Day +391 : Sayonara, my friend Sporanox

I am fine today.

You might wonder who this Sporanox is. It is an anti-fungal drug that I took continuously for about one and half year.

This morning, I noticed that the pharmacist did not give me Sporanox yesterday, and I am very sure that the doctor did not “off” the drug. The only drug he adjusted the steroid, which he reduced from 1 tablet(5mg) a day to 1 tablet per alternate day. In order to make sure that the prescription was correct, I called the doctor this morning. He confirmed that I no longer need to take Sporanox :-)

Previously, the Sporanox helped to wade off any potential fungus attack and now my body’s immune system has to do the job. I pray that it will do it well.

A picture of this colourful friend :-)
See you next post :-)

Day +390 : Follow-up

My Blood Count Today:
Red Blood Count (HB) = 147 (Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 138(Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 6.5(Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 4.68 (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)
ALT = 96(Normal 30 - 65 ) - Last follow-up reading
AST = 36(Normal 15-37) - Last follow-up reading
GGT = 267(Normal 15-85) - Last follow-up reading

I am fine today.

I went to do follow-up this morning. The platelet and HB count continue to improve over the last follow-up result. I only get last follow-up (6 weeks ago) liver function test result today. All reading that I monitor - ALT, AST and GGT level - increased with ALT and GGT level exceeded the normal range again. I do not know today’s result yet.

Doctor reduced the steroid (Prednisolon) to 5mg (1 tablet) alternate day. He said, even the dosage is small, but take it off abruptly might cause huge reaction. With less and less steroid, I think I will be having less and less energy and more and more tired :-(

My mouth and eyes continue to be very dry. I need to apply artificial tear regularly. I used to use Biotene mouth wash – a very good mouth moisturizer – to moisturize my mouth, but recently, it caused pain to my teeth. I believe this is caused by sensitive teeth. Could GVHD result in sensitive teeth? Anyway, doctor recommended OralBalance jell to moisturize my mouth and it works great :-) but the price is double the Biotene mouth wash :-(

I went to follow-up at 12:30pm only and reached home at 4:00pm this time. The only consequence of going late is that I could not get the liver function test result on the same day. This doesn’t matter as I believe the doctor will study the result and call me if the treatment course needs to be adjusted.

My next follow-up is 6 weeks later.

See you next post :-)

Day +389 : Concert Sharing (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

You can download the recording here.

我活着是神迹 (2)

我如何面对这样严峻的考验呢？当我抬起头来仰望神时，我所有的顾虑一扫而空。我从神那里看到盼望，一个超越黑暗和死亡的永恒盼望。这个盼望就是主耶稣在圣经上说应许的，信他的人有永生。我对我自己说，我若离开这个世界，美丽的天堂就是我永恒的家园，在那里“没有眼泪，也不再有死亡，悲哀、哭号、疼痛”。有了这个思想之后，我心就安定了。

除了盼望之外，我也将我的生命完全的交托给神。同时，将我所牵挂的太太和孩子们也一并交托给神。虽然我不知我明天是否依然活着，但我深知神的手正紧紧地牵引着我走人生的每一段路程。不论是越过荒山野岭或是走过辽阔平原，我的神都在我的身边陪伴着我。有了这个思想之后，我的心得到极大的安慰。在病痛之中，心中仍然充满喜乐。正如圣经所说，“耶和华是我的牧者，我必不至缺乏，他使我躺卧在青草地上，领我在可安歇的水变。”“我虽然行过死荫的幽谷，也不怕遭害，因为你与我同在；你的杖，你的竿，都安慰我”。

在九个月之中，我接受了四轮的化疗及一次的骨髓移植，总共在医院里住了150天。每一次的疗程都犹如经过死荫幽谷。我看过许多生死别离，也失去了许多在病房认识的朋友。另外一方面，我也体验到生命的神奇与可贵。在治疗过程中，我看到我们身体的无数器官都在非常精确及平衡，日夜不停的自动操作。例如：我们不需要特意的控制我们心跳的速度、我们呼吸的次数、或者控制我们血液里的红血球、白血球及血小板的指数等。表面上看来，这些器官非常自然的操作，其实里面的过程是异常的复杂和神奇的。神所创造的生命原来是如此的神奇，我今天活着岂不是个神迹么？亲爱的朋友们，不只我活着是神迹，你今天活着也是神迹。神爱我们，他为我们预备了耶稣，叫每一个接受他为救主的人都可以超越短暂的今生，得到永恒的生命。朋友们，不要再犹豫了，现在就接受耶稣为你的救主，让永恒的生命成为你一生中最大的神迹吧！

See you next post :-)

Day +388 : Concert Sharing (1)

I am fine today.

