To The Bao And Beyond

BAO STORY

Apparently mention bao to any nurse in this hospital and they freak out!

All this happened because I happened to post a rather unappetizing and bland noodle post the night before that caused several of my friends to ask if I needed to be fed.

Thanks to my good friends who happened to be having dim sum somewhere near my hospital. They offered to send me bao and I wanted egg tarts. So I asked the nurses on duty if bao was ok for me to eat. 

The response – XXX! 

Bao is bad because it means that they will get busy in a bad way! At first I thought she was saying I can’t eat bao on a neutropenic diet. So later my bao arrives and it is not actually bao…it was some other dim sum with char xiu inside it. LOL! Much to reassure my nurse that there was no bao!

When I looked up this “superstition” I was amazed that it is actually in several websites. (see below)

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Take-a-bao-if-you-are-not-superstitious.-Lim-Oh/735d75eb4d48d3393f51aafc7aa7938a8e1f441d

https://api.sg/forums/topic/true-singapore-hospital-encounter/

Just an interesting insight into our medical profession I thought I’d share with you! Pretty funny but I’m sure my nurses will not find it so! I so love them! Everyone wants good days at work ya?

WINS and WINS and shhh - DISAPPOINTMENTS 

Just how big a win?

Oh wait! Happy New Year to everybody!

SO HOW DID YOU SPEND  1st JAN 2022? 

Well, I spent mine on home leave and got to spend time with the teens. But at the stroke of midnight 2022, I was having anal cream applied to my ass….no other has the same experience as me I am quite sure. I win haha.

So I figured I’d focus on counting my blessings instead of griping about how certain things are not in my control. Otherwise, you’d get bored and not wanna read what I write about! 

So like NOT focusing on why my white blood count isn’t higher than it is and a variety of things like how the arm with my central line* got an allergic reaction to all the plastering and became inflamed. Or at least that seems to be the reason. Who knows why right? 

*Central line – that’s from where they draw blood, administer the chemo, drip meds into me and other fun stuff. Crucially crucial!

Anyway, the arm started looking red, angry and oozy since New Years Day. Yes ewww and ouch! Something I never foresaw would happen because I didn’t do anything to cause it. I had been really careful and all….following protocol. So lesson number 1 – Sometimes things just happen and you have to just roll with it. In a positive way will help you more than being humbug about it.

Sometimes I feel like my body is falling apart. Along the lines of being fragile like paper…I wish I had my old gym bod back. There was a time looking good aesthetically, muscles, being able to lift weights as a girl were a matter of pride to me. Fast forward to today – I have lost significant muscle mass after chemo although I have been told that I still look toned. 

Ok let’s focus back on WINS ya. 

1.  I have a GREAT VIEW – sunrise, mid-day, sunset. And not all rooms here get this fantastic view. I bask in sunlight which I attribute as God’s love and reminder that he is here for me all the time and that he would not give me something I cannot handle.  

2.  My ART has improved by leaps and bounds this second admission and my room is looking more and more like an art gallery. It brings joy not only to me but to others who walk into my room. I take this as God given talent. Never really had formal art lessons although I had a couple of informal art lessons 6 years ago because I wanted to use art as a process in my coaching practice then. I am blessed that I have my Art Mentor Barry Yeow and others encouraging me to paint more and more this time round. More on that in another post.

3.  MY ARM is getting better and better as we speak

One day, a wound specialist came to see me and dress my wound. I call her the wound fairy. Partially because she sounds like the character from Fairly Odd Parents (a cartoon) and also because she herself said that she has a bag full of magic potions and she laughs all the time. 

It’s oddly painful and pleasurable when she cleans my wound! Makes me sound so sadistic – pain and pleasure at the same time…ahhhh! First she massages oil into my inflamed skin, then applies some cooling gel followed by some purple sealant and lastly layered by inodine patches. This must be how burn victims feel! Then my arm is securely wrapped in gauze so that my skin still can breathe! The previous dressing trapped heat within. Not good. Anyway, she has been to see me 3 times…and the inflammation has gone down somewhat. My skin is still red but less angry than before. *Inflamed Arm 1st Jan

See how powerful the use of language is? Make the right request and you will be heard. Basically I wrote in the comments section while ordering my meals on the ipad what I wanted for dinner. As long as it fits in with the neutropenic diet guidelines and the hospital kitchen has those ingredients we are good to go. *Write your own hospital menu

I know even some nurses are jealous and tell me they cannot remember the last time they were this weight! 

6.  I have SURROUND SOUND in my room. Thanks to a very thoughtful friend who gave me a JBL speaker. It makes all the difference to have the sound travel to you from the nursing table in my room! Kitchen aunty came in and asked me if it was the sound system from the hospital! You wish ah! Wahahhaha. See the photo to see me kiao ka (cross leg) *Little Red Rider JBL

Many other blessings and wins like me being the only patient in this ward to go on home leave….stories for the next time! 

How about you? 

What are your New Year wins so far?