Heart Infection a.k.a Infective Endocarditis

This must have been the 3rd time I'm hospitalized in my life and I definitely hope it's the last time. This is also the longest time I've been hospitalized and guess what? I still have 2 weeks to go. 

It all started with me feeling tired and getting chills every night. Little did I know that these were the symptoms of infective endocarditis or more commonly known as a heart infection. For those of you guys who don't know, I was born with a congenital heart problem. 

I have a bicuspid valve which means that one of the valves in my heart, namely the aortic valve has only two flaps instead of three in a normal person. So instead of having the Mercedes looking valve, I only have a pathetic looking two flap valve. 

For people like me, I'm much more prone to infections in my heart, especially on my valves. I would have never thought that this would happen to me just cause of several episodes of fever and chills. The greatest worry was that I lost all my appetite and almost became anorexic. I lost a whopping 10kg in a month and that was when the red light came up and after the non stop nagging from Petrine I finally got to see a doctor.

 So I was admitted and they found out that there was some bacteria that had formed a vegetation on my valve and it was almost half the size of my valve. A normal valve is about 2cm and my vegetation was almost 1cm. 

Luckily that wasn't a clear cut sign for immediate surgery but surgery is probably required in the later parts of my life. I really don't want to go through another surgery because ultimately the risks are pretty high and I'd have to be on life-long medication once I'm operated on. 

As of now, I'm going to be on 4 weeks on inpatient antibiotics which meant that I'll have to be hospitalized for 4 weeks and the doctors will have to take things from there. I'm pretty glad for Petrine who visits me religiously bringing me the best food that I could ever ask for. 

Of course not forgetting some of my friends who have visited me as well. I only got to snap a picture with Raphael and Calvin though. 

Other than the 4 hourly anti biotics, I'm pretty much fine. For you guys who are intending to visit me, I would urge you not to because the hospital is full of germs and it's really bad if you have a low immunity system. I appreciate all the get-well-soon texts and I hope to get well soon too. It's a good break from the mundane working life but it's not the kind of break I would like to have. 

Christmas

Merry Christmas! This year I had the utmost honor of dining with ladyironchef and a restaurant of all his fans for the launch of Pizza Hut's new Christmas Special. As most of you probably know, I'm a huge fan of ladyironchef and I read his blog like a bible when it comes to searching for good food.

We had such a sumptuous meal that night and it did surprised me that Pizza Hut doesn't not only serve wonderful Pizzas, all the other dishes was fabulous. The Truffle Mushroom Baked Pasta deserved special mention because it was absolutely the best baked pasta I've ever tried. I've always loved mushrooms and this particular pasta made me love mushrooms even more. 

So in the midst of all the food tasting, there was a pizza making competition as well. This is my first time going for a ladyironchef event and I really thought much effort was put in to make the event interesting. 

Totally regretted not volunteering to go up because the two participants managed to bring home what they made and it was just so awesome. There was also a mini instagram contest as well and the best picture for the pizza wins. Check out our version, we tried to make it interesting. 

Well apparently it was quite fail because we tried to make it look like the girl is looking at the pizza. The event couldn't have been better because I managed to snap a photo with ladyironchef and his girlfriend. 

All is well when you get to take pictures with your all time favourite food blogger! Of course not forgetting my girlfriend who accompanied me and tolerated all my fanboy-ing. 

That pretty much sums up my Christmas dinner with ladyironchef. 

Special dedication to all my AOS as well for this Christmas! Merry Christmas! I hope the ink doesn't smudge anytime soon!

Not forgetting the designer of my mug and the best companion for life. The only girl I want to protect over anything else. 

Day 23

Hey guys, it's like day 23 after my surgery. I'm feeling much better now and most of the swelling has already gone down. I took out all my stitches and plastic molds two days ago but I'll still have to wear bands to keep my bite in place.

It's really irritating because I'm officially able to eat now but I can't really open my mouth. 

That's about how big I can open my mouth now. I remember being able to open my mouth really wide before surgery but I guess that's all gone right now. My girlfriend says I'm being too impatient and I think I am but I just can't wait to open my mouth and stretch. It's really weird cause I still have some difficulty talking or maybe I'm just now used to it yet.