I would like to share with you the sharing that I recorded for the concert as I mentioned in Day +379 : A concert about Life and Love. It was written in Mandarin.

我活着是神迹 (1)

生命，不是没有神迹，乃是我看不到神迹。

生命，充满神迹，但我却问，神迹阿！你在哪里？

生命太自然了，以至我把神迹当自然。

直到有一日，我生病了，

我蓦然清醒，原来自然就是神迹。

我活着就是神迹。

我于2005年十一月被医生诊断出患上急性血癌。这个诊断对我来说是项非常严重的打击。因为在这之前，我每天晨跑3.5公里、喝绿茶、吃燕麦和其他健康食品及听古典音乐等。同时，我的个性乐观，时常保持开朗的心情。所以我从来没有想到我的健康会出这样大的问题。

医生说我的情况非常危急，需要立刻进行化疗。从那时起，我就开始漫长及危险的治疗过程。起初，医生说整个疗程需要差不多六个月的时间来完成。但非常不幸的是，详细检验报告出炉之后，医生说我需要做骨髓移植。这是因为我血液的染色体(chromosome)出了重大的问题，以致我的血癌是属于最危险的那一种。这意味着我需要更长的时间来治疗。

回想那是的情况真是糟糕透了。我的太太怀孕五个月，还有三个幼小的孩子，万一我有何不测的话，谁来照顾他们？除此之外，我也顾虑到我的收入，长时间不能工作，我们如何生活？还有，每一轮的化疗，都有生命的危险。骨髓移植的风险就更高。医生说骨髓移植的死亡率差不多20到25巴仙，也就是每四个骨髓移植之中，平均就有一个遭遇死亡。坦白说，我真的没有把握我是否经得起这样激烈的治疗。

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +387 : The naughty one gets better reward (5)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

This interesting phenomenon is also appearing in some business organization. Those employees who are faithful and dedicated are very likely be neglected by the boss while those naughty employees who behave otherwise would normally get better reward. For example, when an employee throws in a letter of resignation, the boss would normally react instantly by ‘counter offering’ the offer given by other company. The boss fails to find any reason to reward the faithful one because they are “too good to be better rewarded”. In the end, the unfaithful employee gets better reward :-)

However, don’t simply throw in resignation letter after seeing this post. In order for you to qualify to be “the naughty one that gets better reward”, you must be very useful or almost indispensable to the company. Otherwise, you are doing your boss a favour by ‘disposing’ an ‘unwanted’ staff from the company :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +386 : The naughty one gets better reward (4)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

When my uncle saw the poster, he fell into a rage (大发雷霆) until he almost ‘terpelanting’(fell on the floor). He demanded two of us took down the poster immediately; else he would report this to police. He said we would be put into jail, because students were prohibited into politic. We never thought that this would hurt him so much. We obeyed his demand in no time :-(

When I saw him two weeks ago, I was quite surprised to learn that he already switched to opposition party. What made the drastic change? The main reason is that he was furious when he witness that those villages that support the opposition received more development fund. He did not switch camp quietly; he went to question and scold (大闹一场) the MP first and then announced in front of the MP that he would no longer support him :-)

My uncle took almost his whole life to learn the lesson that “the naughty one gets better reward” and became naughty in the end; as naughty as Richard and me more than twenty years ago :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +385 : The naughty one gets better reward (3)

I am fine today. Continue on the above topic...

One of my uncles was a very faithful BN supporter. This uncle is very kind and close to us. He always purchased delicious junk foods for us when we were young :-)

On year, during election campaign, naughty me and my brother, Richard decided to support the opposition party, DAP. We erected a big poster next to our house with a very big rocket (DAP party logo) and some writing that portrayed BN MPs as cunning and irresponsible; only gave goodies such as pebbles (to surface the muddy road) just before election and disappeared almost instantly after the election.

