I'm back...and will try to be here more often. It's been a while and almost to a year from my last journal post.
A lot has happened but the most significant event was my mother passing away on 4th January 2016.
It's hard when someone so dear moves to eternity. Its hard when you look back, you realised that physically, she's no longer there, even though mentally, she left us 6 years ago.
Mom became frail towards the last half year of 2015. Some small illness crept in, stayed for a while and cleared. She started eating lesser and lesser each time it was my duty to feed her dinner on the helper's day off. She slept more....was talking lesser. Her feet swelled to the point that they looked like air pillows. Her blood started clotting on certain parts of her body, a condition called deep vein thrombosis (DVT). This happens when a body is not active. And if left untreated, will be fatal.
She didn't suffer. She was in no pain. Even if she was, it would be hard to know as she couldn't tell. But till the end of her life, she was the best patient any caregiver would be proud of.
Thinking of her still makes me tear. So I will write more about mom in another journal entry.
Jonathan has been doing great. One big discovery I made was his retching issue.
It was something that our family doctor brought up. Yet it didn't dawn on me until a few months back.
Whenever Jonathan has a cold or stuffy nose, it will always drain backwards because he is usually lying down. Then he will start gagging and retch and then there will be full blown vomiting that goes throughout the night. And this happened a few times until we were introduced to Promathazine by StarPal doctor. But still the condition will persist whenever he fell sick. Until one day, I felt that I should give him the cough mixture whenever I see him gag. And that was a miracle cure!
You see....our family doctor said to me once when we brought Jonathan to the clinic. He said, "I feel the vomiting is caused by his gag reflex." Of which I didn't think it was the cause then. And we will always wonder why the vomiting doesn't stop even though we administer the anti-vomit suppository or medicine.
It didn't occur to me then. But one day it rang in my head like a eureka lightbulb flashing. So now, each time I see him gagging and starting to retch, I will give him a dose of the cough mixture. That stopped the coughing, resulting in the ceasing of gagging and retching and viola! No more vomiting!
It did take me a long time to realise that Dhasedyl (cough mixture) was the answer to all this vomiting issues. So it WAS the gag reflex that was causing it! From then on, whenever signs of cold appear, he gets the cold and cough medicine and immediately he will feel fine.
I'm thankful for this discovery!
Well....Jonathan is now 19.5 years old. There are new issues I have to deal with and I'm dragging my feet. Ever since the last dental appointment and GA cleaning, he has refused to go to the dental center for checkup and he does need a cleaning now. Then there's this issue about changing primary medical care. He's been given an open date at KK. I will have to check about having a transfer to an adult hospital. And also his dietitian and changing the PEG button too! Then there is this Power of Attorney matter that i have to sort out too.
Sigh.....
All these matters will be journaled along the way.
As for myself, I have started to crochet again! It's a skill I picked up when I was 10 years old (another story to tell). Tshirt printing is a little slow these days (as there has been a surge of tshirt printers offering lower prices lately!!!). I hope to be able to do something more with my tshirt printing. So if you need any, please give me an email.
I will show you some of the yarn caps I crocheted soon.
Hope to find my visitors here well.
It's good to be able to journal again. God bless you all!
