Both my mum and husband couldn't stop laughing when they saw the baby's naugthy gesture. I enjoyed the session too but was having some hard time turning my head 90 degree to the left at all time to look at the monitor, that was placed just next to the bed. I missed the monitor in Dr. Prashant's clinic as the monitor was placed on top of the patient, we just need to look up straight.

Dr. Guna confirmed that the baby was doing good and my pregnancy was stable. We were relieved by his comment. However, the gender of the baby still couldn't be confirmed due to his/her position. We were totally ok with either boy or girl, looking at how long we have waited for his/her arrival.
The whole consultation session took less than 10 minutes. We proceeded to the cashier counter after that. The total fees was RM335, with the breakdown as listed below.

Medical Record Service          RM     5
Consultation                                 RM 180
Ultrasound (no picture given)   RM  150

Honestly, I was a bit shocked by the charges as it was a bit at the high side to us. There was no medication prescribed nor ultrasound picture given. My husband jokingly said that I was 'spoilt' by Dr. Prashant because we were given the ultrasound pictures everytime, without us asking for it. In fact, I went back to Dr. Guna's clinic after the payment to ask for the ultrasound picture (even though both my mum and husband told me not to sweat the small stuff ). Unfortunately the nurse said they will not give the picture if the patient did not request. Thus, the picture was not even saved in the computer hard disk. She reminded me to remember to express my request to the doctor before the ultrasoud next time.

No doubt, Dr. Guna is a good doctor and his vast experience could not be measured by money. However, we reckon that we should start saving some money for the baby's future. Decision was made to look for another gynae and for this we went back to Dr. Prashant for another referral letter.

This time, we were recommended to see Dr. Paul Ng in Pantai Hospital Bangsar. According to some reviews, his queue is shorter (hence very suitable for working woman like me) and his charges is 1/3 of Dr. Guna's.

I will find out more and update my experience when I see Dr. Paul Ng for the first time in week-20. If you have any experience with him, please share it with me. Thank you!

Weird Early Pregnancy Symptoms

Morning sickness? No, I do not have it. 

I have evening sickness instead.

From week 6 (when my baby 1st heart beat was detected) to the end of week 7, I still did not quite believe that I was pregnant. Other than having more vaginal discharge and having extremely tender breasts, I did not vomit nor experiencing other usual pregnancy symptoms as what have been illustrated in the pregnancy books. While I thought I inherited the good genes from my mother, who claimed that she did not vomit even once when she bore all her 3 daughters, the 'never say never' curse began.  

Starting from week 8, I began to vomit almost everyday, after sunset. So, I have evening sickness instead of morning sickness. In fact, on weekends, I would vomit throughout the day.

The good thing of having evening sickness during the weekdays was my colleagues did not know that I was pregnant. So, I effortlessly kept my promise to my mother and mother-in-law of not to break the news before I successfully sailed through my 1st trimester. Instead, due to the symptoms of vomiting, extremely lack of appetite and having difficulty sleeping at night,  I had lost 2 kg in 2 weeks. Some of my colleagues even asked me tips on losing weight. This was the answer that I wished I could answer them. ' Be pregnant, that is the best way to slim down'.

Every meal time was a tortura session. I wanted to throw up whenever I saw food, especially meat and seafood. I hate food, but I have to eat something. I survived by taking frequent small meals of Jacob cream cracker, materna milk, corn, tofu, veggie and a bit of white rice. I also stopped cooking our own dinner (which I used to enjoy very much) for 3 months because I couldn't stand the smell of oil. Unfortunately, the auntie staying 2 stories below my apartment prepared fried dishes everyday, without fail.  I suffered so much and had to close all the windows in my house whenever the smell of oil began to sip into my unit. 

I even stopped reading printed newspaper because I would vomit everytime I opened the pages and the smell of printing ink hit me. Thus, I rely heavily on online-news and TV to know what was going on in the world. The only plus point about this was I saved some money and help saving the Earth for not buying printed newspaper until today.

Also, I constantly smelt gas in the kitchen, so forcing my husband to check on the gas tank and the stove to see if there is any gas leakage. He checked several times and found everything was in order. He finally gave up and officially labelled me as 'Dog Nose' . Yes, my nose became so sensitive to an extent that I could smell cigarettes if there was someone smoking within 50-meter radius from me. My husband was also forced to shower extra frequently ( up to 3 times a day), so that I will not reject his hugs. Of course, he was also prohibited to use his usual perfume.

Another changes was my scalp became extremly oily. I couldn't even bear with myself if I do not wash my hair on daily basis. To make my life easier, I cut my thick waist-length hair to shoulder-length shortly after.

I was patiently waiting for week-12, because most of the pregnancy books say that nausea and vomiting will normally ease when the pregnancy reaches week-12.

Week-12 finally arrived but I wasn't that lucky, I continued vomiting until week-15. Before that, I went through all the vomiting session with a sense of gratitude. I knew the arrival of this baby was a miracle, so I am willing to endure all kinds of early pregnancy symptoms.

But on a night in week-15, I couldn't cope anymore and burst into tears while both my arms were still hugging the toilet bowl. Negative feelings flooded in. Why I have to suffer so much? When can it stop? Why baby you tortures mummy like that?.....My poor husband, who squatted next to me looked so helpless. There was nothing he could do to mitigate my sufferings except quietly patting my back.  Luckily, after a few seconds, I calmed myself down, wiped off my tears and told myself that I am a strong lady, nothing could put me down!