Part of the writing that I can recall was as follow (If not the bone marrow transplant, I might be able to recall the full writing):-

国政自称做得好，
议员中选隆州躲，
。。。
两粒石头把人骗，
。。。

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +384 : Finally, the maid arrived

I am fine today.

We welcome our new maid yesterday. It took us more than 4 months to employ this maid. We book a maid on 9 March (Day +248 : I booked a maid), but on 3 April (Day +272 : Three things to thank God), the agency told us that the maid could not come due to some unforeseen circumstances. Then we chose a maid again (Day +278 : We choose a maid again), but again, this maid failed to come due to serious illness. On 8 June, we choose another one (Day +339 : We choose a maid again), who came yesterday.

My wife is busy training the maid now. I hope the she will perform well; else we might become the maid’s maid.

May God bless the maid.

See you next post :-)

Day +383 : The answer

I am fine today.

The answer to my blog “Day +380 : What had happened to this bottle?” is as follow:


The bottle is distorted due to difference in air pressure. When I opened the bottle to drink water, the air pressure inside the bottle was adjusted to the air pressure in the sky which is a lot less than the pressure on the ground. When I landed, the pressure inside the bottle maintained but the pressure outside the bottle increased. So the bottle was pressed in by the stronger pressure outside the bottle.

Daniel managed to guess correctly with the above explanation :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +382 : The naughty one gets better reward (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday …

Over the years, the villagers saw a very interesting pattern in the allocation of development fund; those villages that supported the opposition party always got more fund than those that supported the Barisan National (BN).

The Members of Parliament (MPs) play an important role in the allocation of development fund. They need the villagers’ vote to win. In order to tempt the naughty villagers that support the opposition party to switch their mind to support them during the election, they give better reward (allocate more fund) to them.

On the other hand, they are very sure that the good faithful villagers would support them, so it is not very useful to reward them. In the end, the naughty one gets more reward :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +381 : The naughty one gets better reward (1)

I am fine today.

When I was in my home village about two weeks ago, I saw the contractors there very busy expanding and re-surfacing public main roads. Most people over there see this as a sign that the election is approaching.

Heavy work on the main road that connects Bintangor to Sibu.
Apart from the main roads, there are many small private roads that lead to individual villages from the main road. These private roads are maintained by the villagers. Sometimes, they also receive funds from the government to improve or maintain the roads. I need to use his type of road to access my house in the village.

Government allocated RM50,000 to surface the private road with concrete. My house is on top the hill.
To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +380 : What had happened to this bottle?

I am fine today.

I accidentally discovered some interesting phenomenon of this mineral water bottle on my flight from KL to Sibu. I did an experiment on the returning flight and manage to repeat the phenomenon :-)

I brought a bottle of mineral water into the airplane. I took a photo of the bottle before the flight took off.
Then the flight took off and I managed to finish the water half way through the journey.

I noticed something happened to the bottle after the plane landed.

What had happened to the bottle? I give you a few days to think. A photo of the resulting bottle will be shown on Monday with possible explanation :-)

See you next post -)

Day +379 : A concert about Life and Love

I am fine today.

Dream Faith Music is using my quote about life – It’s a miracle that I live (我活着是神迹) – in their upcoming concert in Labuan and Beaufort, Sabah. The full quote is available in my Day +181 blog.

A banner of the concert. Click it to get a larger view.

In addition to this, I also recorded a short sharing for them to play during the concert. I spent whole day writing, practising, recording and editing the sharing until midnight :-) My wife teached me how to pronounce many Chinese words which I could not pronounce accurately.

If you live in Labuan or Beaufort, I invite you to attend the concert. I would like to give thank and glory to God if my experience or writing bring encouragement to people.

See you next post :-)

Day +378 : First movie after transplant

I am fine today.

I went to watch the movie called “Transformer” with my wife, Daniel and Adriel in the evening. Joseph couldn’t make it because he hadn’t come home from school yet as he study the afternoon session. He will be watching the movie some other time.

I understand from my nephew that the figures in the movie are based on the classic Transformer cartoon and comic which I never have a chance to see or read before. For the first time in my life, I came to know the good robot Optimus Prime and the bad robot Megatron :-)

The Optimus Prime - Protect.