It feels really weird to bite into food now and I'm going to have to learn how to chew all over again. I make such a big mess over every meal now leaving food traces all over my mouth and chin and I can't feel them cause they're numb. One good thing is I bring my tiny toothbrush everywhere I go now so I can just brush off the leftover food particles.

That's all folks, I'm really hoping I can stretch my jaw muscles before I go back to camp next week. It sucks to yawn without being able to open your mouth fully.

Day 12

Hello guys, it's day 12 post surgery and here's and update on my recovery process. As you can see from the photo above, my swelling has gone down significantly but it seems like my right side is more swollen than my left. It's kinda weird to have an imbalanced face but I'm sure nature will work to bring my face back to normal soon.

I'm going to get more bands removed tomorrow so that means I'll be off the liquid diet! I can't wait to start eating real solid food. It sucks to drink soup everyday especially porridge water that my grandma cooks. It's basically tasteless and gross cause it feels like you're drinking plain water with oil. However my grandma goes on and on about the expensive fishes she used to cook the porridge with. Let's just hope I'll be able to eat the porridge instead of just drinking the water from tomorrow onwards.

So in case you guys didn't see my swollen face right after surgery, here it is! I remember the oxygen tube being my best friend cause it helped me to breathe so much better and it was a pity to let it go. 

My girlfriend says I look like a secondary 4 boy now, do I? I think I look younger and puffier than before. Not exactly sure if it's a good thing but the final result will be in 6 months time. I think my swelling will only go down slowly from now on cause most of the swelling is gone. 

Liquid Food

Hello guys, it's finally post op day 7! It also means I've been surviving on liquid food for a week already. It really sucks to be on a liquid food diet. For the first 5 days I had to inject the highly nutritious milk into the back of my mouth and then swallow. It's quite weird to be tube feeding myself everyday but I quickly got used to it.

So that's my trusty can of milk and my first ever food since surgery. It's really sweet and it tastes a lot like protein shakes. On my first day I felt super full only after drinking a few syringefuls. But as the days go pass, one can was never enough. So I started drinking two cans a day. However I only bought 24 cans and it was supposedly to last me for 2 weeks. This milk shit is expensive!

So other than drinking milk and soups, I go around sniffing people's food. Especially Petrine's double down today! Some people would say that she's torturing me but I wouldn't think so. Smelling the food actually helps me to imagine I'm eating it. In fact, imagination helped a lot during the first few days of surgery cause I thought of drinking gong cha, eating ice cream and everything else.

In case you're going to adopt a liquid diet like me, here's a list of liquid foods for you to try.

• Milk (or Soy Milk)
• Fruit Juices
• Honey water
• Soups
• Teas (or Milk Teas if you like)

Liquid diet can actually help you lose a lot of weight and that is exactly what it did to me. I lose 4kg in about a week but I don't know if that loss is permanent. I'll never volunteer to go on a liquid diet just to lose weight though. 

Bands removed

I finally got my bandages and stuff removed today and the pictures above are what happened yesterday when Petrine visited me. All thanks to her, my day went pass pretty fast and as you can see I have basically the same expression in all the pictures cause my entire face is numb and I can't really make any facial expression.

That's me today! I know I look like a fatass butcher now and trust me, this is the best picture I took. At least I look like I'm smiling, do I? I'm so glad I took some of my bands off today and I can finally open my mouth slightly. Even though I still can't eat any solid food, at least I can breathe through my mouth when I need to.

Now I just can't wait for another week to remove my bands totally and start eating normal food. I'll still have to stick to the liquid diet that I was already sick of on the first day. Luckily for me, my grandma made some soup that wasn't too bad. Felt like heaven to have something savoury when you've had sweet milk everyday for the past 6 days.

That's all guys! and now for some camwhore.

Road to recovery

Hello guys, I just got discharged from the hospital today and yes, I know my face is swollen like a pig. Or rather a hippopotamus like what Petrine said. The surgery went pretty fine until the end of the surgery when I was woken up by the nurses. It was the worst experience of my life. Almost like a near-death experience.