That night, for the 1st time, my husband took his 1st attempt to talk to our baby. He softly rub my stomach and told the baby to be a good kid, do not make mummy vomit anymore. I did not know was this an effective method or not, but miracuously I really stopped vomiting a few days later. Touch wood!

Today is week-17, I have been ' vomit-free' for almost 2 weeks. My appetite is also starting to recover. I can finish a proper meal without much struggle now. In fact, the usual sense of 'hunger' that have been missing for almost 4 months is back now.

Thank you baby, for being so considerate. You are a good kid!



Picture source: http://www.coompax.com/



An Angel knocks my door?!

Dear friends,

I am finally back. Sorry for keeping you guys waiting for so long. As what I have mentioned in my earlier post, much had happened in my life in the past few months, but I have sailed through safely, by having huge sense of gratitude to everything that comes to my life.

Since the last post about my treatment progress was written on Aug 18, if you have time to follow my story I shall continue to recap my jouuney from Aug 19.

Aug 19 was a of day miracle. It was a normal afternoon, when I visited Dr. Prashant's clinic to request for some Duphaston to stimulate my mentrual cycle, having said that I was experiencing severe PMS symtoms for already more than 2 weeks.

Dr. Prashant suggested a UPT test before prescribed me with the medication. I complied although I told him I have done one a week ago at home and the result was as usual, negative. I then went to the toilet to provide some specimen while the doctor continue to see other patients.

After 20 mins, my name was called again and I went in to see the Doctor, with nurse W standing beside him.

The doctor passed me the UPT kit and said:"Take this home and frame it up."

I didn't get what he mean, but took over the UPT kit to have a look. OMG, that was the first 2-line diagram that I have ever seen in so many previous UPT since I got married almost 5 years ago!

I couldn't believe my own eyes and started to ask stupid questions: "How come? What does this mean?"

Dr. Prashant:" The urine test shows that you are pregnant, but to confirm further I will send you to do a blood test at level 4."

"OK, but when and how does this happen?" I was still stunned.

" Well, we never know but miracles happen everyday, you don't know when it will come to you." The doctor tried to calm me down.

"However, let's wait for the blood test, if it is positive, we also have to wait for the 1st heart beat, probably in 2 weeks time, to confirm that you are really pregnant. If that is the case, we will take care of you until you pass your 1st trimester before we send you to the gynae of your choice......." Doctor continued to explain the details to me and for what I could remember, nurses congratulated me, but I was like floating in the sky, couldn't believe the news. I got pregnant, naturally! This was certainly too far out from my expectation. I was waiting for the post-IUI cyst to ease and cracking my head to schedule the 2nd IUI amidst of my hectic schedule.

Next, I proceeded to 'float' to level 4 for the blood test. The nurse had a hard time to find my vein even though they had to spend like 20 minutes to 'bend' and 'pat' my arms. I ended up giving way to a patient who came shortly after me. But nothing matters anymore, I was on the cloud nine!

After my blood sample was taken, I went for a meeting at a client's office. Half way through the meeting, I received a call from nurse H who confirmed the blood test result as positive. I thanked her and ended the call without saying much. My heart was fluorishing, my mind was filled with the most beautiful thoughts in life.

After the meeting, one of my co-worker come to me, wanted to know what brand of skin care that I was using because she said my skin was glowing. I wanted to answer her 'baby dust' , but instead I held back and told her I was just using some normal moisturiser that she can easily purchase from the open shelves of many personal stores in the market.

On my way home, I called my mum to tell her the news, she was shocked too but quickly warned me to stay calm and take things easy until the heart beat of the embryo was detected. She also warned me not to tell anyone about the pregnancy until  after I have sailed through the 1st trimester.

In the evening, when my husband was home I did not have a clue on how to reveal the news to him. As usual, we chatted on some other matters and he suddenly remembered that I went to see Doctor Prashant on that day. As I myself was still in the state of shock, I murmured when I answered him. I told him that doctor needed to check the heart beat after 2 weeks.......He was confused and asked if I have any problem with my heart. I finally stammered out the details and he managed to get what I meant. He was overwhelmed and I could almost see his head hitting the ceiling as he jumped up with joy.

The news reached my in-laws after 2 weeks when the baby's heart beat was detected (the embryo was 6 weeks old by then). As per my mother-in-law's order, we have to keep the news in secret until after I am in 12 weeks. So, other than my husband and me, only my mum and my in-laws knew that I am pregnant. Now, I am in week 16. So, I guess I am given the 'permit' to make this public to you, my dear readers.

I was wishing for an angel and out of the blue, an angel knocked my door. I opened the door and welcomed him/her with gratitude. Thank you everyone and everything in this universe that had made my dream of becoming a mother come true.

If you are challenged by PCOS like me, do not ever give up hope on having baby. Be positive, love yourself, take good care of your physical and mental health and most importantly, have regular intimate sex with your spouse. You never know when you will hit the jackpot. In addition, it is always a good suggestion to have an experienced and patient infertility expert like Dr. Prashant to guide you through the journey.