The Megatron - Destroy.
It is an interesting movie with very good computer graphic effects. I highly recommend it :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +377 : A kind auntie

I am fine today.

An auntie came to visit me while I was visiting my third sister. She used to sell food in the school that I studied my Form 6 about twenty years ago. We never met after I left the school. I couldn’t remember her at all, but she still remembered me :-)

This kind auntie is a good friend of my third sister’s mother-in-law. She is very concern about my health.

I took a photo with her.
See you next post :-)

Day +376 : Life in home village (4)

I am fine today. I am now on the flight from Sibu to KL. Not bad AirAsia, this time 15 minutes delay only for the last flight :-)

I drove from my home village, Sg. Mador to Sibu in the early morning. When I reached Sibu, the first thing that I did was to purchase some ‘Gong Biscuit’(光饼) for my wife. Gong Biscuit is a Foochow food which is not available in KL.

After buying the biscuits, I ordered Fried-Soup Mee(炒煮面) for breakfast at the Sibu market:-)

A very big bowl of Fried-soup Mee cost RM2.50 only. More delicious than the one that I had in Bintangor.
After the breakfast, I roamed around the market and took some photos. The market is huge. It hosts hundreds of stalls. This following photo was taken in the middle, so the size is double of the one shown here.You would be fascinated how they sell live chickens - wrapped them using newspaper! As simple as that :-)
Three dejected (垂头丧气) roosters :-( Big-head prawns – a type of plain water prawn. The stall owner told me that he caught the prawns using fishing net. It cost RM35.00 per kg only :-) I returned to my 2nd sister house after visiting the market. I slept most of the time as I became tired very easily lately.

My neighbor invited me and my sister family for dinner in the evening. He ordered crispy and delicious ‘Philippine Pork Leg’. A big dish cost RM23.00 only.
Photo with my neighbour and my 2nd sister during the dinner. All the foods are healthy except the pork leg :-)After the dinner, my sister sent me to airport. Apart from the Gong Biscuits, I also brought back a few chickens:-) These chickens are more delicious than the one in KL :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +375 : Life in home village (3)

I am fine today.

In the morning, I joined Sunday service in my childhood church which I attended since I was studying Primary one until I completed my upper six. After that, I came to KL to study and only visited the church when I went back for holiday. Many church members that were very close to me are now very old. They concerned very much about me and never ceased to pray for me when they knew that I was sick. They were very happy to see me among them this morning. I was given a chance to share testimony in Foochow dialect :-) Besides sharing, I also presented a song called "昂首无惧"(Whom Shall I Fear?) which I presented over and over again.

It is based on 3 selected verses in Psalm 27.

Psalm 27:1 "Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalm 27:3 "Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident."

Psalm 27:6 "Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me. I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh."

The church. I ordered some food from Bintangor town and invited my sisters and uncles to come for lunch. All of them were very concern about my health. When one of my uncles saw me, the first thing he said was, "Ah Kiew, I care very much about you." They always call me "Ah Kiew" :-)

My two uncles. My cousins and sister-in-law.

My 2nd sister and third sister with my 74 year-old mother. See you next post :-)

Day + 374 : Life in home village (2)

I am fine today.

I went to Bintangor town early in the morning to buy some meat and vegetables. The town is about 15km away from my village, Sg. Mador.

The symbol of Bintangor town – green skinned orange grown here only.

The food here is very cheap. A bowl of “Fried-soup Mee(炒煮面)” cost RM1.70 only :-) This type of Mee is only available in Sarawak.

I purchased a piece of soursop which was, according the hawker, harvested “ripe from the tree”. It was very sweet despite the word “sour” as part of its name :-) I would never purchase unripe soursop because most of them became rotten before ripens.

I visited my third sister after coming back from Bintangor town. She is staying about 15km from my house. I was treated very delicious food there which includes the true kampong chicken.

Photo with my third sister family. Her eldest son is studying in Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR), so this photo does not include him.

A photo with my third sister - my saver (救命恩人). She donated her stem cells to me to make my bone marrow transplant possible. We are now very closely related as we have the same blood now :-)
See you next post :-)

Day +373 : Life in home village (1)

I am fine today.

