Still feeling weak and tired but better than yesterday… I’m going to rest at home. Medication is kicking in…

Headache… Fever… Body aches…

Went to see the doctor early this morning and she advised me to take a rest. On medical leave for the day. Going to sleep now.

Today is our day out without Gabriel — need to give Mrs Tai some special attention and spend time with her. Our plan is to let Mrs Tai do what she likes — window shopping. At the same time, we’ll also catch The A-Team at the cinema.

So off we went to The Curve. First thing is to catch the early movie at 11am. After that, it’ll be a quick lunch followed by shopping till evening…

Towards the end of the movie, I started getting calls from my neighbour. I didn’t answer the call as it’s not a nice thing to do in a cinema. But I already suspected what is happening… This was shortly followed by a text message from another neighbour and the text message confirmed my suspicions and fear — Gerger is free! She did it again — She managed to escape and she’s roaming around the neighbourhood. *sigh*

Immediately after the movie, I called my neighbour, apologised for not picking up the call, got some updates and… Rushed back home. Gerger is still in the neighbourhood and my neighbours are helping me keep an eye on her. I told Mrs Tai to continue shopping while I go home and get Gerger. We decided that she needs to go back to my parent’s place…

By the time I got Gerger to my parent’s place and return to The Curve, it was quite late already. We only had like 1-2 hours before we had to leave and pick up Gabriel from the babysitter…

The puzzling thing is… How did she get out? We’ve got the half-wall. Gate is quite secured now. But my neighbour did say on the phone that Gerger climbed over the half-wall (or something like that)… I’ve yet to see my neighbour and can’t confirm what happened. Hopefully I get to see him tomorrow and find out more.

Taking a few days off from work to spend time with Mrs Tai, Gabriel and Gerger.

I am no expert, so just copy-and-paste from a few resources…

Wikipedia says…

Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD or TMD), or TMJ syndrome, is an umbrella term covering acute or chronic inflammation of the temporomandibular joint, which connects the mandible to the skull. The disorder and resultant dysfunction can result in significant pain and impairment. Because the disorder transcends the boundaries between several health-care disciplines — in particular, dentistry and neurology — there are a variety of treatment approaches.

From tmj.org:

Temporomandibular Joint and Muscle Disorders (TMJDs), commonly called TMJ, are a collection of poorly understood conditions characterized by pain in the jaw and surrounding tissues and limitations in jaw movements. Injury and conditions that routinely affect other joints in the body, such as arthritis, also affect the temporomandibular joint. People diagnosed with TMJDs may be experiencing other symptoms and medical conditions as part of a broad multi-systems illnesses that go unrecognized.

And MedicineNet.com says…
TMJ disorders are a group of complex problems of the jaw joint. TMJ disorders are also sometimes referred to as myofacial pain dysfunction and Costen’s syndrome. Because muscles and joints work together, a problem with either one can lead to stiffness, headaches, ear pain, bite problems (malocclusion), clicking sounds, or locked jaws.

And I say it’s no fun… Can’t eat hard food, can’t open mouth too much, can’t nag… Bl00dy annoying clicking sound, occasional sharp pains… It sucks!

First thing I always do when I get back (OK, not really the first thing coz there’s also Mrs Tai) is look for Gabriel and hug him. On Friday evening, while holding him, I noticed he a bit hot. Mrs Tai noticed the same and we quickly checked his temperature. It was higher than normal — looks like Gabriel is down with fever.

We quickly took him to the nearby pediatrician in Klang. This is our first visit to this clinic (Dr Ooi) since the other one we used to go to (Dr. Tang) was closed. Many thanks to Kelvin Tee who helped guide me to Dr. Ooi’s clinic. Anyway, Dr. Ooi confirmed Gabriel is down with fever and also quite possibly, a slightly inflamed throat.

That was Friday… On Saturday, my throat was beginning to get worse. Seems like the mild sore throat I was having the past week was getting worse over the weekend (did I somehow pass my sore throat bacteria to Gabriel?).

And the weekend gets even worse… Early Sunday morning (around 3am), something else happened (it’s a long story) and we decided to be cautious and send Gabriel to the hospital. Yes, at that early in the morning, its the UMMC‘s trauma & emergency centre. But its not the first for Gabriel. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics and paracetemol.

Honestly, I don’t mind going to UMMC’s paed’s trauma and emergency centre at night because it’s the one time where don’t really need to queue to see a pediatrician. Plus, the doctor is not rushed and take their time to check. And we get to ask 1001 questions too…

Anyway, we got home feeling glad that Gabriel need not be hospitalised. We just need to observe his condition. But I was not too keen to give him antibiotics. So, after sunrise, we took him to see Dr. Ooi again for a second opinion. Recalling what happened earlier that morning, Dr. Ooi said we could just hold on to the antibiotics first and only start if he see Gabriel’s condition worsen.

As of Sunday night, Gabriel’s fever has gone away. He seems to be getting better. And my sore throat’s much better now. So, it’s an eventful weekend that ended on a happy note.

But we feel bad having to cancel our dinner plans with an aunt who was in town. *sigh* Hope to be able to re-schedule another dinner between her hectic time-table. She’s from Hong Kong and is here for a short visit but she is travelling all over the place — Singapore, Kuching (or was it KK?), Bali, etc…

Got a set of Ladybird‘s Baby Touch books from Singapore for Gabriel.

I think he absolutely loves it.

I think the one he’s holding is just the right thing for babies his age — they are made of cloth (and some plastic, I believe). This way, they won’t hurt themselves with the book. But besides that, the plastic makes it noisy and babies just get intrigued by the noise… It’s called the Baby Touch Snuggle book.

Anyway, Gabriel stayed up quite late last night. He just didn’t want to go to sleep and made a lot of noise (not the crying type, but rather it seemed like he was ‘talking’). Mrs Tai said while I was away, he was very quiet. He would go to bed early, etc… But last night when I got home, he just didn’t want to sleep… He’s happy to see me?!? I was jokingly telling Mrs Tai that maybe he’s complaining to me about how bad Mrs Tai had treated him the past week!

…going back home, to Mrs Tai and Gabriel…

Merlion in Singapore

(more…)

Well, it’s not really the first since we have moved into this place more than one year now.

What makes this year different is that we decorated the house and try to really make it lively (well, minus the fact that we didn’t actually have time to really clean up the house and that the two Ikea cabinets are still waiting to be assembled).

So, presenting our mini effort…

Mrs Tai had a shock when she saw what I had done! She commented that it looks like a classroom now…

I told here that was the idea. The theme for this year is ‘Back to classroom’… OK, OK… I’ll try and do a better job next time. Oh, ya… That’s the new 14″ super-duper slim, 3D TV on the wall…

Pssst… The decorations were only put up on the evening of the SECOND day of CNY.

One more thing… GONG XI FA CAI!!!