I had my mouth wired shut so there was no way I could breathe through my mouth and I had to breathe through my nose. The bad thing was there were lots of blood clots in my nose that made it impossible for me to breathe adequately. I got such a shock that I could't breathe properly that I jumped out of the bed and the nurses had to pin me down. It was quite embarrassing cause I was almost naked but all I could think of at that point in time was to breathe. I didn't want to die.

Luckily for me, they inserted an oxygen tube into my nose pretty quickly and that calmed me down quite a lot. In fact it was the most comforting thing ever even though it was quite uncomfortable. They also had suction tubes to suck out phlegm and saliva from my nose and mouth which made it a lot easier to breathe. I mean for someone who has always been breathing heavily through the mouth, it was quite a nuisance to take small intakes of oxygen through your nose and that kept me awake the entire night because I was afraid I would die not breathing.

Luckily I didn't. It was really welcoming to see Petrine and my mum and to be able to mime to them that I survived. Surprisingly there wasn't really much of a pain in my jaws or anything just that it's super uncomfortable. I'm unable to open my mouth so the only way I drink is to insert a syringe into my mouth and slowly swallow. It sucks pretty bad but then again I don't have much of an appetite either. The taste of the rubber bands in my mouth just turns me off. I've got like 24 cans of highly nutritious strawberry milk to last me for the next two weeks cause I won't be able to take any solid food.

I'm still waiting eagerly for Monday when I can finally remove my bands and not get my mouth wired shut. It sucks pretty bad to not be able to open your mouth. I think the swelling and numbness isn't much of an issue for me but I'd definitely want to breathe through my mouth again.

Special thanks to Jacob, Gary and Ben who came down to pay me a visit today and all the other well wishers! I'm pretty fine and I'm finally on my road to recovery!

Not to forget my mum and Petrine. <3

5 things to do with your girlfriend.

Valentine's day is coming so I though I'll just do a post about my girlfriend. My girlfriend, Petrine is the most important person to me. I spend most of my time with her than anyone else. Many people often ask me, how is it that you two are always spending time with each other and not get bored? So here are 5 things that I do with Petrine.

1) Take a walk along Singapore Flyer

I bet many of you haven't been to this little stretch of paradise. It's just right under Singapore Flyer and it's really nice when you go there at night just to enjoy the sea breeze. Besides, there are lots of food there and if you like hawker food like me, there's a food trail there just to reminisce the good old local hawker fare.

2) Buffets

Eating buffets can be an awesome date. We used to eat at least one buffet every week. Afterall, love is getting fat together. Our favorite buffet is definitely KISEKI and that's totally what we are going to eat on Valentine's day. 

3) Play games 

I don't mean asking your girlfriend to play dota with you, but of course if she does that then good for you. Both of us are avid iPhone users so most of the time we play iPhone games. The bad news is, I've never won her in any games so she has all the bragging rights. There are so many iPhone games, and we can just spend an entire day trying to beat each other's highscores. 

4) Planning overseas trips

2012 was an awesome year to go overseas for us cause we both had practically nothing to do. I was waiting for NS, she was waiting for uni. We just planned trip after trip and I would say we were pretty addicted to travelling. But of course, all the places we traveled to were just in the region. So for 2013, we're just looking forward to the end of NS before we can head out to our backpacking trip in China that we've planned for so long. 

5) Clubbing

 Many people would be so taken aback that I club with my girlfriend, alone. So it goes like this, we would pretend to be strangers at the start and then after that get to know each other. It's fun in a way you'll never expect. I mean afterall, even if you go with your friends and your girlfriend, chances are you'll be dancing with your girlfriend so it makes no difference if you just go with her alone. I don't really like the idea of going to a club without my girlfriend so most of the time I just bring her along or just go with her alone. One of the most interesting things to do with your girlfriend. (Y)

Actually I was about to do a "10 things to do with your girlfriend" but I'm too lazy to continue. There are actually a lot more things you can do with your girlfriend, take exercising for example. Thus, it's never too boring to spend everyday with your girlfriend. After all, you do want to invest your time in someone who matters and will be there your entire life. Happy early Valentine's Day everyone.