The AirAsia flight to Sibu was very punctual yesterday. I reached Sibu a little bit ahead of schedule. The flight was not full, so I managed to secure one seat for my notebook computer :-) Buy one, free one :-) I even fastened the seat belt for the notebook to take-off :-)

Not bad, flying in the air for the first time since bone marrow transplant :-)

This morning, I am having breakfast with my neighbour in Sibu. As our house is situated next each other in the village, we were very close when we were young. I blogged about his sister on my Day +357 blog : A very cheap Tokyo trip, interested?
After the breakfast, I drove to my home village, Sungai Mador, Bintangor. In order to reach Bintangor and Sarikei (my wife’s home town), we had to cross the Rejang River using ferry. For the first time ever, I enjoyed the convenience of crossing the Rejang River through a bridge to go home. Residents here had been waiting for the bridge for a very long time and finally they got it. With the bridge, the residents here no longer need to tolerate long queue to board the ferry, especially during seasonal period such as Hari Raya, Gawai Day and Chinese New Year.

The first thing I wanted to do when I reached home was to look for fruit to eat. Since there was no fruit to harvest at home, I went to buy fruits from fruit stall on the road side.

The fruit stall on the roadside along the way between Sibu and Bintangor.
These are delicious Bintangor oranges which are only available in Sarawak.

A good buy (满载而归), especially the pineapples which are very sweet and tasty :-)

The motorcycle gave me a big shock because when I tried to apply the brake, I only found out that the rear brake did not work. Luckily, the front brake worked; else I already fell into the ‘longkang’(drain) :-) I was wondering how my brothers could manipulate the motorcycle without brake.

See you next post :-)

Day +372 : Balik kampung! (Back to village!)

I am fine today.

I am going back to Sibu, Sarawak this evening. I will stay overnight in my 2nd sister house and then go back to my home village tomorrow morning. The purpose of this trip is mainly to visit my mother.

This is the first time ever I go back to Sarawak since I was sick end of November, 2005. I am going back alone this time. I plan to go back again at the end of this year with my wife and children.

Adriel is back to the kindergarten today, but Joseph and Aaron started to have fever last night. They must be infected by Adriel. Hopefully, my wife will be able to handle them while I enjoy good rest in the ‘kampung (village)’.

I will be coming back on the next Monday. I hope I can find internet connection in the ‘kampung’ so that I can keep on posting.

See you next post :-)

Day +371 : Another car hijack

I am fine today.

A friend of mine whom I acquainted in UH had terrible experience on last Saturday. I wrote about him in my blog Day +167. An account of the Saturday’s incident is as follow:

“Last Saturday, around 4pm, I bring my son along and P3 cpu to shop for repairing, after that, I go to buy gas tank, on the ways back to home, my car being hijack by 4 indian guys with parang.

I not aware when and where they starting follow me, they ride a proton iswara, when I reached home at 5pm, I ask my son to come down from car, at the sametime, I carry the CPU, just when I open the car door, I see the proton car is stop side by side, and 3 indians guy (all 20+) with parang run towards me, one kidnapped my son, the other 2 try pull me out from car and demand for car key, I start to scream for help for around 1 minute, but nobody around at the moment, my son cry, they torn my t-shirt, and take my 'rantai' with '+'. My wife heard my scream and run out from house, one indian guy saw her and threathen her with parang.

Finally I give them the car key and snatch back my son, they run off with my car, together CPU and gas tank. I report to police afterwards, the whole saturday really exhausted me.

Today, patrol police found my car with different plate number, spare tyre, gas tank, cpu Cd Player all gone, and gear box spoilt, other look still OK, now waiting for insurance adjuster to adjust before sent for service and repair.”

He gave a strong advice at the end of his email:
PLEASE REMEMBER BEFORE REACH YOUR HOME OR WANT TO STOP YOUR CAR SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS TAKE A LOOK ON REAR MIRROR, IF SUSPECT SOMEONE FOLLOWS, DON'T STOP, TAKE ANOTHER ROUND AT THE AREA.

His Myeloproliferative Disorder (MDP) condition is improving now but not so encouraging and he still needs blood transfusion. Please remember our dear brother Teh in your prayer.

Thank you.

See you next post :-)

Day +370 : Adriel is sick again :-(

I am fine today.

When I went to kindergarten to fetch Adriel yesterday evening, the teacher hold the sleeping Adriel to my car and told me that Adriel was having fever. I was having ‘headache’ when I knew this. It was not because I ‘sayang (love)’ her more than other children, but it was because she always refuses to take medicine.

On the way back, I brought her to see a doctor. Doctor prescribed cough syrup, antibiotic and Paracetamol for her. She refused to take Paracetamol. My wife and I had to force her to drink it. She managed to consume the required dosage only after many attempts :-( Since there was no way for us to force her to take the antibiotic, we just leave it aside first.

At 3:00am in the morning, she had fever again. I encouraged her to drink Paracetamol and let her consume a small amount at a time. After she swallowed the Paracetamol, I clapped my hand, praised her and even danced in front of her. She felt very happy and finished the Paracetamol quite fast. When I saw this tactic work, I started to give her antibiotic and she finished it quite fast too :-)

After feeding her the medicine, I was very tired of clapping hands and dancing :-(

See you next post :-)

Day +369 : Durian! But…

I am fine today.

Someone brought some durians from Johore Bahru for my brother, Richard. He shared some of them with me.

This is the first time ever I got a chance to touch durian since I was sick more than one and half years ago.

Since many people advise me not to eat durian, I refrain myself from eating it. Another side-effect of bone marrow transplant :-( Anyway, I was given the privilege to open the durian for my family members.

Photo of the delicous durians.


See you next post :-)

Day +368 : Great gift for the boys

I am fine today.

Daniel and Joseph have been ‘demanding’ for a very popular real-time strategy computer game called Warcraft. As they are very lazy to study, I promised to purchase the game for them only if they study hard and improve their attitue toward study.

Yesterday, they managed to finish their homework earlier and do a little bit of study, so I rewarded them with the game :-)

Driving the two boys to study is a very challenging task. Whenever I asked them to study, they would argue with me the necessity of study and blamed me of unfairness because I never asked Adriel(3 years old) and Aaron(1 year old) to study :-(

Now, they have to finish the homework and do some revision first before they can play the game. I hope with this arrangement, they will have greater motivation to study.

See you next post :-)

Day +367 : The countdown reaches 0, the launching….

I am fine today.

On the 5th of April 2007, my company fixed the launching date of our next generation software on 7 July 2007, which is today. I wrote about this on my Day +274 and Day +275 blog. Since then, we started to countdown for the launching.

Unfortunately, we are unable to launch the software because some crucial part of the software is not completed. So, instead of launching the software, we ‘launch’ ourselves into a hotel, Sheraton Subang, for a BBQ buffet dinner :-)

Am I upset with the dealy? No, no. We are just learning from Microsoft which always delays the release of their products. With this ‘positive’ thinking, I feel very happy because now our company is comparable to the world software giant, Microsoft :-)

After the delicious dinner, we reset the countdown counter and aim for the launching on 29 September 2007. This launching will be of ‘no return’ as the sales department will start the launching campaign very soon. We expect to attract more than 500 engineers to the launching event.

A photo taken during the dinner.
A cholocate fountain.
See you next post :-)

Day +366 : Three birthdays I celebrate

I am fine today.

When I was born on 22 November 1967, my mother ‘forgot’ to register me at Jabatan Pendaftaran Malaysia (National Registration Department). About one and half year later, on the 11^th of May, 1969, she suddenly realized that she hadn’t done this important job, so she registered me on that day. When I did my bone marrow transplant on the 5 July 2006, a nurse told me, “Ting, remember today as your birthday.”

With this, I have to celebrate three birthdays every year:

1. Real birthday on 22 November 1967 - 40 years old birthday
2. Official birthday on 11 May 1969 – 38 years old birthday
3. Bone marrow transplant birthday on 5 July 2006 – 1 year old birthday :-)

Happy birthdays to me :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +365 : First Anniversary of Bone Marrow Transplant

I am fine today.

Time passes very fast. Today marks one year of my post bone marrow transplant. I went to hospital in the early morning to let the nurse to draw my blood for a research.

As I refresh what happened during the “Great Day” on my Day +0 blog (Great Day 0 - My New Immune System's Foundation Laid), I praise God for his grace and wonderful guidance throughout the year :-)

I also thank all of you who supported me through prayers, financial aid, visits and various form of encouragements.

Despite all the ordeal and suffering we encounter in our life, our God is in control behind the scenes. Just trust him and we shall be safe forever. I quote some very encouraging content from Our Daily Bread, 6 June 2007 with the topic “Safe Forever” :

“We will experience sickness, accidents, sorrow, and death. But we are not on our own. God is in control. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Ps. 34:19). We can be confident that one day we will be safe with Him forever. —Anne Cetas

There is only One who knows

All the answers to my woes;

He will all my needs supply
When in faith to Him I cry. —Morgan”

God bless all of you!

See you next post :-)

Day +364 : 500,000 eBooks for free

I am fine today.

The World eBook Fair are offering 500,000+ eBooks for free from 4th July to 4th August 2007. You can visit their web site here to search for books that suit your reading appetite.

When I was young, it was extremely hard for me to get enough books to read. Every book that I got was so precious to me that I must read it; of course, this only covers those books that I could comprehend. I wrote about this situation on my Day +121 and Day +122 blog.

In contrast, I am now flooded by book and yet, I don’t read them :-(

Happy reading!

See you next post :-)

Day +363 : The dog wants to eat me!

I am fine today.

I fetch Adriel from kindergarten after work every evening. One day, when we just reached home from the kindergarten, Adriel shouted, “The dog wants to eat me!” and quickly jumped back into the car. She was afraid because a dog was approaching her.

To many of us, the phrase “The dog wants to eat me!” is well exaggerated. It is extremely rare to find a dog that eats human, isn’t it? But I understand that she still didn’t have enough vocabulary to express her fear properly and what she actually meant was “The dog wants to bite me!” With this understanding, I would not regard her as boaster :-)

In life, many tragedies happened due to lack of understanding. Very often we fail to understand why people behave in such an unreasonable way – a way beyond our comprehension. For example, a wife who experienced failure in parent’s marriage might lose her sense of security instantly when she sees her husband talking with other ladies. If the husband failed to understand his wife, then quarrels and bitterness will be unavoidable.

If we exercise the same understanding and tolerance towards other people as a little child, many disputes could be avoided :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +362 : A very powerful command called “Baba”

I am fine today.

I believe I am the best “milk maker” in my family now. This milk maker has to serve two masters, Aaron and Adriel. When they want to drink milk, they just issue a very simple command, “Baba, NengNeng” (‘NengNeng’ means milk in FooChow) This command is so powerful that it turns off my “free will” instantly and transforms me into an automatic milk maker. With this, they always have milk to drink regardless whether I am tired or sleepy. Besides, the command also works incredibly well 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Very often, I have to prepare milk for them in the midnight or early in the morning such as 3:00am :-(

My wife, Angela, is very clever. When she observed that the command works magically well for the children, she also made use of the command when she needed me to do some work for her; for example, “Baba, take bath for Aaron,” or “Baba, type this English test paper for me,” … With this command, she could get almost anything she wanted.

If you want me to do some work for you, you might also try to use the “Baba” command :-) Who knows it might work equally well on you :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +361 : Busy sending off my nieces to universities

I am fine today.

Last night, I sent my niece, Siew Ling, to Puduraya bus station to board a bus that went directly to Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) at Sintok, Kedah. The bus started its journey at 9:00pm and reached UUM at 3:00am this morning. While waiting for the bus, we met a UUM senior who accompanied her sister to go to UUM. She is very familiar with the situation in UUM, so I felt very comfortable to let my niece following her.

Early in the morning, I sent another niece, Nga Ming, to Puduraya bus station to board a bus to Melaka. She joined another student from Sibu, Sarawak at the bus station. A senior came to fetch them to UTeM when they reached Melaka.

To make sure that they got a seat, Richard went to Puduraya bus station to purchase bus tickets for them yesterday morning. The ticket to UUM is the last one. What a good timing!

As I am not very familiar with the road to Puduraya bus station, we went there through Star LRT (Light Rail Train). Joseph and Daniel would like to try the train, so they followed us last night.

Joseph and Daniel took photo with Siew Ling at train station. Joseph gave me a big bow as a way to thank me for bringing him along :-) The bag with a bear on it was very heavy, I had to carry it on my shoulder :-(

We reached the bus station very early, there was still time for dinner.
Joseph and Daniel in front of the double storey bus that would go to UUM.
See you next post :-)